Paul and the Gentile Problem

by Matthew Thiessen

Paul and the Gentile Problem provides a new explanation for the apostle Paul's statements about the Jewish law in his letters to the Romans and Galatians. Paul's arguments against circumcision and the law in Romans 2 and his reading of Genesis 15-21 in Galatians 4:21-31 belong within a stream of Jewish thinking which rejected the possibility that gentiles could undergo circumcision and adopt the Jewish law, thereby becoming Jews. Paul opposes this solution to the gentile problem because he thinks it misunderstands how essentially hopeless the gentile situation remains outside of Christ. The second part of the book moves from Paul's arguments against a gospel that requires gentiles to undergo circumcision and adoption of the Jewish law to his own positive account, based on his reading of the Abraham Narrative, of the way in which Israel's God relates to gentiles. Having received the Spirit ( pneuma ) of Christ, gentiles are incorporated into Christ, who is the singular seed of
Abraham, and, therefore, become materially related to Abraham. But this solution raises a Why is it so important for Paul that gentiles become seed of Abraham? The argument of this book is that Paul believes that God had made certain promises to Abraham that only those who are his seed could enjoy and that these promises can be summarized as being empowered to live a moral life, inheriting the cosmos, and having the hope of an indestructible life.

330 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2016

Reviews

[Zachary · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is a lot to commend in this book; Theissen puts forward clear explanations of "the Gentile problem" in ancient Judaism (i.e. how, if at all, Gentiles can or will relate positively to the God of Israel), and treats a number of difficult passages persuasively. For me, though, the primary merit of this book was Theissen's account of Romans 2, a particularly thorny bit of diatribe. Western Christians, at least, have tended to assume that Paul, having condemned Gentile pagans in Rom 1, turns in ch. 2 to condemn Judaism, which was thought to be essentially legalistic and hypocritical. This reading is highly problematic for a number of reasons, which I won't get into here, but I have long been dissatisfied with proposed alternatives–until I read this book. Any explanation of Rom 2 necessarily involves some reading between the lines. After all, as obvious as the conventional Christian reading may seem to its heirs, Paul does not say in 2:1 "and now I turn to condemn and redefine Judaism"–this is an interpretive extrapolation, warranted or not. Theissen argues instead that Paul, having squarely faced the plight of Gentile pagans in Rom 1, turns in Rom 2 to address and refute the insufficient and unlawful solution of Judaizers, those who propose that Gentiles can become Jews or descendants of Abraham by being circumcised and keeping the law. This solution will not do, in Paul's eyes and those of some of his contemporaries, because the law of circumcision itself has a temporal stipulation (on the 8th day) and is simply not intended to make Jews of Gentiles, in fact, it is intended only for physical descendants of Abraham's house. For a Gentile to attempt to become a Jew through the rite of circumcision is both to violate its temporal stipulation and its genealogical intent; it is an attempt at law keeping that is itself law breaking. If Gentiles cannot become a part of Israel, God's chosen people, through circumcision, how can they, according to Paul? Briefly put, Theissen convincingly argues that, for Paul, Gentiles are grafted into Israel by being united to Christ, himself a physical descendant of Abraham, through the spirit (pneuma) of Christ.
This is only a part of what Theissen argues in the book, and, again, there is much more I could commend, but this was the most valuable argument to me. I was also impressed by Theissen's judicious use of early interpretive traditions, both Jewish and Christian. I highly recommend this book to anyone seriously interested in Pauline interpretation or especially his relationship to Judaism, the law, etc.

[Lindsay John Kennedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two-part review here:
http://mydigitalseminary.com/paul-and...
http://mydigitalseminary.com/paul-and...

[Isaac Soon · Rating 5 out of 5]

The is another essential work to come out on Paul in the last 5-10 years. The book is a continuation of Thiessen's previous work Contesting Conversion. It is a continuation insofar as it is the application of the problems about Jewish conversion he generated in his first book to the issues of Jews and gentiles in Paul, what he repeatedly calls "The Gentile Problem." The book as a whole is a reworking of a number of various pieces from conferences and previous journal articles. As a whole it does not necessarily make a cumulative case for any one argument, other than, as he mentions in his postscript, the necessity to read Paul within Judaism and not against it. More on that later.

Paratextually, the book produced by OUP is designed well except for the fact that the font size is at least 1-2 points smaller than normal and the spacing is very tight. Even as I held the physical copy of the book in my hands I had to hold it unusually close to my face in order to read it. This makes reading Hebrew/Greek quotations very difficult and I'm not sure why the publisher has done this in the first place, other than to condense what is a rather large set of arguments into a smaller space.

Thiessen basically argues the following in his chapters:
- Jews conceived of gentile inclusion in various ways
- Paul's "encoded audience" (whatever that means) in Romans (and all of his other undisputed letters, although this is not argued for) are gentiles. Paul is speaking to gentiles and his writings have no implications for early Jewish Christians.
- Paul's does not detract law observance for Jews in Romans 2 and Galatians 3-4
- Gentiles are included in Abraham via pneuma ("spirit," aether, etc.)
- As sons (the gender is important) of pneuma, gentiles will become/have become (?) the stuff of angels

Overall Thiessen's marshalling of sources and secondary literature is exemplary, especially his use of extra-canonical Jewish material and early Christian material which I find personally refreshing. There are various quibbles one could raise such as the categories he and Donaldson use in chapter 1, what the hell is meant by "encoded audience" and whether exegetically we can really say that Paul's letters have no intention or applications whatsoever toward early Jewish Christians in chapter, what the payoff is for Paul reminding his readers that upon resurrection they will become literally like the stars.

My single critique comes from chapter 3 where it appears to me that Thiessen projects a kind of historicism back onto Paul. Galatians 4:21-31 and its allusion to Genesis 16-21 is for many interpreters, one of the most confusing sections of Galatians. We just don't know what's going on here. It's clear that Paul is reading it unusually (allegorically, which is unusual for ancient Jewish readers). Thiessen says this: "For Paul, Genesis 16-21 itself originally spoke and continues to speak allegorically. By understanding it allegorically, Paul is being faithful to what he believes is the original sense." (Page 84) He then says that this kind of interpretation follows the Qumran community citing Habakuk pesher (pg 85). Now it is one thing to say that ancient Jews like those at Qumran and Paul were happy to interpret a text allegorically. It is a whole different thing to say that those Jews think that the allegorical sense is the "original sense." I don't even know what to do with that phrase "original sense" since I don't think such a thing exists for ancient Jews. It clearly doesn't mean "plain sense." "intended sense"?

Nevertheless, a great piece of scholarship.

[Hunter Bullock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paradigm-shifting...for me at least. I picked up "Paul and the Gentile Problem" to get my feet wet with 'within Judaism' scholarship, and having finished I can say that I have been baptized, if you will, into this new (for me) interpretive framework. Thiessen persuasively argues that Paul did not reject/abandon Jewish law, particularly circumcision; on the contrary, Paul — himself an observant, Torah-keeping Jew — demanded that Jews keep the law/circumcision. Paul's seemingly negative statements about the law concern Gentile attempts to keep it; Gentiles should not, indeed cannot, keep the law, particularly circumcision. Incapable of being united to Abraham via flesh-and-blood, Gentiles are united to Abraham via Christ's pneuma. Christ's pneuma is the solution to the "Gentile Problem," not the works of the law — circumcision.

Having read three of Thiessen's works so far — A Jewish Paul, Jesus and the Forces of Death, and this one — I can happily recommend all three. His prose is clear and his argumentation traceable and cogent. Each book has excited me toward further reading and exploration of "within Judaism."