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Category Archive: Bible - NT - Paul

Paul as Job - October 05, 2007
Richard Hays has pointed to Job allusions in various writings of Paul. One of these occurs in 2 Timothy 1:12: "I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am...

Paul and Israel - April 17, 2007
N. T. Wright's views on Paul and justification will be misconstrued if they are examined outside the context of his views on Israel's history and Jesus' role in that history. That is, Wright's work is of a piece – his...

Sanders and Bultmann - April 17, 2007
To understand EP Sanders's "revolution" in Pauline studies, it's helpful to look at Bultmann's understanding of Paul, against which Sanders and others are explicitly and implicitly reacting. (I'm following the superb summary in Stephen Westerholm's Perspectives Old and New on...

Five Points of NT Wright - April 10, 2007
The volume edited by McCormack includes a final chapter by NT Wright. Like a good Calvinist, Wright summarizes his views on Paul and justification under five points. He begins where he says Paul begins, with the gospel. For Paul, Wright...

Faith = Jesus? - April 20, 2006
What happens to Paul's doctrine of justification if "faith" in the phrase "justified by faith" is a name for Jesus, as it appears to be in Gal 3:23, 25, on analogy with the use of PISTOS as a name in...

Old Perspective on Paul - April 20, 2006
Ambrosiaster writes, "Iustitia est Dei, quia quod promisit dedit, ideo credens hoc esse se consecutum quod promiserat Deus per prophetas suos, iustum Deum probat et testis est iustitiae eius" (PL, 17.56b). McGrath explains: "God, having promised to give salvation, subsequently...

NT Wright on Justification - April 18, 2006
This summary of Wright's views on justification is taken from passages in his new Paul in Fresh Perspective. 1) Covenant and apocalyptic. Unlike some contemporary scholars, Wright insists that covenant and apocalyptic are not opposed to one another, but joined...

Nomos - August 19, 2005
Thinking about Plato's Crito, it again strikes me that NOMOS is closer to what our "culture" than to "law." If Paul is entering into a Greek debate about NOMOS (as well, of course, as a Jewish one), then he's critiquing...

Letter and Spirit - May 14, 2005
Scott Hafemann has characteristically thoughtful comments about Paul's contrast of letter and Spirit in 2 Corinthians 3: "Paul's contrast is not an abstract one between 'outward' and 'inward,' between 'externality' and 'internality,' between 'ritualism' and 'a living experience fo the...

2 Corinthians 5 - May 09, 2005
When Paul brings Isaiah�s vision into 2 Corinthians 5, he speaks of the mortal being swallowed up by life. �Life�Ehas already taken on a specific coloration in the course of 2 Corinthians 4. Having spoken of the glory of Christ...

Romans 8, continued - April 30, 2005
CONTRASTING MINDSETS, Romans 8:5-13 Paul has announced that through the work of Father, Son and Spirit, we who are in Christ have been set free from Sin and Death, and are now capable of keeping the requirement of the Law....

More on Romans 8 - April 24, 2005
INTRODUCTION In chapter 8, Paul brings to a climax his discussion of the law, its cooption by sin, and the resulting death. He has shown the law to be weak and helpless in dealing with the condition of sin and...

Romans 8:1 - April 20, 2005
Chuck Lowe has a thoughtful analysis of Romans 8:1-4 in an essay in the June 1999 issue of JETS. He argues that the text means just what it says, that there is "no condemnation" because those who are in Christ...

Paul and the Law - April 05, 2005
Veronica Koperski has a useful (if overly detailed) overview of current debates on Paul and the Law in her 2001 Paulist Press volume, What Are They Saying About Paul and the Law?. Refreshingly, Koperski does not simply review the same...

Romans 8:1-4 - April 02, 2005
The following notes repeat a number of things from previous posts on this site. INTRODUCTION How does Romans 8 fit into the overall flow of Romans? First, Paul has announced the gospel of God�s righteousness, revealed from faith to faith...

Notes on Romans 4 - March 25, 2005
A couple of scattered notes on Paul�s argument in Romans 4. 1) Paul�s statement about belief in �Him who justifies the ungodly�E(v. 5) clearly applies to Abraham. Verse 2 says Abraham was not �justified by works,�Eand verse 4 refers again...

Elijah in Romans - February 27, 2005
1 KINGS 19 AND ROMANS 11 I want to examine, in an exploratory fashion, a Pauline passages that has links to 1 Kings 19. 1 Kings 19 is quoted in Romans 11:2-4, where Paul writes, �God has not rejected His...

Gathercole on Sin in Romans - November 24, 2004
Simon Gathercole had some interesting points in his paper on "Jewish and Gentile sin in Paul." He wanted to show that the "history of sin" was revelatory of God's character, and had an integral role in the work of redemption....

Imputation - August 14, 2004
In most Reformation theology, imputation is a distinct act from justification. God Christ's righteousness to us, and in a distinct act declares that we are righteous because Christ's righteousness clothes and covers us. Is this what Paul means by LOGIZOMAI...

Resurrection of the Body - July 24, 2004
It is traditional, and true, to say that the resurrection of the body is still future. What Paul calls the "redemption of our body" (Rom 8) has not occurred; and what he describes as the springing up of a plant...

"In Christ" - July 10, 2004
Brendan Byrne has this to say about Paul's description of baptism as baptism into the death of Jesus: "behind the expression here lies the characteristically Pauline idea of the risen Lord as personally constituting a sphere of influence or milieu...

Some Thoughts on EP Sanders - April 16, 2004
This is an excerpt from a paper I have written for a discussion of the New Perspective for the Pacific NW Presbytery of the PCA: The NPP movement first began to take shape with the publication of Sanders�EPaul and Palestinian...

Paul's Sufferings - March 31, 2004
Thomas S. Schreiner has some intriguing comments about Paul's descriptions of his suffering for the gospel in Paul, Apostle of God's Glory in Christ. For example, he cites 2 Corinthians 2:14, where Paul gives thanks to God as the one...

Circumcision and Flesh - March 28, 2004
In Rom 4 and elsewhere, Paul indicates that the Jews had been radically misusing circumcision. According to Paul, circumcision pointed to the covenant righteousness that Yahweh had reckoned to Abraham on account of his faith. Paul says that circumcision was...

NT Wright on Abraham's Faith - March 25, 2004
Here are a couple of critical observations on NT Wright's understanding of Abraham's faith. I'm reflecting on Wright's Romans commentary, and I offer these criticisms (to say it yet again) as one who thinks that much of what Wright writes...

Paul and Pharisaism - January 03, 2004
Does Paul have to deal with Jews who are confident that they are performing the law rightly, and believe that they have something to boast about before God because of their performance? Yes, of course. He's dealing with Pharisees, of...

Paul's Issues - January 03, 2004
What are the issues for Paul? To oversimplify, but I hope helpfully: Much traditional treatment of Romans and other letters assumes that Paul is mainly concerned with individual soteriology, while recent Pauline scholarship emphasizes that Paul is concerned about the...

Hays, Watson, and NTW - November 24, 2003
Richard Hays presented an SBL paper disputing with Frances Watson's view that the gospel preached by Paul cannot be narrated. According to Hays, Watson's main concern is that the story of the gospel will be immanentized and become a story...

"Greek" Again - November 12, 2003
This from the TDNT on HELLEN: "In Hellenistic Judaism Hellenism was found to be the most dangerous form of paganism, but as yet there is no simple equation of HELLENES and Gentiles. Hellenism is the historically known magnitude of the...

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