Contents
Abstract..........................................................................................................................................1
Concrete Response.........................................................................................................................2
Reflection........................................................................................................................................3
Action..............................................................................................................................................5
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1
Abstract
Thomas R. Schreiner's Protestant view affirms the traditional Reformed or Protestant
view on the role of the Jews. According to Schreiner, the primary belief Christianity acquired
from Paul was salvation through faith, independent of adherence to the law. Paul considered the
Jewish obsession with being righteous in accordance with the law seriously flawed (Bird, p. 27).
Against this backdrop, Paul taught that faith in Christ's propitiatory death, rather than the works
of the law, leads to righteousness (Bird, p. 43). Regarding the issue of righteousness before God,
Schreiner sees Paul as having a fundamental rejection of any human efforts in this regard and is
convinced that justification comes by grace through belief in Christ and His obedient and
sacrificial death alone.
Luke Timothy Johnson, representing the Catholic Church, holds this view. He sees Paul
holding to the Abrahamic covenant with the Jewish people and stressing the oneness of the
Gentiles with the Jews in Christ. According to Johnson, Paul did not have a problem with
biblical law but with its abuse for selfish gain (Bird, p. 73). Paul’s theology revolves around the
“gospel of God,” which includes the apostle’s own participation, the audience’s participation,
and what existed in other churches. Therefore, the events of the cross and resurrection for
Johnson, as well as the presence of the Holy Spirit in the church community, are critical to
understanding Pauline soteriology as a work of God.
The Post-New Perspective View, as presented by Douglas A. Campbell, is a compelling
perspective. He asserts that, for Paul, the justification language simply refers to the movement or
transfer of people from old age to new age due to their participation in Christ's drama (Bird, p.
120). Paul did not simply oppose faith and works; he rewrote Judaism based on the belief that the
candidate Messiah had arrived to implement God's plan by including faithful Gentiles.
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Justification depicts the substitution of God's people in Christ rather than the redemption of
individual sin. According to Campbell, Paul developed this corporate, apocalyptic orientation at
the center of his theology.
Mark D. Nanos advocated for a Jewish perspective, asserting that Paul was a Torah-
observant Jew. Nanos says that Paul did not reject the law; rather, he opposed its usage as an
ethnic barrier to exclude Gentiles from joining the people of God. Paul opposed decisions that
would add requirements to Gentile believers' needs, such as circumcision (Bird, p. 90). But he
did not stop observing the law, nor did he encourage apostasy or a license for Jewish Christians.
According to this Jewish perspective, Paul aimed to destroy ethnic hierarchies while still being a
Jew who acknowledges the Torah.
Concrete Response
Reflecting on the differences in the opinions of the Four Views about the Apostle Paul
reminded me of a memory I had during my college years in Greece. Our group visited several
Holy Land sites associated with Paul's work, including the ancient city of Corinth. As we strolled
along the revered passageways and remnants of the ancient, stony paths that Paul himself would
have traversed and instructed from, we couldn't help but wonder how a single man's life and
words could have left such a lasting influence—a topic of intense debate that continues to this
day, the year AD 2000.
The words from Paul's letters resonated in my mind, scrutinized and reinterpreted through
numerous cultural and theological lenses over the centuries. Thus, I visualized Paul fervently
preaching Christ and proclaiming the good news of the gospel to the Jews and Gentiles alike,
attempting to share the gospel of God’s grace with people with so much closed-mindedness and
so many prejudices. Not surprisingly, I mused to myself that to this very day, we are struggling
3
to comprehend and absorb to the fullest extent the lesson that Paul has for the Jews and the
Gentiles: faith, works, law, and gospel. All of the authors in this book attempt to wrestle with
this tension and provide a comprehensible picture of an important figure in the early Christian
tradition and theology.
Reflection
Each of the four contributors that Bird has assembled provides a sustained critique of the
field’s approach to the towering figure of Paul, the author of more books in the New Testament
than anyone else. The different authors do give their respective arguments as to why the view
they are presenting is correct, and these seem to be solid biblical arguments supported by
tradition.
