The Apostle
Paul was a Torah observant Jew. This fact has been lost in the darkness of
Christianity’s 1900+ year fall into apostasy. The theological move, the ‘New
Perspective’ on the Apostle Paul (see E.P. Sanders, James D.G. Dunn, and N.T.
Wright, et al) began the journey back to this truth, which has been further
solidified in recent years by scholars like Lloyd Gaston, John Gager, Stanley
Stowers, Neil Elliott, Mark Nanos, and Pamela Eisenbaum.
Prior to Paul’s
intended journey to Rome, he wrote to the followers of Yeshua in Rome, mainly
as a reminder to some of them to stem a worrying trend, that he had been
informed, was developing there.
It is very
important to understand who his implied audience was and what the situation was
actually like in Rome at the time of his writing. It is also important to
factor in the historical and extra-biblical evidence that we have from this
time and even up to the mid 2nd century CE, that illuminates the
reality that existed in Rome.
Understanding
the true situation and the true intent and meaning behind Paul’s epistle also
adds strong circumstantial evidence for the reality of Yeshua and his
resurrection as well as the reality of the Apostle Paul’s Damascus Road
transformation.
The reality
though is far from the common theological picture that has been painted for
many hundreds of years.
The reality, if
acknowledged, endorsed and taken to heart by mainstream Christianity could
bring about a mass and most welcome change in both attitude, and approach. It could,
and should shake Christianity to the core.
It could and
should bring a realization that Gentile Christianity needs to get down on it’s
knees and seek forgiveness, both for it’s failure to demonstrate true faith in
action and it’s failure to appreciate the proper place of the Jewish people and
the nation of Israel.
Why and how can
it be that the theological understanding of Paul’s letter to Rome has been so
misunderstood and misapplied for so long? The answer to these questions, along
with most of the questions that are raised by the specter of an impotent and
crippled Christianity is much the same.
It has taken as
increasing awareness of the reality that the Apostle Paul was in fact, an
observant Jew, as alluded to above, coupled with some Jewish theologians,
rather than Christian theologians, revisiting the premises and presuppositions
through which Romans is viewed and assessed.
Chief amongst
these Jewish theologians has been Mark Nanos. His book ‘The Mystery of Romans’
is a brilliant exposition on the whole message and situation.
Nanos
demonstrates very clearly that ‘Paul's
purpose for writing to Rome was his concern that the situation there was
deteriorating at the suggestion of those who were challenging ‘the teaching’’
(Romans 6:17) that had brought them into a knowledge of the One True God and
His Messiah[1].
Nanos goes on
to demonstrate that the followers of Yeshua were part of the community that was
built around tens, hundreds or even thousands of synagogues (including those meeting in their homes) that existed in Rome at the time.
The Gentile believers had joined these Jewish communities in the Diaspora and
it was through these communities that they had come into the knowledge of the Messiah Yeshua and his
Father, the One True God.
Nanos provides
evidence that these diaspora Jewish communities in Rome were composed of:
1)
non-Christ-believing
Jews,
2)
Christ-believing
Jews and,
3)
Christ-believing
Gentiles.
What this may
not on first reading and reflection seem that unusual, what needs to be made
clear here is that the Apostle Paul see’s all three of these sub-groups as
‘saved’, that is, as sharing a faith in the Almighty and His purposes that both
leads to living and acting righteously in this age, as well as providing them
with a place in the Age to Come, in the full implementation of the Kingdom of
God.
Nanos actually
make a brilliant suggestion that accords with this appreciation and that almost
instantly allows the many apparent contradictions in Paul’s writings to
dissolve away. He suggests that “To be
more faithful to the contextual usage of Paul’s language, the interpreter of
Paul’s rhetoric should add, “for
non-Jewish believers in Jesus Christ” to the end of virtually every
characterization of Paul’s position.”.[2]
I recommend this approach be taken to every one of Paul’s epistles.
While this may
not seem that earth-shattering on first appraisal, when considered along with
the high probability (as demonstrated by Nanos), that the ‘strong’ whom Paul forcefully
admonishes and warns are a sub-group of the Gentile believers, and that the
‘weak’[3]
Paul speaks of are non-Christ believing Jews, the implications are huge.
