Book Review: Paul and Second Temple Judaism

Reading Romans in Context: Paul and Second Temple Judaism is a volume of essays from various doctrinal students and serves the function of providing cultural, contextual, religious, philosophical, and religious content relative to Paul’s letter to the Romans and Second Temple Judaic viewpoint and life. The epistle is a systematic guide to Christian beliefs and living but its meaning can only be fully grasped by understanding the perspectives and concerns that influenced its author. Consequently, the book’s thesis is to provide insight of Romans by relating and contrasting contemporary views and sources during Paul’s time that guidedboth his writing and his audience.Although the book is a compilation of twenty essays, there are no discontinuities owing to a remarkable regularity in the organization, logical flow, rhetorical approach, and illustrations. The pattern of each essay is regular and chapters flow seamlessly. Each chapter covers a small section of the letter, in canonical order; comparing and contrasting that segment with a historical or religious text containing similar concepts from the Second Temple era to help the reader understand how Paul employed those familiar themes in his principles, arguments, and inferences. For example, in chapter 3, the author compares Romans 8:14-39 with the book of Jubilees while in chapter 12, the author compares Romans 8:14-39 to the Greek Life of Adam and Eve(Blackwell, Goodrich, & Maston, 2015).

Reading Romans in Context: Paul and Second Temple Judaism arose from the time Ben C. Blackwell, John K. Goodrich, and Jason Maston shared at Durham University where they earned their doctoral degrees. The authors are recognized authorities in the field of church history, Second Temple Period worldviews, and Pauline studies. Their education and experiences allow them to expertly explore the historical-cultural setting of Romans as well as compare the viewpoints and hermeneutical practices of Paul and his kinsmen so as to uncoverthe apostle’s connection with Second Temple Judaism. Blackwell teaches Early Christianity at Houston Baptist University where he serves as an associate professor. He has written several essays and articles in the areas including second century Christianity, Pauline theology, the reception of Paul in the church, besidestheosis.He has also written several other books such asReading Mark in Context: Jesus and Second Temple JudaismandReading Romans in Context: Paul and Second Temple Judaism, and Paul and the Apocalyptic Imagination.Goodrich is assistant professor at Moody Bible Institute where he teaches the New Testament and has written Paul as an Administrator of God in 1 Corinthians, Paul and the Apocalyptic Imagination, Reading Romans in Context: Paul and Second Temple Judaism, among others. Mastonis assistant professor of theology teaching the New Testament at Houston Baptist University. He has written the Divine and Human agency in Second Temple Judaism and Paul: A Comparative Approach and co-authored Essays from the Tyndale Fellowship in Honor of Martin Hengel as well as Earliest Christian History: History, Literature and Theology.Moreover, the nineteen scholars chosen by the editors are emerging New Testament researchers from Durham University and other institutions with a lot of understandingof the New Testament and Second Temple Period.

Various New Testament scholars have already proven considerable connections between Paul’s letters and the Old Testament. However, Reading Romans in Context: Paul and Second Temple Judaismgoes a step further in investigating Paul’s Jewish background and how it might have impacted his thinking by viewing Second Temple Judaism as a component of the cultural and historical link between the thought of the Old Testament, the Jewish relation and Paul’s world. It provides a significant number of interrelationships between Paul and his upbringing, when compared to other works, and is therefore of more heuristic importance when reading Romans in context. The authors put Paul in context using a wide range of critical apocalyptic, apocryphal, and historic texts thereby giving a deeper comprehension of Romans at numerous levels of discourse. The authors engage with Second Temple Literature with frequency, meticulousness, and preparedness to acknowledge theological continuity and discontinuity. Most of the book’s essays are insightful, and are certain to develop the reader’s appreciation of Romans and its surrounding Jewish setting, through their relevant and useful parallels and dissimilarities between Paul’s thinking and the world of Second Temple Judaism. However, a few essays are not as helpful as they make associations that are either unnecessary or look as if they are forced. The book is also heavily reliant on one-to-one textual comparisons that, although valuable in its overall aims, limit the types and number of connections that can be observed between the epistle and Second Temple Period. More advanced Pauline scholars might find the book a bit short of detail and discussion and wish for a more comprehensive engagement between the epistle and the Second Temple text.

Reading Romans in Context: Paul and Second Temple Judaismis suitable for use in a university or seminary classroom because the authors bring remarkable scholarship to each chapter. Besides ministers, laypeople would find the book worthy of their attention because it is interesting, balanced, informative, and readily understandable. Overall, the authors succeeded at introducing readers to the wider Jewish background of Pauline works in general, particularly Paul’s letter to the Romans.In addition to providing a relative political, historical, religious, and cultural customs of Judaic believers of Paul’s period, the book’s audience will also develop a means to correlate the knowledge to a contemporary perspective.

References

Blackwell, B. C., Goodrich, J. K., & Maston, J. (2015). Reading Romans in Context: Paul and Second Temple Judaism. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic.