Where is Boasting? Early Jewish Soteriology and Paul's Response in Romans 1-5

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Mar 2004 by Grindheim, Sigurd

Where is Boasting? Early Jewish Soteriology and Paul's Response in Romans 1-5. By Simon J. Gathercole. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002, xii 311 pp., $32.00 paper.

Dissertations that promise to debunk the work of a leading scholar are usually a dime a dozen. When the dissertation is supervised by the same scholar, however, there is reason to look again. Simon Gathercole, whose Doktorvater was James Dunn, has offered serious students of Paul quite an attraction in this well-argued critique of the so-called "new perspective" on Paul.

Avoiding the extremes that so far have characterized the debate, Gathercole strikes a more sober tone. he rejects the loaded terminology that has been favored in the "traditional" camp, such as "legalism," "merit," and "works-righteousness." he also goes a long way in crediting E. P. Sanders with a correct understanding of second Temple Judaism and agrees that entrance into the people of God was based mostly on grace through election and not on works (he notices the exception in Qumran). Nevertheless, Gathercole points out the virtual neglect of eschatology as a major methodological flaw in Sanders's work. By exclusively focusing on the categories of "getting in" and "staying in," Sanders neglects a proper examination of a question that was at least equally significant in the first century: how to be justified in God's eschatological judgment. While God's gracious election was important in Jewish thought, Gathercole shows that works were frequently considered crucial for eschatological vindication.

Paul's quibble with works must therefore be understood in this context. "Works of the law" are not adequately explained as ethnic "identity markers" but come into play in a strictly theological sense, as the basis for "boasting" and hope for acquittal facing God's judgment. In this respect, Gathercole clearly represents a corrective to the new perspective. His own position cannot be classified as merely reiterating traditional interpretations, however, as he also offers an alternative to the understanding of justification that the Reformers found in Paul's letters. In contradistinction to this tradition, Gathercole maintains that Paul distinguished between two kinds of justification: initial justification, which is by faith alone, and final, eschatological justification, which is also based on works. The major difference between Paul and judaism Gathercole finds in the fact that Christian boasting is boasting in what God has done through Christ and that Christian obedience has its source and continuous cause in God's action.

The most devastating critique of the new perspective comes in chapters 1-2, where Gathercole offers a comprehensive examination of the teachings on eschatological vindication in the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha and in Qumran. His treatment of the literature from second Temple judaism is unusually thorough and well-informed for a work whose primary field is the NT. Gathercole relates to the work of Friedrich Avemarie, who has shown that, in the rabbinic material, the two concepts of salvation, as a result of election and as a reward for obedience, are both present without the one being played out against the other. In this book, Gathercole finds that this "ambivalence" can also be observed in much of the literature of second Temple judaism. Eschatological vindication on the basis of works is most clearly attested in 1 Enoch 38:1-2; Pss. Sol. 9:1-5; Wis. 6:18; T. Jos. 18:1; T. Zeb. 10:2-3; Bib. Ant. 3:10; 2 Enoch 44:4-5a; 4QMMTC 26-32; IQpHab 8:1-3. Occasionally, however, I wonder if the author too quickly concludes that when the texts mention "reward" the meaning is a reward for good works (p. 69).

In chapters 3 and 4, Gathercole completes his survey of the sources for Jewish soteriology by including in the account the NT and Jewish writings dating from the earliest period after AD 70. By the criterion of multiple attestation, the reward theology of first-century judaism is now well documented. Gathercole's insistence on using the NT as a primary source for our knowledge of early Jewish soteriology is a welcome corrective to dominant trends in NT scholarship. In chapter 5, Gathercole's evidence is less overwhelming, but he shows that various Jewish texts display an interest in the obedience of Israel as a whole and of individual Israelites. Some of these statements may well be taken to imply that law observance leads to vindication in God's final judgment.

Turning to the exegesis of Romans, Gathercole shows that the imaginary Jewish interlocutor in Romans 2 can be understood against this background. Paul's polemic is therefore directed against confidence based on works, not merely "nationalistic pride" (chap. 6). Gathercole drives home his point in the exegesis of Rom 3:27-4:8 (chap. 7). The question of boasting here is not a question about the terms upon which the inclusion of the Gentiles takes place. As the example of David aptly demonstrates, the issue is how someone living under the Mosaic covenant can be justified. And the answer is emphatic: without works, but by faith. Finally, in his exegesis of Rom 5:1-11, Gathercole finds evidence of what he sees as the major difference between Paul and contemporary Judaism: Paul's theology is never synergistic; his boast is always in what God has done.