To unpack this
a little, first consider this comment by Pamela Eisenbaum on Nanos’ work:
“Both Jews and gentiles have their
unique role to play in God’s plan for world history—what biblical scholars
commonly call salvation history. Paul’s understanding of “salvation history”
appears in Romans 9—11, chapters so variously interpreted that Nanos’ attempt
to gain clarity is most welcome. He identifies a two step plan, the first step
achieves salvation for gentiles, the second redeems Israel, i.e., the Jewish
community.
Step One:
Because many Jews did not accept the
gospel Paul preached, Paul proclaimed Christ to the gentiles. Nanos correctly
points out that Paul believed the advent of Christ had signaled the end of the
age. And, according to the prophets, the end of the age meant the ingathering
of the nations, i.e., when the peoples of the world would finally recognize and
worship the one, true God. It was Israel’s job “to be a light to the nations”
(Isaiah 49:5-6), so Paul took it upon himself to preach the good news to the
gentiles. Paul’s mission then, in proclaiming to the nations the message of
Christ having died and been raised, was to inaugurate this eschatological moment.
The fact that many of Paul’s Jewish peers did not believe in Jesus and did not
believe in the validity of Paul’s mission was not a problem for the Apostle; on
the contrary, Jewish resistance was part of the plan. Since part of Israel
rejected Paul’s message, there was greater opportunity to reach out to the
other peoples of the world.
Step Two:
The ingathering of the nations provokes
Israel’s jealousy, and, as a result, leads to repentance and restoration. Thus,
in Paul’s words, “all Israel shall be saved” (Romans 11:26). In the typical
reading of Romans, Israel’s jealousy derives from the other nations currying
favor with God. For Nanos, Israel is jealous of Paul’s missionary success. Once
Paul persuades the known world to embrace monotheism in the form of the worship
of Israel’s God, then the other Jews will recognize this as the ingathering of
the nations, embrace Paul’s mission and message, and together Jew and Gentile
will be saved. Of course, salvation here does not mean personal salvation, but the
inauguration of a new era of peace, tranquillity, and justice. By interpreting
Romans 9—11 this way, Nanos bolsters his contention that Paul’s dispute with other Jews is not focused on the validity of
Judaism or the practice of Jewish law. It is rather a dispute about God’s
timetable. Paul believes the end of the age is imminent; it is time for the
ingathering of the nations. His opponents just think they are at a different
point in history.”[4] - Pamela Eisenbaum (Associate Professor of Biblical
Studies and Christian Origins at the Iliff School of Theology, Denver, Colorado)
As may be seen
in this very brief outline of part of Prof. Nanos’ argument, all three groups
in the Diaspora Jewish communities in Rome are, as far as Paul is concerned,
part of the family of God, and that Paul is not in any way, shape, or form
introducing a new faith, but arguing for a new understanding of how Gentiles
can come into the family of God and become children of Abraham.
Paul’s great
discussion of the ‘weak’ and the ‘strong’ is shown by Nanos to mean something
very very different from what it is normally taken to mean. Nanos demonstrates
that the word translated ‘weak’ is really a word chosen by Paul to mean
‘stumbling’. Paul see’s the Diaspora Jews in Rome who have not accepted that
Yeshua is the Messiah as ‘stumbling’ over this truth. If they accept this truth,
Paul believes it will greatly strengthen them (in part, in that they will be
filled with joyous expectation that the Coming Age, the great time when the
‘lion’ will lay down with the ‘lamb’ is about to dawn).
So in contrast
to these ‘stumbling’ non-Christ believing Jews, the ‘strong’ Gentile believers,
who have been given the great grace and joy to learn about the Almighty and His
Son, are in danger through a poor and perhaps even arrogant attitude, of not
helping the ‘stumbling’, but rather by their actions actually further ‘pushing’
them so that they don’t just ‘stumble’ but may fall and be ‘destroyed’.
The ‘strong’
are pictured as walking alongside and on the same path (to God), with their
‘stumbling’ brothers. It may not take much of a ‘push’ to allow the ‘stumbling’
to fall rather than the ‘strong’ showing humility and gratitude and offering a
helping hand, so that those ‘stumbling’ may be helped to properly ‘stand’ and
also then be strengthened in recognizing that the Messianic Age has dawned.
