Mark and Paul by Becker Eve-Marie;Engberg-Pedersen Troels;Mueller Mogens

Author:Becker, Eve-Marie;Engberg-Pedersen, Troels;Mueller, Mogens
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: De Gruyter
Published: 2014-04-14T00:00:00+00:00

Getting-in, genealogy and the two-ways paradigm in Pauline studies

The above, briefly sketched interpretation of Paul and his theology leaves us with an apostle who to a large extent resembles the apostle to the Gentiles whom we encounter in the recent works of advocates of the so-called two-ways paradigm. Both Pamela Eisenbaum in “A Remedy for Having Been Born of Woman: Jesus, Gentiles and Genealogy in Romans” and Caroline Johnson Hodge in her If Sons, then Heirs: A Study of Kinship and Ethnicity in the Letters of Paul argue that it was the inclusion of the Gentiles into the Jewish covenant which was at the heart of Paul’s thought.549 Since the promise of the blessing was given explicitly to Abraham’s progeny, the Gentiles’ genealogy was the major obstacle to be overcome. Paul’s elaborate discussions of righteousness must be subsumed into that agenda and concerned the Gentiles alone. In Paul’s view, Israel was a righteous nation already; therefore the inclusion of the Gentiles into God’s people demanded their righteousness, too.550 But Christ’s atoning sacrifice made up for that. Eisenbaum explains:

I suggest that Paul understands the sacrificial death of Christ as both expiation for sin, particularly Gentile sin, and a reconciling sacrifice that enables Gentiles to be received into Abraham’s lineage. […] In this way, then, Jesus’ blood sacrifice is efficacious for Jews, not because such sacrifice atones for sins committed by Jews but because it removes the pollution potentially brought into the community of Israel by Gentiles (Eisenbaum 2004, 698 – 699).

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