Contributors include František Ábel, Michael Bachmann, Daniel Boyarin, William S. Campbell, Kathy Ehrensperger, Paula Fredriksen, Jörg Frey, Joshua Garroway, Karl-Wilhelm Niebuhr, Isaac W. Oliver, Shayna Sheinfeld, and J. Brian Tucker., 2020
Noting that a traditional understanding of Paul as “convert” from Judaism has fueled false and of... more Noting that a traditional understanding of Paul as “convert” from Judaism has fueled false and often dangerous stereotypes of Judaism, and that the so-called “new perspective on Paul” has not completely escaped these stereotypes, František Ábel has gathered leading international scholars to test the hypotheses of the more recent “Paul within Judaism” movement. Though hardly monolithic in their approach, these scholars’ explorations of specific topics concerning Second Temple Judaism and Paul’s message and theology allow a more contextually nuanced understanding of the apostle’s thought, one free from particular biases rooted in unacknowledged ideologies and traditional interpretations transmitted by particular church traditions.
Uploads
Papers by František Ábel
a common identity of the community in the present, remembering is also, as Simon Butticaz and Enrico Norelli have aptly remarked on this interdependency, a semantic category with significant theological implications. It is a typical character of Jewishness that confirms this
fact. The goal of this paper is to explore the conceptualization of the term Ioudaïsmos during the Second Temple period, from Maccabees through Paul the Apostle, up to nascent Christianity in the early Second Century CE, including its impact on the self-conception of the groups of non-Jewish Jesus followers. The findings of this investigation confirm that applying this approach to the topic enables us to understand this term, including its semantic shift historically and contextually, without bias and traditional (anti-Jewish) stereotypes.
of remembering in Paul’s record of the Eucharistic tradition in
1 Corinthians, especially its relation to conceptions of the resurrection
perspective. The Eucharistic tradition is an apt example of a specific
“memory” reading that enables us to observe the identity formation of
the first followers of Jesus, and – by its further recounting – the creation
of a “memory” constructing new frames of relation for constructions of
the followers’ identity. Applying the basic theoretical principles of the
social memory approach to an examination of Paul’s rhetoric concerning
the Eucharistic tradition in this epistle, this paper sets out to better
understand the original (historical) sense and the role of the Eucharistic
tradition in the process of identity construction of the Corinthian
Christ-believers in eschatological perspective.
scholars, of Paul’s concept of freedom in Jesus Christ in Galatians
is based primarily on assumptions inherited from the Reformation,
chiefly the theology of Martin Luther. Luther approaches Galatian freedom from the standpoint of late medieval theology and soteriology,
filtered through the doctrine of justification. From Luther’s perspective,
freedom in Christ means to be free, in the Spirit, from the dominance
of the law and anything or anyone else except God. This essay reexamines and reinterprets the concept of freedom in Christ from the point of view of sociocultural dynamics in first-century Roman Empire, focusing particularly on the question of identity and its importance and role in Graeco-Roman society of that time.
Books by František Ábel
This book is a result of the author’s research on Paul the Apostle within Second Temple Judaism – “Paul within Judaism – New Perspectives.” The monograph represents a thorough introduction to the reading, exegesis, and consequent interpretation of Romans, a crucial letter in regard to the historical and contextual understanding of Paul’s message, his developing theological thinking, and his self-awareness of Jewish identity. The author introduces, evaluates, and discusses the current state of Pauline research within the scope of Second Temple Judaism (New Perspective on Paul, Beyond the New Perspective on Paul, Paul within Judaism), and dedicates himself to particular well-known and respected scholars and their approaches/opinions concerning Paul and his letter to the Romans. He further utilizes findings of current research in direct relation to this letter as preliminary to the historical-critical reading and interpretation of its contents in the Second Temple Jewish context.
a new era in Christ and anticipating an imminent final consummation moved him beyond the bounds of what his contemporaries would have considered Judaism, or did Paul continue to think and act “within Judaism”?
a common identity of the community in the present, remembering is also, as Simon Butticaz and Enrico Norelli have aptly remarked on this interdependency, a semantic category with significant theological implications. It is a typical character of Jewishness that confirms this
fact. The goal of this paper is to explore the conceptualization of the term Ioudaïsmos during the Second Temple period, from Maccabees through Paul the Apostle, up to nascent Christianity in the early Second Century CE, including its impact on the self-conception of the groups of non-Jewish Jesus followers. The findings of this investigation confirm that applying this approach to the topic enables us to understand this term, including its semantic shift historically and contextually, without bias and traditional (anti-Jewish) stereotypes.
of remembering in Paul’s record of the Eucharistic tradition in
1 Corinthians, especially its relation to conceptions of the resurrection
perspective. The Eucharistic tradition is an apt example of a specific
“memory” reading that enables us to observe the identity formation of
the first followers of Jesus, and – by its further recounting – the creation
of a “memory” constructing new frames of relation for constructions of
the followers’ identity. Applying the basic theoretical principles of the
social memory approach to an examination of Paul’s rhetoric concerning
the Eucharistic tradition in this epistle, this paper sets out to better
understand the original (historical) sense and the role of the Eucharistic
tradition in the process of identity construction of the Corinthian
Christ-believers in eschatological perspective.
scholars, of Paul’s concept of freedom in Jesus Christ in Galatians
is based primarily on assumptions inherited from the Reformation,
chiefly the theology of Martin Luther. Luther approaches Galatian freedom from the standpoint of late medieval theology and soteriology,
filtered through the doctrine of justification. From Luther’s perspective,
freedom in Christ means to be free, in the Spirit, from the dominance
of the law and anything or anyone else except God. This essay reexamines and reinterprets the concept of freedom in Christ from the point of view of sociocultural dynamics in first-century Roman Empire, focusing particularly on the question of identity and its importance and role in Graeco-Roman society of that time.
This book is a result of the author’s research on Paul the Apostle within Second Temple Judaism – “Paul within Judaism – New Perspectives.” The monograph represents a thorough introduction to the reading, exegesis, and consequent interpretation of Romans, a crucial letter in regard to the historical and contextual understanding of Paul’s message, his developing theological thinking, and his self-awareness of Jewish identity. The author introduces, evaluates, and discusses the current state of Pauline research within the scope of Second Temple Judaism (New Perspective on Paul, Beyond the New Perspective on Paul, Paul within Judaism), and dedicates himself to particular well-known and respected scholars and their approaches/opinions concerning Paul and his letter to the Romans. He further utilizes findings of current research in direct relation to this letter as preliminary to the historical-critical reading and interpretation of its contents in the Second Temple Jewish context.
a new era in Christ and anticipating an imminent final consummation moved him beyond the bounds of what his contemporaries would have considered Judaism, or did Paul continue to think and act “within Judaism”?