The Pastoral Epistles and the New Perspective on Paul

by Daniel Wayne Roberts, Benjamin L. Merkle (Foreword by)

Overview

The so-called "New Perspective on Paul" has become a provocative way of understanding Judaism as a pattern of religion characterized by "covenantal nomism," which stands in contrast to the traditional, Lutheran position that argues that the Judaism against which Paul responded was "legalistic." This "new perspective" of first-century Judaism has remarkably changed the landscape of Pauline studies, but it has done so in relative isolation from the Pastoral Epistles, which are considered by most critical scholarship to be pseudonymous. Because of this lack of interaction with the Pastoral Epistles this study seeks to test the hermeneutic of the New Perspective on Paul from a canonical perspective. This study is not a polemic against the New Perspective on Paul, but an attempt to test its hermeneutic within the Pastoral Epistles. Four basic tenets of the New Perspective on Paul, taken from the writings of E. P. Sanders, N. T. Wright, and James D. G. Dunn, are identified and utilized to choose the passages in the Pastoral Epistles to be studied to test the New Perspective's hermeneutic outside "undisputed" Paul. The four tenets are as follows: Justification/Salvation, Law and Works, Paul's View of Judaism, and the Opponents. Based on these tenets, the passages considered are 1 Tim 1:6-16; 2:3-7; 2 Tim 1:3, 8-12; and Titus 3:3-7.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781666714685
Publisher:	Wipf & Stock Publishers
Publication date:	08/31/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	230
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Daniel Wayne Roberts earned his BA in ministry and MA in biblical studies from Faulkner University (Montgomery, Alabama) and his PhD in biblical studies with an emphasis in the New Testament from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (Wake Forest, North Carolina). He is currently the preaching minister for the Cameron Avenue Church of Christ in Colonial Heights, Virginia, where he lives with his wife, Leigh, and their three children, Adriana, Asher, and Levi.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“While a few scholars have noted the silence of the Pastoral Epistles in the dialogue around the New Perspective on Paul and a few have ventured tentatively to fill the gap, no scholar has taken up the questions with the care and thoroughness of Daniel Roberts. The Pastoral Epistles and the New Perspective on Paul demonstrates that an account of Pauline theology that does not encounter the whole of the canonical Pauline corpus will always come up short, and this contribution to the debates around Pauline soteriology must not be overlooked.”

—Garwood P. Anderson, Dean and Professor of New Testament, Nashotah House Theological Seminary

Editorial Reviews

While a few scholars have noted the silence of the Pastoral Epistles in the dialogue around the New Perspective on Paul and a few have ventured tentatively to fill the gap, no scholar has taken up the questions with the care and thoroughness of Daniel Roberts. The Pastoral Epistles and the New Perspective on Paul demonstrates that an account of Pauline theology that does not encounter the whole of the canonical Pauline corpus will always come up short, and this contribution to the debates around Pauline soteriology must not be overlooked.”

—Garwood P. Anderson, Dean and Professor of New Testament, Nashotah House Theological Seminary

From the Publisher