Paul and the Gift
by john m. g. barclay
eerdmans, 672 pages, $70
W
ith the publication of E. P. Sanders’s Paul and Palestinian Judaism in 1977, scholarly readings of Paul’s theology dramatically shifted. No longer was Paul’s gospel of “grace alone” to be held up against a legalistic Judaism that advocated salvation by “works of the law.” This older, so-called Lutheran reading was put away (though, as many have now realized, this characterization did not do justice to Luther himself), and New Testament scholars took on a “new perspective.”
As Sanders argued, Jewish texts showed a religion of grace (with the single exception of 4 Ezra). In and through his grace, God made a covenant with Israel. The Torah, or law, was given as a way to keep this covenant. The Torah itself was evidence of God’s prior grace since the law enabled Israel to maintain its relation to God despite sin and defection. First grace, then Torah: salvation was not by merit. Against this background, the Lutheran reading no longer made sense. Paul was still a theologian of grace, but so were other Jews. Paul’s distinctiveness was simply that he believed that Jesus was the true Messiah and Lord. The way one “got into” the salvation offered through Jesus was through faith in him as Messiah and Lord. Sanders’s analysis has not been significantly challenged for more than thirty years. There have been modifications of this or that point, developments of this or that theme, and so on, but no work that has made any enduring smudge on Sanders’s canvas. The old Lutheran reading was gone, the new perspective here to stay.
