Читать книгу Paul Among the Gentiles: A "Radical" Reading of Romans - Jacob P. B. Mortensen - Страница 27

The foregoing presentation makes it seem that radical scholars conclude that Paul addressed his gospel about a Jewish Messiah to Gentiles. The ‘radicals’ claim that Paul did not ask these Gentiles to become Jews, or to become something new, such as ‘Christians’, or to remain what they used to be (pagan Gentiles). Instead, the ‘radicals’ claim that Paul sought out ways for these Gentiles to be affiliated to Judaism and to behave jewishly without becoming actual Jews. This request from Paul to his Gentile addressees may be described in a variety of ways each of which highlights different aspects of the identity-construction of his addressees. Caroline Johnson Hodge and Joshua Garroway primarily use etic designations. They reach their conclusions through a theoretical discussion of identity formation and group-belonging. Paula Fredriksen and Mark Nanos primarily work with ancient and emic descriptions of ‘Gentiles affiliated with Judaism’. Fredriksen and Nanos furnish their description with a theoretical awareness of the impossibility and inadequacy of trying to understand outlooks that existed thousands of years ago.

I consider it unnecessary to choose among the above-presented types of terminology, or to go beyond what the radical scholars have proposed. There is not yet any consensus among radical scholars concerning how to describe these ‘in-between’ or ‘border’ identities. Consequently, I will not confine myself to only one of the above-presented alternatives, nor will I develop any other terms for describing these ‘in-between’ Gentiles. Instead, I will use the various alternatives provided by the radical scholars as they seem to fit my analysis, because my model reading of Romans proceeds from the radical perspective. My point of departure rests on the assumption formulated by radical scholars, that Paul addressed his message only and exclusively to Gentiles. I work with these descriptions of Paul’s addressees as jewishish Gentiles. In the following chapters and in the actual exegesis I will support and substantiate the claim that Paul only and exclusively addressed his message to Gentiles, but for now I will stick to the terminological discussion.

The key insight to bring along in the following exegesis – as different as it is from many New Perspective scholars in terms of terminology – is that Paul did not try to make anyone Christian. Neither did he create a new religion called Christianity. Some, but definitely not all New Perspective scholars, agree on this point.1 What Paul did was to try to incorporate Gentiles behaving jewishly into Judaism as holy ones, faithful ones, brothers and sisters, heirs of Abraham, wild olive shoots engrafted unto a cultivated tree, freed slaves adopted as sons, and a new creation. He did not create any ‘Christian churches’. He organized assemblies (ἐκκλησίαι) of former pagan Gentiles behaving jewishly, and he made sure these assemblies were connected to and affiliated with Judaism.