Paul among Jews, Greeks, and Romans
Michael F. Bird
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
2140 Oak Industrial Drive N.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49505
© 2016 Michael F. Bird
All rights reserved
Published 2016
isbn 978-0-8028-6769-8
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Bird, Michael F., author.
Title: An anomalous Jew: Paul among Jews, Greeks, and Romans / Michael F. Bird.
Description: Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2016. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016022582 | ISBN 9780802867698 (pbk.)
Subjects: LCSH: Paul, the Apostle, Saint.
Classification: LCC BS2506.3 .B566 2016 | DDC 225.9/2—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016022582
Introduction: Paul the Jew … of Sorts
1. Salvation in Paul’s Judaism
2. Paul: Apostle to the Gentiles and Jews?
3. An Invasive Story: An Apocalyptic and Salvation-Historical Rereading of Galatians
4. The Incident at Antioch (Gal 2:11–14): The Beginnings of Paulinism
5. The Apostle Paul and the Roman Empire
This volume presents an attempt to understand Paul’s Jewishness as it was expressed in relation to other Jews, to Paul’s fellow Jewish Christians, and to Romans and the Roman Empire. Paul was clearly a Jewish person with a Jewish way of life and a very Jewish worldview. Even so, he still came into conflict with Jewish communities in both the Diaspora and Judea, aroused the angst of fellow Jewish Christians, and was eventually put to death by the Roman authorities as a Jewish agitator. My aim in this volume is to identify how Paul could be thoroughly Jewish and yet become a figure of notoriety and controversy among his Jewish compatriots. My answer, in short, is that Paul was an anomalous Jew, a strange figure with a blend of common and controversial Jewish beliefs that brought him into conflict with the socioreligious scene around him.
Chapters 1, 4, and 5 have been published before in an earlier form, and chapters 2 and 3 have been crafted especially for this volume. In many ways each chapter is itself an independent and stand-alone study. However, the collection has a common purpose in explaining how Paul postured himself in relation to common Judaism and how his approach resulted in both an affirmation and a transformation of his Jewish heritage. My hope is that these studies will contribute to further discussion of Paul as the Jewish Christian apostle to the Gentiles.
In developing this volume, I have incurred a debt to several people. First of all, I’m grateful to Bloomsbury, Mohr Siebeck, and InterVarsity publishers for permission to republish some of my previous studies in revised form. Second, Miss Elizabeth Culhane did a fine job of putting all of my chapters into a single and consistent format. Third, Michael Thomson and the editorial team ...
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About An Anomalous Jew: Paul among Jews, Greeks, and RomansThough Paul is often lauded as the first great Christian theologian and a champion for Gentile inclusion in the church, in his own time he was universally regarded as a strange and controversial person. In this book Pauline scholar Michael Bird explains why. An Anomalous Jew presents the figure of Paul in all his complexity with his blend of common and controversial Jewish beliefs and a faith in Christ that brought him into conflict with the socio-religious scene around him. Bird elucidates how the apostle Paul was variously perceived—as a religious deviant by Jews, as a divisive figure by Jewish Christians, as a purveyor of dubious philosophy by Greeks, and as a dangerous troublemaker by the Romans. Readers of this book will better understand the truly anomalous shape of Paul’s thinking and worldview. |
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