For an orthodox Jew, then as now, Torah was the great gift which signalled Israel’s special status and vocation. For Paul this remains true, but with a dark twist: the special status and vocation is that Torah should convict Israel of sin, so that Israel should be cast away in order that the world might be redeemed.113 All that Torah does within Israel, even to the best of its adherents, is to convict them of their sharing in Adam’s sin, so that the highest they can attain to is the level—the irony is heavy at this point—of the best of the pagan philosophers.114