Thomas R. Schreiner's proposed traditional Protestant interpretation offers numerous
advantages. It portrays Paul’s complete transformation, starting from a persecutor of Christians
to one of the greatest apostles, together with other evangelical basics such as justification by
faith, the cross, and salvation by grace through faith. Schreiner successfully locates Paul in his
Jewish setting while at the same time emphasizing his polemics against Jewish legalism as well
as his advice and vision for the unity of Jews and Gentiles in the church. That said, Schreiner
may pay more attention to Paul acknowledging the Torah as valuable and the end-time salvation
of Israel.
Mark D. Nanos provides a vigorous Jewish-Christian interpretation that commendably
focuses on the fact that Paul was a Jew believing in Jesus, who equally opined that the Torah was
still applicable for Jews. To summarize, Nanos goes deeper into the texts important to the
Pauline apostolate that Schreiner somewhat marginalizes; these are Romans 9–11 and Acts,
where Paul continues practicing Jewish customs. However, Nanos may exaggerate Paul’s
4
positive attitude toward the Torah while underemphasizing the negative comments and dividing
lines drawn by Paul against Jewish nationalism and ‘works of the law.’
Luke Timothy Johnson argues from a Catholic perspective of Paul's theology, such as the
vision of cosmic renewal and the emphasis on involvement in the covenant faithfulness of Christ,
have not attracted enough attention. Campbell effectively relates Paul's thought to Greek
philosophy, but it appears that the author downplays the concept of the individual's salvation
experience, which seems to be a prominent idea in Pauline thought (Bird, p. 121). All in all,
Campbell’s reading is a convenient counterpoint to the excessive protestant concern with
justification by faith alone.
Despite providing some valuable information, Douglas Campbell's Protestant revision
has some obvious flaws. There is some truth in his rudimentary assertion that Paul required
Jewish Christians to obey the law but excluded the Gentiles. And his awareness of Paul's Jewish
context enriches our knowledge. However, in Campbell’s work, one gets the impression that
Paul maintained or endorsed a number of Jewishness indicators and customs (Bird, p. 163).
Furthermore, there are some arguments that seem far-fetched; for instance, Paul as a figure who
turned his back on the idea of conversion in the Jewish tradition.
In summary, all these four approaches shed light on a significant and yet only
fragmentary component of the truth about Paul the Apostle. Paul himself was the living
ambivalence—a Christian persecutor turned into a powerful missionary of the Christ movement,
a rugged Pharisee but the apostle of the nations. Perhaps the inherent contradictions in his
writings are due to the fact that Levi was the first to try and capture the utterly new thing God is
doing in Christ, transforming Israel's faith into faith for the whole world.
5
Action
1. My plans involve reading all of Paul's letters from start to finish by the end of the year
without focusing only on highlighted verses that are generally well-known. In a specific
historical and cultural approach, I will ensure that I rely on quality commentaries to detail
aspects such as the background of Paul's audiences, the nature of the problems he was
addressing, or the streams of arguments he was using. My intention, therefore, is to
recapture some of the feel of Paul's letters as distinct missives rather than simply
siphoning off some abstract truths.
2. I will endeavor to strive to live out the paradoxical call of Paul to be more thoroughly
Jewish in commitment and orthodox in practice in my Christian faith while at the same
time embracing with equal measure the full gospel message through faith in Christ.
Specifically, I plan to participate in three services at an assimilative Messianic
congregation and attempt to solicit their feedback on Paul's Jewishness and Judaism.
Likewise, when it comes to the question of how I myself can live the gospel covenantal
existence that Paul so powerfully announced, I will ponder carefully.
3. Over the next 6 months, I plan to engage in at least two primary critiques of Paul from
opposing methodologies, observing the key ideas of each work and engaging in serious
debate rather than simply discarding it. First, I will start with John Barclay's 'Paul and the
Gift', in which the author elaborates on Paul's theology of grace over the modalities of
reciprocity known in the second temple period. I will then proceed to interact with N. T.
Wright's book, "Paul and the Faithfulness of God," as I attempt to offer a protestant
reformation reading of Paul's mission to the Gentiles in the context of Israel's story.
