JEWISH APOSTLE PAUL
Ethnic Nature of Israel s God
IN THIS LECTURE: 1. Are there Jews and Greeks in Christ? 2. New Humanity (Eph. 2:1-22) 3. The Name Jew (Rom 2: 17-25) 4. Accept One Another (Rom 17:7-13)
Are there Jews and Greeks in Christ?
For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham s descendants, heirs according to promise. (Gal 3:26-29)
To ancients conversion to Judaism (proselyte or full conversion) meant joining the people of Israel and adopting all of their ancestral customs which permeated every area of life. In other words, conversion to Judaism was a package deal. If one converted, he or she was expected to cut ties with their previous culture in every respect - not just to accept a new divinity or new way of worship, but the entire package (God, people and land).
There were also those who thought that it was better to adopt some, but not all ancestral ways of Israel. They did so in such a way that the Jews would not have difficulty to be around them, yet in spite of their love and admiration for the Jews, they for one reason or another chose to stay as is. Galatian Gentile believers in Jewish Christ (the recipients of Paul s letter) were seriously contemplating conversion to Judaism and not simply adopting Jewish ideas and some customs.
They saw nothing wrong with this, after all, Ruth the Moabite s famous phrase Your God will be my God, your people will be my people, was already widely acclaimed. However, this was only one paradigm of legitimate Gentile dedication to Israel s God. There was another I call this the Naaman paradigm, to distinguish it from the Ruth paradigm.
You might recall the story of Naaman s healing (2 Kings 5), where a kidnapped Israelite slave girl told Naaman s wife, that her husband s leprosy could be healed by a prophet who lived in Israel. With the permission of his Aramean king, Naaman went to Samaria in the hope of receiving the blessing of healing.
We cannot explore this amazing story right now, but suffice it to say that when Naaman finally did receive his healing by washing himself seven times in an Israelite river (in the ancient times rivers were considered by people to be the channels of divine blessings), he proclaimed that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel.
Notably, he did not say or do as Ruth did. He returned to his country and his own people and continued to worship Israel s God, but as Aramean. In contrast to Ruth the Moabite, Naaman s approach was more along the lines of: Your God will be my God, but my people will still be my people. Interestingly, in the end of the story, he receives the greatest blessing of Israel the blessing of Shalom from the prophet of God (2 Kings 5:18-19).
The apostles in Acts 15 (the gathering that is often referred to as the Jerusalem Council ) thought of Gentiles coming to faith in the Jewish Messiah, the redeemer of Israel according to the trajectory of Naaman, and not the paradigm of Ruth.
They expressly forbade to non- Jewish followers of Christ only four categories of behaviour, thereby reaffirming the same prohibitions which were enjoined upon the sojourners among Israel described in Leviticus 17-21. Being non-jewish followers of the Jewish Christ in the Roman Empire was difficult enough (their new life clashed sharply with many Roman religious practices and accepted norms of patriotic behaviour)
so the apostles decided not to lay upon them any additional burden. It seems from Acts 15:21, that it was assumed that Gentile believers would be attending synagogues wherever they lived, hearing Moses read, and presumably also hearing what Judaism taught about living a generally righteous life. In practical terms, observing these 4 categories of laws would enable Gentile believers to fellowship with Jews.
For Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath. (Acts 15:21) The fellowship with Jews is a very important point. This means that the council s and Paul s desire was not to support Gentile Churches as they are most often referred to, but instead organically developed Gentile Synagogal sub-groups that Apostles saw as essential members of this new Jewish coalition.
Acts 16:4-5 tells its readers that Apostle Paul fully endorsed this decision and proclaimed its message with great joy as he travelled from congregation to congregation (both those he planted and those he did not): Full Torah observance (proselyte conversion to Judaism) was unnecessary for any Gentile who joined this Jewish coalition by following the Jewish Christ. They too as nations were first class-citizens part of new humanity in the Kingdom of Israel s God.
Did certain cultural modification have to take place? Probably. But the big principle of no further burden, than the great challenge Gentile followers of the Jewish Christ already had living in the pagan Roman world, was upheld. Now to return to the text I touched on earlier Galatians 3:26-29 (especially vs. 28)
26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham s descendants, heirs according to promise. (Gal 3:26-29 NASB)
The Apostle Paul, addressing Gentile followers of the Jewish Christ, tells them that through faith, they are now counted among the children of God by reason of their submission to the Jewish water-washing ceremony (translated as baptism ). Their identity has now been redefined by the Jewish Christ himself via power Jewish custom (vs. 26-27).
