The Apocalyptic Letter To The Galatians

In this book, James M. Scott argues that there is an essential continuity between the letter to the Galatians and Paul's Jewish past, and that Paul uses the Epistle of Enoch (1 Enoch 92-105) as a literary model for his own letter.

This book examines the function of Paul's citations of scripture in his argument against the law in Galatians 3: 1-14. Drawing on selected insights of intertextuality while helping to clarify its assumptions and implications as a method of biblical study, Wakefield examines the "anonymous intertexts" and "ungrammaticalities" that arise from the scriptural citations in Galatians 3: 1-14. The resulting insights lead to the conclusion that Paul rejects the law--not only for salvation, but also as a means for Christian living--not because of any inherent defect but because its sphere of operation is the old age, not the new age initiated by Christ. Wakefield accordingly proposes a revised reading of Galatians 3: 10: "Because no one is justified in the law before God, it is clear that 'The righteous will live by faith.'" Paperback edition is available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org).

Paul's Letter to the Galatians is one of the fiercest and most polemical writings in the Bible. That is what makes it, for the author of this study, such an exciting document to deal with. It emerges from the early days of a vigorous new movement (Christianity), when basic principles were first being formulated, and when the whole character of the movement was at stake. In the pages of Galatians we witness fundamental features of Christian theology taking shape before our eyes, where the living heart of Paul's gospel is encountered. For James D. G. Dunn there is an elemental quality about the letter, to which those tired of compromising half-truths are drawn when they feel the impulse to return to first principles. This book, which benefits from this perspective on Paul, explains more clearly than hitherto both the issues which confronted Paul and the powerful theological arguments he brought to bear in response, and casts light on a document still capable of shaping lives and theology today.

The Apocalyptic Paul is rapidly becoming one of the most influential contemporary approaches to the apostle’s letters, and one which has generated its share of controversy. Critiques of the movement have come from all sides: Pauline specialists, scholars of Jewish and Christian apocalyptic literature, and systematic theologians have all raised critical questions. Meanwhile, many have found it a hard conversation to enter, not least because of the contested nature of its key terms and convictions. Non-specialists can find it difficult to sift through these arguments and to become familiar with the history of this movement, its most important contemporary voices, and its key claims. In the first part of this book, New Testament scholar Jamie Davies offers a retrospective introduction to the conversation, charting its development from the turn of the twentieth century to the present, surveying the contemporary situation. In the second part, Davies explores a more prospective account of the challenges and questions that are likely to energize discussion in the future, before offering some contributions to the apocalyptic reading of Paul through an interdisciplinary conversation between the fields of New Testament scholarship, Second Temple Jewish apocalypticism, and Christian systematic theology.

The fruit of decades of research, the picture of Paul that Martyn paints in this major work is arresting: both horrified and thankful to find in the crucifixion of God's Christ the death of the old cosmos and the birth of the new one, Paul was able to pre

This collection of essays argues that Paul’s articulation of Christ and his saving work makes use of the categories and perspectives of ancient Jewish apocalyptic eschatology. Such eschatology is concerned with the expectation that God will finally and irrevocably put an end to the present order of reality (“this age”) and replace it with a new, transformed order of reality (“the age to come”). In Paul’s view, God has initiated this eschatological act of cosmic rectification in the person and work of Christ. The essays included, two of them previously unpublished, investigate and illuminate various aspects of Paul’s christologically focused appropriation of ancient Jewish apocalyptic eschatology, particularly in his letters to the Galatians and the Romans. The collection begins with the author’s seminal essay on the two tracks of Jewish apocalyptic eschatology (forensic and cosmological) from 1989 and ends with an essay from 2016 containing the author’s retrospective restatement and elaboration of his views.

The contemporary study of Jewish apocalypticism today recognizes the wealth and diversity of ancient traditions concerned with the “unveiling” of heavenly matters‒‒understood to involve revealed wisdom, the revealed resolution of time, and revealed cosmology‒‒in marked contrast to an earlier focus on eschatology as such. The shift in focus has had a more direct impact on the study of ancient “pseudepigraphic” literature, however, than in New Testament studies, where the narrower focus on eschatological expectation remains dominant. In this Companion, an international team of scholars draws out the implications of the newest scholarship for the variety of New Testament writings. Each entry presses the boundaries of current discussion regarding the nature of apocalypticism in application to a particular New Testament author. The cumulative effect is to reveal, as never before, early Christianity, its Christology, cosmology, and eschatology, as expressions of tendencies in Second Temple Judaism.

The letter to the Galatians is a key source for Pauline theology as it presents Paul's understanding of justification, the gospel, and many topics of keen contemporary interest. In this volume, some of the world's top Christian scholars offer cutting-edge scholarship on how Galatians relates to theology and ethics. The stellar list of contributors includes John Barclay, Beverly Gaventa, Richard Hays, Bruce McCormack, and Oliver O'Donovan. As they emphasize the contribution of Galatians to Christian theology and ethics, the contributors explore how exegesis and theology meet, critique, and inform each other.