554 - Paul: The Theology Of the Apostle In the Light Of Jewish Religious, History

Paul: The Theology Of the Apostle
In the Light Of Jewish Religious, History
By H. J. Schoeps
303 pp. Philadelphia, The Westminster Press, 1961. $6.00.

Among the recent books on the Apostle Paul this one is unusual in two respects. It is one of the few that seeks to deal with Paul's theology comprehensively, rather than with selected aspects. Furthermore, at the conclusion of his exposition of the major doctrines the author appends a criticism from the standpoint of Jewish theology. As a Jew who admits he must reject Paul's positive religious faith, Schoeps achieves an amazing degree of that "objectivity" from which standpoint he believes the no Christian can elucidate the theology and evaluate the significance of Paul for Christian faith. In the concluding chapter, he not only endeavors sympathetically to do justice to Paul's place in the history of Christian thought; he even suggests ways in which Judaism may learn from Paul's critique of his Jewish heritage.

In his significant opening chapter, the author deals with methodological problems through a critical discussion of modern interpretations of Paul. He assumes a rigorous opposition to the "History of Religions" efforts to portray Paul as one who transformed Christianity into a Hellenistic religion. He contends that such Hellenistic elements as are found in Paul were mediated through Diaspora Judaism which had already undergone assimilation. For Schoeps there are two principal contexts for understanding Paul. First, the rabbinic thought of Palestinian Judaism. In interpreting Paul, "every explanation proceeding from rabbinism deserves a limine preference over all other explanations, in so far as it can be demonstrated sufficiently clearly and with an adequate basis of proof" (p. 40). Second, and more important, Paul must be understood against the background of Jewish apocalyptic and eschatological speculation and the early Christians' belief in the fulfillment of these expectations in Jesus. It is Schweitzer's consistent eschatology which Schoeps follows here, though not uncritically. Schoeps issues a healthy warning against shaping Paul to fit his backgrounds in an arithmetical way, as if his theology is the "sum of its component parts" (p. 40). In this case the " new denominator" is overlooked, Paul himself. What is important is not only a new theology evoked by the conviction that Jesus is the Messiah; the new theology must be understood in relation to the "utter

555 - Paul: The Theology Of the Apostle In the Light Of Jewish Religious, History

newness and uniqueness of his (Paul's) existence, which is not derivable from some hypothetical special tradition of early Hellenistic communities, but solely from the event of Damascus."

Against this background of methodological presuppositions, Schoeps proceeds to interpret Paul's theology and its significance for early Christianity. The Damascus event determines Paul's preoccupation with the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, rather than his words and deeds. It also defines the uniqueness of Paul's apostolic call and office in contrast to the other apostles whose office derived from their personal relation as "witnesses" to the "historical" life of Jesus. Against the Tübingen school, and its later followers, Schoeps finds no enmity or unbridgeable gap between Paul, and Peter and James, over the Gentile mission. The true gulf was between Paul and a "Pharasaic group of Judaizing Christians" whose position can be recovered partially by critical analysis of the later Pseudo-Clementine literature.

In major chapters Schoeps deals with Eschatology, Soteriology, Law, and Salvation History, illuminating his theses from Jewish literature. However, in spite of his initial protestation that Paul must be understood within the context of Jewish and Christian eschatological thought, Schoeps very often ends up in conclusions inconsistent with his stated premises. At crucial points Paul is more the hellenizer than the eschatologist. For example, after a careful analysis of Paul's view of the Lord's Supper within the eschatological framework, he finally concludes that it "has ceased to be Jewish and reminds one rather of the Hellenistic mysteries" (p. 117). Having gone to great lengths to discuss Paul's soteriology and Christology within the eschatological context, he concludes that the crux of the matter is Paul's understanding of Christ as the Son of God, "the sole decisive heathen premise of Pauline thought" (p. 158). In such instances, and they are numerous, he fails to do full justice to the eschatological scope of the resurrection-faith which at the outset he acknowledged to be central to an understanding of Paul.

One of the major inconsistencies occurs in his interpretation of Paul's understanding of the Law. At the outset he asserts that Paul's attitude toward the Law must be understood from his conviction that with the coming of the Messiah "the validity of the Law as a divine way of salvation has finished (p. 171), and Paul's interpretation presupposed the Christ event. He then proceeds to argue that Paul's "fundamental misapprehension" was in failing to understand that Law as "the saving principle of the old covenant." How could Paul have it both ways?

There is no question but that those who are engaged in serious study of Pauline theology will benefit greatly from this provocative work. The author's profound erudition in Jewish thought repeatedly opens striking

556 - Paul: The Theology Of the Apostle In the Light Of Jewish Religious, History

possibilities for the interpretation of knotty problems. Christian scholars will be moved by this Jewish scholar's sympathetic appraisal of the personal integrity, intellectual and spiritual magnitude, and the significance of Paul-the Christian who was so often to be summoned speciously by later Christians as the inspiration and authority for anti-Jewish propaganda.

Franklin W. Young
Princeton University
Princeton, New Jersey