Just a short time earlier, Paul spoke of his own identity in similar terms: "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. (Gal. 2:20) His point becomes clear once we realize that Paul speaks about himself to get to them - when Jews or non-jews are found in the Christ, something very important happens! They are now defined not so much by their social location as non-jews, but by the social location of the Jewish Christ Himself!
It is here that the traditional Christian theologian may begin to feel some comfort with this argument. What seems to be coming next is that Jewish identity is rendered absolute/ outdated/irrelevant when someone is found in Christ. A person was a Jew, but when he is in Christ his social location, in this case as a Jew, becomes of no consequence. So his identity is irrelevant.
However, Paul s argument is the opposite. The Messiah in which, both Jews and non- Jews now find themselves, is in fact a Jewish Christ. He is the Anointed King of Israel, as Paul sees him, long ago predicted by the Israelite prophets and long awaited by the people of Israel.
Whether we refer to him as traditional Christians do today Christ or Messiah as do many others, it makes no difference at all, both mean one and the same and represent exclusively a Jewish/Israelite concept. The phrase Jewish Christ keeps coming up in these lectures to help the listeners to get out of habit of thinking along the lines of false dichotomy: As if Christ means something gentile, but Messiah/Mashiach - Jewish.
When Galatians 3:28 is quoted, it is usual for only the first part to be emphasized there is neither Jew (Ἰουδαῖος) nor Greek (Ἕλλην) to the exclusion of the rest of the verse. The conclusion often drawn from this phrase is that there is no longer any distinction or difference between a Jew and a Greek. But this does not make sense as we continue to read: there is neither male nor female in Christ Jesus.
Following this logic, if distinction or difference is in view, we can conclude (as some in fact have) that in Christ gender is erased and same sex marriages are acceptable. The logic fails, however, when the same people who oppose same sex marriage on the grounds that men remain men and women remain women, fail to see that they cannot apply double standards.
In other words, if men and women still retain gender differences (as I think they do), then so do Jews and Greeks retain their differences, even in Christ. So what does Paul intends to communicate when he tells Galatians that both Jews and Greeks, if found in Christ, become children of Abraham? If abolishment of distinctions is not his point what is it?
Again Mark Nanos is very helpful here. Nanos argues that it is better to see what Paul is writing against not distinction/ difference, but against discrimination/ preference. Saint Paul, Vincenzo Gemito, c. 19 th century The text actually does not talk about Gentiles, but Greeks. While it is probably legitimate to make a connection, but as one reads these ancient letters, this important point should be kept in mind.
Note that text does not use the word Gentile (as does the NIV and several other translations), but instead, Greek, making it parallel to Jew as Judean. Some of you have probably noticed that I conveniently left out the phrase neither slave or free. It too must be accounted for and brought into this conversation. Paul has not opposed Roman slavery in his writings as such (Eph.6:5). Saint Paul, Vincenzo Gemito, c. 19 th century
What he wrote could be viewed as a step towards criticizing slavery one day in the future. To understand this we must not think of Roman slavery in the same way we think of racially based American or European slavery of the recent history. Roman slaves were often well off and had special rights in the Roman society. In fact, if private slaves in Roman cities were in view, they were far better off that the poor free men and especially free or foreign women in the same city.
In one of the letters that Paul coauthored with Timothy, while being in prison, he strongly and passionately petitioned Philemon to forgive and receive back his runaway slave Onesimus back without penalizing him, as if he was receiving Paul himself, whom he held in great honour. For Paul distinction between slave and free was still intact even when both were in Christ. But discrimination in Christ in slave-owner relationship system had no place in the new Kingdom of Israel s God.
JEWISH APOSTLE PAUL
New Humanity (Eph 2:1-22)
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.
4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
11 Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called uncircumcised by those who call themselves the circumcision (which is done in the body by human hands)- 12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
JEWISH APOSTLE PAUL
If You Bear The Name Jew (Rom. 2:17-25)
17 But if you bear the name Jew and rely upon the Law and boast in God, 18 and know His will and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the Law, 19 and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20 a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth, 21 you, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal?
22 You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor God? 24 For THE NAME OF GOD IS BLASPHEMED AMONG THE GENTILES BECAUSE OF YOU, just as it is written. 25 For indeed circumcision is of value if you practice the Law; but if you are a transgressor of the Law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.
Paul employs the rhetorical technique of diatribe here and throughout Romans. Like character portrayals in a drama, diatribe, which is speech-in-character, creates attitudes to which the audience is expected to relate, whether positively or negatively. Changes of voice from singular to plural and first to second or third person are regular characteristics.
Thus, Paul may be asking the questions, or putting them in the mouth of the interlocutor (or interlocutors), or some of each. The diatribe form presents the interpreter with several problems, including separating Paul s views from those he attributes to his interlocutors. The original letter was probably delivered by a letter carrier (Phoebe; cf. 16.1) in a way that included acting out the parts.