Such a picture
of ‘stumbling’ and the implied options available to those who are walking
beside the stumbling ones is painted in Lev 19:14 “You shall not curse the deaf or put a
stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the LORD.”
Nanos goes on
to emphatically demonstrate that Paul is speaking to these ‘strong’ Gentile
believers about their non-Christ believing Jewish brothers when he tells him:
“Therefore let us not pass judgment on
one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or
hindrance in the way of a brother. … For if your brother is grieved by what you
eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one
for whom Christ died.” - Romans 14:13,15
Remember,
Yeshua the Messiah (Christ) died for his people, for Israel. He even stated that he came
for the lost sheep of the House of Israel. Thus ‘the one who whom Messiah/Christ died’
is the Israelite, and in this context, the ‘stumbling’ non-Christ believing Jew.
So, when the
Gentiles ignore the Sabbath or eat pork or meat sacrificed to idols in the
presence of the Jewish community in which they are now members, they are
placing a ‘stumbling block’ in the path of their non-Christ believing Jewish
neighbours and brothers.
How? Because
their scant regard for, and disrespect of, the Torah, even just the dietary
laws, suggests to these Torah observant Jews, that these Gentiles can not
possibly know the One True God and that therefore, the claim that Yeshua is the
Messiah must be a false claim. Paul desired and prayed that all his Jewish
brethren would, like him, recognize the Yeshua was the Messiah and that the ‘end
times’ and hence the full restoration of Israel was at hand. He desired that
they all share his joyous expectation. The arrogant and disrespectful attitude
of some of the Gentile believers was most unhelpful towards this end.
Skip Moen sums
it up quite well on his blog:
“… Paul instructs Gentile Messianic
believers (the strong) to live in such a way that they cause no offense to
their as-yet-unconvinced Jewish brothers and sisters. In other words,
while it is possible that Gentile believers in the Messiah could claim they do not
have to live according to Torah (since they are not Jews), Paul tells them to
do so anyway because when they do, they will demonstrate the humility necessary
to convince their Jewish colleagues that they really have embraced Yeshua as
the Messiah and they really are part of the people of God.
This is Luther (and most Christian
believers) turned upside-down. Paul is telling us to live according to
Jewish practices in order that Jews might be convinced of our sincerity in the
faith and recognize Yeshua is their Messiah too.
Everything we know about Paul and his
view of Torah confirms that Nanos is correct. We have it backwards.
We are trying to convince Jews to become
Christians by living in ways that deny everything they know about God and His
Torah. We think Jews need to be “converted” to Christianity. We
have bought Luther’s line. But Paul is arguing just the opposite.
Why wouldn’t he? He is a Torah-observant Jew who desperately wants his
Jewish brothers to see who Yeshua is – the Jewish Messiah.” - http://skipmoen.com/tag/mark-nanos/
It is also
critical then to recognize that the issue in the whole discussion of ‘weak’ vs
‘strong’ or better ‘stumbling’ vs ‘strong’, is that it is not at all about ‘Christian’ freedom from the Law (or Torah). To
quote Nanos again: “… Rather, the implicit critique is of faith that fails to recognize that
Jesus is the Christ, the Lord of Israel, and also the Savior of the world. For
Paul, their faith is not deficient because it includes the practice of the Law
and Jewish customs; it is deficient in that it is just not yet able to recognize that the promises
have been fulfilled in Christ.”[5]
Nanos states
that it was his realization, that the Shema played a central role in the
Apostle Paul’s theology, that led him to re-evaluate Paul and recognize the
reality of who Paul was, and what Paul was arguing for in Romans. Scholars had
recognized that the Shema was central to Yeshua’s world view, but few had
recognized that Paul shared the same core values and understanding.
In fact, Nanos
demonstrates that the Shema was pivotal to Paul’s appreciation that non-Jewish
believers in
Yeshua as the Messiah must remain non-Jews and not become proselytes.
Similarly, Jews must remain Jewish, and hence Torah observant as Paul was, even
after accepting the faith position that Yeshua is the Messiah.
If God is
indeed One, then he is the God of the Jews and the Gentiles … “Or is God the
God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also,
since God is one. He will justify the circumcised by faith and the
uncircumcised through faith.” – Romans
3:29-30
So Nanos goes
on to demonstrate that Paul both argues for the advantages of being Jewish, as
well as arguing that there is no disadvantage to not being Jewish, if
the Gentile has the faith of/in Yeshua[6].
