Paul and the Vocation of Israel

How Paul's Jewish Identity Informs his Apostolic Ministry, with Special Reference to Romans

Lionel J. Windsor

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9783110331882
• eBook ISBN: 9783110369830
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Biography

The Apostle Paul was the greatest early missionary of the Christian gospel. He was also, by his own admission, an Israelite. How can both these realities coexist in one individual? This book argues that Paul viewed his mission to the Gentiles, in and of itself, as the primary expression of his Jewish identity. The concept of Israel's divine vocation is used to shed fresh light on a number of much-debated passages in Paul's letter to the Romans.

1 Introduction

There are as many ways of being Jewish as there are Jews—probably more.

Howard Jacobson.¹

They’re Hebrews? So am I!
They’re Israelites? So am I!
They’re Abraham’s seed? So am I!
They’re ministers of Christ? I’m a better one ...

The Apostle Paul.²

Paul’s apostolic mission was his way of being Jewish. Paul was convinced that Israel had received a special divine revelation which conferred on Jews a distinct divine vocation. Paul, in other words, was committed to the view that God’s global purposes in Christ included a special place—and correspondingly a special role—for the Jewish people. Paul, through preaching Christ to the Gentiles, was in fact fulfilling Israel’s distinct divine vocation. This will be our contention in this book.

In making this claim, we are not seeking simply to contend for a particular position within the history of interpretation of the nature of Paul’s “religion.” We are not, for example, simply claiming that Paul’s religious background in “Judaism” provided him with a set of convictions or a general pattern of life which, when subjected to a few more or less drastic “Christian” modifications, subsequently shaped elements of his preaching and missionary activities. Rather, our contention is that Paul’s own Jewishness—not just his “Judaism,” but his personal, distinct, ongoing Jewish identity—found its primary expression in his apostolic mission.

This understanding of Jewishness is, of course, deeply controversial. Indeed, this understanding of Jewishness was born in the midst of controversy. According to his own letters, Paul was a Jew who argued with Jews. On the one hand, Paul emphatically asserts his Jewish identity at key points.³ He describes Jews as his brothers,⁴ his family,⁵ his race,⁶ and his flesh.⁷ He grieves for Jews,⁸ prays for Jews,⁹ seeks to win Jews,¹⁰ works alongside Jews,¹¹ and shapes his ministry in service of Jews.¹² On the other hand, Paul also engages in strong disputes against various Jews.¹³ He abandons certain Jewish commitments,¹⁴ trivializes certain Jewish lifestyles,¹⁵ curses preachers of Jewish circumcision,¹⁶ “dies” to the Jewish Law,¹⁷ and at one point seemingly renounces his Jewish identity altogether.¹⁸ At first glance, Paul’s varied statements about Jewishness seem mutually incompatible. ¹⁹ They certainly constitute a broad spectrum, from heartfelt identification through to bitter denunciation. We will argue that this broad spectrum of statements can be comprehended under a single, albeit multi-faceted, rubric: Paul is convinced that his own apostolic ministry fulfils Israel’s divine vocation. For Paul, preaching the gospel of Christ to the Gentiles is the true way to be Jewish.²⁰

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1.1 Paul’s Jewish identity

The spectrum of Paul’s statements about Jewishness has been analysed using various lenses of scholarly concern. Some scholars concentrate on Paul’s personal convictions and overall worldview. Jörg Frey, for example, in his article “Paul’s Jewish Identity” seeks to demonstrate that various elements in Paul’s conception of himself, his piety, his missionary strategy, his preaching style, his geographical framework, his exegetical methods and his eschatology are similar to those which can be found among other first-century Jewish groups. For Frey, it is Paul’s Jewish convictions that mark him out as Jewish.²¹ Love Sechrest, on the other hand, is concerned with Paul’s personal group affiliation: in which group did Paul feel he “belonged”? Sechrest concludes that Paul significantly weakened his kinship ties with the mainstream Jewish community and established new, strong, non-biological kinship ties with the Christian community. For Sechrest, then, Paul has become a member of a third “race”²² and can be regarded as a “former Jew.”²³ Other scholars seek to understand Paul’s Jewishness by examining his concrete relationships with his Jewish contemporaries. Mark Nanos, for example, finds that Paul is a “good Jew”²⁴ because he upheld the distinctiveness of Jews in Rome. According to Nanos, although Paul insisted that Gentiles did not have to become Jews, he never challenged the need for Jews to observe the Torah.²⁵ John Barclay, however, asks the converse question: would Paul’s fellow Jews themselves have recognized and accepted him as a Jew? Barclay finds that although Paul believed himself to be Jewish and desired to redefine Judaism from within, his program ultimately failed. Paul would have continued to be regarded as an apostate by the Jewish community and was consistently opposed by other Jews.²⁶ Thus, by the generally accepted standards of his fellow Jews, Paul is a renegade, apostate Jew.²⁷

Even this small selection of scholarship demonstrates that the question of Paul’s Jewishness can be asked, and answered, in many different ways. This plurality is not in itself problematic. After all, each of the various aspects of Paul’s Jewishness which scholars choose as a focus for study (worldview, group affiliation, praxis, group acceptance, et cetera) represents a legitimate scholarly concern in its own right, and provides valuable insights. Nevertheless, the question of Paul’s Jewishness is not easy to confine; it has the unsettling tendency to break through narrowly defined ar...

Table of contents

• Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Acknowledgements
• Table of Contents
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Review of literature
• 3 Paul’s language of Jewish identity
• 4 The Jewishness of Paul’s vocation (Romans 1:1 – 15 & 15:14 – 33)
• 5 Paul’s contest over Jewish identity (Romans 2:17 – 29)
• 6 Paul’s fulfilment of Israel’s vocation (Romans 9 – 11)
• 7 Conclusions
• Bibliography
• Index of Ancient Texts
• Index of Modern Authors