Turning from a dialogue with a hypothetical non-jew s response to the gospel s condemnation of unrighteous intentions and behavior versus reward for righteous intentions and behavior, Paul enters into a hypothetical dialogue with a fictive Jewish teacher of Gentiles. Since Paul s target audience is Gentile Christ-followers, this turn to an imaginary Jewish interlocutor may serve as a rhetorical gambit to emphasize the message that no instructors, not even Jewish teachers, are above the judgment of the all-knowing God nor would they be expected to claim to be.
It is not Jewishness but pretentiousness and hypocrisy that are at issue. The overall message is that God always does right and seeks representatives among Israel and the nations who are fully committed to living by as well as teaching those values, and not masking either intentions or behavior behind mere appearances, which can perhaps hide hypocrisy from each other but not from God. It is not clear that there is any such Jew among Paul s audience; this is a rhetorical device to teach non-jews Jewish values, not to criticize Jewish values, although traditional interpretations suggest otherwise.
Epictetus, the Stoic-Cynic, offers similar criticism of those who call themselves philosophers but do not live accordingly with which any philosopher would be expected to agree (Diatr. 2.19.19; 3.7.17; 3.22.93 94; 3.24.40 43; 4.8 9) The point is not that one should not exult in God, or that Torah is at fault, but that it is self-evident that those who teach it should observe it.
The point of this statement is not to accuse Jews of hypocrisy but to help non-jews carry out the Jewish value of avoiding hypocrisy. Real circumcision (Gk lacks real ); it is spiritual and not literal, lit., by spirit (made manifest in the way one lives), not by inscription (i.e., not [merely] by a cut into the flesh). Thus this verse could be translated: Rather, the deepest character of the Jew, even the purpose of circumcision, is about the spirit, the intentions of the heart (at work through the way one lives who is so marked), not (merely) inscribed (in flesh) (as if a mark alone fully defined who one is).
verb commonly translated as rob temples (the verb ἱεροσυλεῖν) is not referring to the robbery of pagan temples, but to the misappropriation of funds intended for the Jerusalem temple. This is understandable in light of a passage in Josephus (A.J. 18.81 84), which describes how a Jewish Law-teacher and his accomplices defrauded a Roman aristocratic woman of money intended for the Jerusalem temple. Lionel Windsor
Paul, therefore, is using ἱεροσυλεῖν in Rom. 2:22 to imply that the misappropriation of funds for the holy temple in Jerusalem by Jews, such as that described by Josephus, is equivalent to desecration of the temple itself. This, of course, makes a mockery of the Jewish claim to abhor idols, since the abhorrence of idols and the upkeep of the worship in the Jerusalem temple were two sides of the same coin negative and positive aspects, respectively, of Jewish worship. Lionel Windsor
Paul s charge is thus a prophetic indictment, equivalent to Jeremiah s condemnation of his Israelite contemporaries. It places Paul s Jewish interlocutor in the same moral position as the foolish Gentiles who worship idols and dishonor God himself (cf. Rom. 1:21-23). In this way, the Law-teacher becomes a foil for Paul s own prophetically informed apostolic ministry. Lionel Windsor
In fact, Paul later claims that his own apostolic ministry will succeed at precisely the same point that his interlocutor s preaching had failed: Paul himself fulfils this very task by bringing funds from the Gentiles to the poor in Jerusalem. Lionel Windsor
26 So if the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 27 And he who is physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the Law, will he not judge you who though having the letter of the Law and circumcision are a transgressor of the Law? 28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. 29 But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.
28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. 29 But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. Rather, the deepest character of the Jew, even the purpose of circumcision, is about the spirit, the intentions of the heart (at work through the way one lives who is so marked), not (merely) inscribed (in flesh) (as if a mark alone fully defined who one is).
JEWISH APOSTLE PAUL
Accept One Another (Rom. 15:7-13)
7 Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God. 8 For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth of God to confirm the promises given to the fathers, 9 and for the Gentiles to glorify God for His mercy; as it is written, THEREFORE I WILL GIVE PRAISE TO YOU AMONG THE GENTILES, AND I WILL SING TO YOUR NAME. 10 Again he says, REJOICE, O GENTILES, WITH HIS PEOPLE.
11 And again, PRAISE THE LORD ALL YOU GENTILES, AND LET ALL THE PEOPLES PRAISE HIM. 12 Again Isaiah says, THERE SHALL COME THE ROOT OF JESSE, AND HE WHO ARISES TO RULE OVER THE GENTILES, IN HIM SHALL THE GENTILES HOPE. 13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
JEWISH APOSTLE PAUL