This is because
Paul is speaking to a Jewish community of sub-groups that exhibit and practice
various expressions of Judaism. The Messianic Gentiles have been nurtured and
embraced (perhaps with many understandable reservations) by this community
through which they have came to learn about the One True God and His Messiah.
So to repeat,
if Paul’s letter to the Romans is read with the perspective that Paul was a
strong Torah observant Jew who most naturally saw the Shema as central to his
worldview and even to his eschatological ideology, and coupled to this, if we
take on board the strong evidence that the situation in Rome at the time was as
highlighted above[7]; then it
seems most obvious that Paul was writing to alert the Messianic Gentiles to
their developing judgmental attitudes, which Paul saw as not only wrong, but
most unhelpful for his ‘stumbling in faith’[8]
(in their faith with respect to who the Messiah was) Jewish brothers and
sisters.
If this brief
introduction to this very Jewish perspective on the epistle to the Romans has
at all piqued your interest, then I strongly recommend that you take the time
to read Prof Mark Nanos’ ‘The Mystery of Romans’. I am sure your time will be
amply rewarded.
What questions
and what implications does this approach raise?
There are
clearly a number of significant challenges here to some central Christian
tenets; as well as some great theological and spiritual advantages for
Christians who adopt this perspective. There are also some significant
advantages and positive outcomes for the Jewish community if this perspective
gains credibility.
Among the
doctrines that may need a re-think is the exclusiveness of Christianity. It
seems very clear that Paul did not teach that Yeshua was the only way. While he
clearly believed that being a ‘Christ-believing’ Jew was the best way to live
in these ‘end-times’, Paul did not see this as the only way and was most
confident that ultimately, whether his brethren came to accept that Yeshua was
the Messiah or not, the time was imminent when ‘All Israel would be saved’ (Rom 11:26).
Also, we can
see how Paul was not promoting or starting a new religion, but saw belief in
Yeshua as foundational to his view or form of Judaism. Thus, ‘Christianity’
should really be a sect of Judaism and an absolutely rock-solid supporter and
‘sibling’ of the State of Israel!
How different
would our world then be!?
As an aside, I
see the evidence from both a more contextually appropriate, faithful and
consistent interpretation of Romans, along with the evidence of the Torah
observant reality of the early ‘church’ in Rome, as actually circumstantial
evidence of two other vital truths. They are:
1)
the truth that
Paul’s Damascus Road experience really was a vision from heaven and his
transformation to the recognition that Yeshua was the Messiah of Israel was
genuine; and
2)
that the
Resurrection of Yeshua really happened.
I have expanded
on the three sub-groups of the Jewish community that Nanos contends was present
in Rome in my article ‘The Tripartite Salvation Paradigm’[9],
and on the reality of the Resurrection in my article ‘The Resurrection and
Jewish Skepticism” (both at www.circumcisedheart.info).
Paul Herring
March 2012
[1]
I have not reproduced here the impressive evidence that Nanos
presents. I have just tried to summarise something of his understanding. I do strongly recommend a reading of
his book on Romans.
[3] Nanos demonstrates that
Paul’s terminology for ‘weak’ (whether originally in Hebrew or Greek) would be
better translated into English as ‘stumbling’. I discuss this later on in this
short article.
[4] “The Mystery of Romans: The Jewish
Context of Paul’s Letter” Reviewed by Pamela Eisenbaum – at www.marknanos.com
[5] The Mystery
of Romans’ p 119
[6] See my
article ‘The Faith of Jesus’ at www.circumcisedheart.info for more on
what this means in practical terms.
[7] “Tacitus,
Ann. 15.44, seems to suggest this,
and Ambrosiaster in the 4th cent. in his commentary, Ad Romanos (ed. H. J. Vogels, CSEL 81:1), described the earliest
Christ-followers in Rome being taught to keep Torah by Christ-following Jews” – as footnoted
in ‘Mystery of Romans’
[8] ‘stumbling in faith’ rather than ‘weak in faith’ in Romans 14:1 for
example.
[9] This article
is really still in draft form – some constructive criticism would be most
welcome.
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