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Contours of Pauline Theology: A Radical New Survey of the Influences on Paul’s Biblical Writings is unavailable, but you can change that!

The Apostle Paul is a controversial church figure. Many theologians accuse Paul of starting a new religion: of hi-jacking early Christianity in a different direction. Is this a fair charge? Tom Holland points us to a neglected fact, that the Jews in the first century AD would view concepts of salvation through the exodus of Israel from Egypt to the promised land. Until now, a real elephant in the...

instead. Since “Israel” is collective here, it is reasonable to suppose that “Pharaoh” is also a collective term; thus, “your firstborn” includes all the firstborn in the land. Otherwise we should have to assume that the original reference was to Pharaoh’s son alone and no other.’9 Thus, Israel, the nation whom Yahweh elected to be in a special relationship to himself, is threatened by Pharaoh. Moses is sent as Yahweh’s spokesman. The comparison is between Israel collectively and the firstborn sons
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