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    Lloyd Gaston, Paul and The Torah

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    The document discusses Paul's relationship to the Torah and whether he was an apostate from Judaism. It considers various perspectives on whether Paul abandoned the covenant of the Torah for himself or just preached a gospel for Gentiles without requiring Torah observance. The author argues that Paul was innocent of abandoning the covenant since he confined his preaching to Gentiles and did not encourage Jews to abandon the covenant or Torah. The document also examines passages in Galatians to argue that when Paul says "we" he means Gentiles, not Jews, and that he affirms two ways of having life - one for Jews under the Torah and one for Gentiles through Christ.

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    Lloyd Gaston, Paul and The Torah

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    62 views2 pages
    The document discusses Paul's relationship to the Torah and whether he was an apostate from Judaism. It considers various perspectives on whether Paul abandoned the covenant of the Torah for himself or just preached a gospel for Gentiles without requiring Torah observance. The author argues that Paul was innocent of abandoning the covenant since he confined his preaching to Gentiles and did not encourage Jews to abandon the covenant or Torah. The document also examines passages in Galatians to argue that when Paul says "we" he means Gentiles, not Jews, and that he affirms two ways of having life - one for Jews under the Torah and one for Gentiles through Christ.

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    Questia-passages_about_Paul_Law

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    The document discusses Paul's relationship to the Torah and whether he was an apostate from Judaism. It considers various perspectives on whether Paul abandoned the covenant of the Torah for himself or just preached a gospel for Gentiles without requiring Torah observance. The author argues that Paul was innocent of abandoning the covenant since he confined his preaching to Gentiles and did not encourage Jews to abandon the covenant or Torah. The document also examines passages in Galatians to argue that when Paul says "we" he means Gentiles, not Jews, and that he affirms two ways of having life - one for Jews under the Torah and one for Gentiles through Christ.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    62 views2 pages

    Lloyd Gaston, Paul and The Torah

    Uploaded by

    bd
    The document discusses Paul's relationship to the Torah and whether he was an apostate from Judaism. It considers various perspectives on whether Paul abandoned the covenant of the Torah for himself or just preached a gospel for Gentiles without requiring Torah observance. The author argues that Paul was innocent of abandoning the covenant since he confined his preaching to Gentiles and did not encourage Jews to abandon the covenant or Torah. The document also examines passages in Galatians to argue that when Paul says "we" he means Gentiles, not Jews, and that he affirms two ways of having life - one for Jews under the Torah and one for Gentiles through Christ.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    Lloyd Gaston, Paul and the Torah

    It is perhaps necessary to spell out in more detail the reasons for claiming that Paul was
    consciously an apostate in the technical sense of one who deliberately throws off the yoke of the
    covenant. Although few would use the word, for most Paul's apostasy is axiomatic.43 If Paul was
    "converted" from the Jewish to the Christian religion, if he really did die to the Sinai covenant
    (the law, Gal 2:19), then of course he was an apostate. It should be clear that I am speaking of an
    "Apostat stricto sensu,"44 a technical meaning of the term, a shift from election at Sinai to
    election in Christ, a move which Christians praise and Jews should not hold against him. Did
    Paul for his own person deliberately turn away from the Torah as covenant and thus from the
    obligation to keep the commandments, at the same time1

    1. Lloyd Gaston, Paul and the Torah (Vancouver, B.C.: University of British Columbia Press,
    1987), 76, http://www.questia.com/read/24095731/paul-and-the-torah.

    I believe that Paul was completely innocent of this charge since he confined his preaching to
    Gentiles and did not encourage Jews to abandon the covenant. I used to believe that he did not do
    so himself and agreed with W. L. Knox, "It is clear that Paul throughout his life continued to
    practice Judaism, and that he expected Jewish converts to do so. . . . On his principles, if he
    obeyed the law at all, he was bound to obey it as a Pharisee";46 W. D. Davies, " Paul observed the
    law and that in the pharisaic manner, throughout his life";47 F. C. Grant, "Not only in his attitude
    toward the law, as the source and record of a divine revelation, but in his allegiance to the great
    religious affirmations of the early Pharisees, Paul remained a Pharisee to his dying day."48 There
    is nothing at all inconsistent about an apostle remaining himself a member of the Sinai
    community keeping commandments while being entrusted with a gospel for Gentiles, calling
    them into the community of Christ without commandments.1

    1. Lloyd Gaston, Paul and the Torah (Vancouver, B.C.: University of British Columbia Press,
    1987), 77, http://www.questia.com/read/24095732/paul-and-the-torah.

    Within Galatians itself, there are passages in which "we" must mean "we Gentiles." The parallel
    purpose clauses in 3:15 are significant: "in order that for the Gentiles the blessing of Abraham
    might become a reality in Jesus Christ, in order that we might receive the promise, that is, the
    Spirit, through the faithfulness." When Paul says that Christ came "in order that he might redeem
    those under law, that is, in order that we might receive adoption [as children]," he can hardly be
    referring to Jews unless he contradicts himself in Rom. 9:4, "They are Israelites, and to them
    belong the huiothesia . . . ." I find it incredible to think that Paul could say that "we [Jews] were
    enslaved under the elements of the world"1

    1. Lloyd Gaston, Paul and the Torah (Vancouver, B.C.: University of British Columbia Press,
    1987), 77, http://www.questia.com/read/24095732/paul-and-the-torah.

    "Barth has argued that the verb 'to live' in 2:14 should be understood in the fullest sense of life,
    as in 2:19-20.51 If that is so, then Paul affirms that there are two ways of having 'life' in the fullest
    sense, ethniks and Ioudaks. (It is very doubtful that Cephas would have agreed with this
    statement about how he lives, but Paul may really be speaking about himself.)"1

    1. Lloyd Gaston, Paul and the Torah (Vancouver, B.C.: University of British Columbia Press,
    1987), 78, http://www.questia.com/read/24095733/paul-and-the-torah.

    "Here too Paul does not deny the righteousness (= election) given through the Torah to Israel
    when he affirms another righteousness given through Christ to Gentiles and also chooses the
    latter possibility for himself."1

    1. Lloyd Gaston, Paul and the Torah (Vancouver, B.C.: University of British Columbia Press,
    1987), 78, http://www.questia.com/read/24095733/paul-and-the-torah.

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