Paul the Apostle
Sheerin, John B.
Paul's apocalyptic theology PAUL TIE APOSTLE THE TRIUMPH OF GOD IN LIFE AND THOUGHT J. Christian Beker Fortress, $22.95, 452 pp. John B. Sheerin Saul OF tarsus who became Paul the Apostle was...
...The author of this immensely erudite study of Paul has given me a whole world of new insights into apocalyptic theology that I never knew existed...
...Or is God the God of Jews only...
...Kasemann described this apocalyptic language as "the mother of Christian theology...
...John B. Sheerin Saul OF tarsus who became Paul the Apostle was in many respects a baffling personality...
...It is true that Paul's apocalyptic thought caused some raising of eyebrows in the Jewish community but a new evaluation of apocalyptic by Jewish scholars now seems well under way (e.g...
...In fact, the break between the Torah and Christ made way for the equality of Jew and Gentile...
...How is it possible for a man so little given to self-confession to emerge as such a distinct and clear person from his letters and to convey such an intense personal identity to us...
...The very subtitle itself...
...Romans 3:29-30) Beker's attitude toward Paul is of special significance in the light of the current Jewish-Christian dialogue...
...God's Rule and Kingdom, New York, 1963) For Beker, however, as for Paul, apocalyptic is the indispensable means for properly interpreting the Christ-event for it points explicitly or implicitly to "the imminent cosmic triumph of God...
...He was not a revolutionary...
...Undoubtedly the most influential figure in the early church, apart from Jesus himself, he was nevertheless shrouded in mystery...
...Yes, of Gentiles also since God is one...
...Is he not the God of Gentiles also...
...We may think of Paul as a radical in regard to Jewish law and he did radicalize phases of Jewish life...
...We don't have all the answers to the many and diverse problems of Christian-Jewish dialogue but most Jews as well as Christians feel that the dialogue must continue...
...J. Christian Beker of Princeton, author of the present volume, contends that the coherent center of Paul's thinking lay in the apocalyptic interpretation of the Christ-event and that Paul's thought is misinterpreted when this fact is ignored...
...This is a curious phenomenon, especially when we recall the passionate soliloquies of a Jeremiah - in many ways Paul's prophetic model...
...Jesus himself was critical of certain practices but not of the law...
...He was critical and concerned about the hypocrisy and antics of certain Scribes and Pharisees but not about the law...
...5:17) As a matter of fact other Christians had preceded Paul in liberalizing observance of the Torah...
...Some years ago, Schnackenburg vilified "this dwelling on fantastic nightmares, this conscious excitement of activity and fear, this deliberate indulgence in an emotional exploitation of the end of the world, coupled with the hammering on the theme of apocalyptics' secret knowledge . . . all these things are a heavy shadow on the picture otherwise so radiant, of universal perfection: and they are a blot on the apocalyptic writers who created them...
...Christian Beker Paul the Apostle Beker contends that Resurrection language is incomprehensible apart from "the apocalyptic thought world to which resurrection language belongs...
...Jochanan Bloch...
...This present volume, however, scarcely touches on Paul's conversion but deals mainly with the apocalyptic thought and language of Judaism which Paul loved and which expressed the deepest aspirations of his mind and heart...
...Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets...
...To be honest, however, I must confess I have one complaint: the author's style is too turgid, arcane and almost occult for my taste...
...His conversion was a surprising turnabout from fanatical persecutor to dedicated Apostle: conversion meant for him the collapse of his world and the annihilation of his earlier code of values but it also meant a new orientation to his life, a personal relationship to Jesus whom he never saw except in a blinding flash of light...
...In apocalyptic, clarity is imperative.ity is imperative...
...It was through this extraordinary relationship that he was preserved from that corrosive anger so natural to him, religious fanaticism...
...One of the most i emarkable things about the life of Paul is how little we know about him and how little he tells us about his life...
...The term "apocalyptic theology" has had its detractors...
...He says that at one time Judaism viewed Paul as "the great apostate and specifically as the originator of both Catholic dogma and anti-semitism," but Beker shows that this popular picture of Paul is "completely erroneous" for Paul loved the people of promise and was devoted to the Hebrew Scriptures...
...Because Resurrection is an apocalyptic matter, the Resurrection of Christ must be understood apocalyptically as the advance manifestation of the General Resurrection to come...
...The Triumph of God in Life and Thought," is an invitation to meditation and reflection...
...I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them...
...Matt...
Vol. 108 • May 1981 • No. 9
