Matthew Thiessen. <i>A Jewish Paul: The Messiah’s Herald to the Gentiles</i>

Matthew Thiessen’s main goal with this little monograph is to introduce readers to a reading of Paul that situates him within Judaism. As a good teacher who makes sure that his students understand what is essential, Thiessen makes sure that from the beginning to the end of his book readers remember that he is trying to place Paul within Judaism (pp. xi, 3–4, 9, 21, 34–35, 159–61). His goal is to show that Christian anti-Judaism and supersessionism do not do justice to the evidence found in Paul’s letters. This way of reading Paul (Paul within Judaism), also called the Sonderweg reading of Paul or the radical new perspective, responds to other streams found in Pauline scholarship such as (1) the traditional “Lutheran” reading of Paul, which Thiessen calls the “anti-legalistic” (p. 4), (2) the “new perspective” on Paul, that suggests that Paul’s problem with Judaism was that it was ethnocentric (p. 7), and (3) the “apocalyptic” reading of Paul, which sustains that Paul “experienced a radical break from his past, including his Jewishness” (p. 8). Although Thiessen’s reading of Paul shows affinity to the stream of Paul within Judaism, in his work he presents his own account, which might differ in few points with this trend.Thiessen develops his point in twelve chapters. While it is not my intention to summarize each one of them here, I do think it is worth mentioning some of the topics he deals with. In chapters 1–4, Thiessen centers on describing Paul’s Jewishness. Paul was a Jew who happened to believe that Jesus was God’s Messiah, but this did not make him a non-Jew, nor an anomalous, nor a radical or marginal Jew. Better to see him as being part of that rich diversity found in first-century Judaism, a Jewish world full of both agreement and disagreement, but after all a Jewish world.In chapter 5–8, Thiessen deals with the gentile problem: What was wrong with the gentiles? Here Thiessen emphasizes that the problem was that gentiles were idolatrous and that pagan cultic practices resulted in sinful and destructive behavior. For this reason, they needed the Messiah, who for Paul is and remains a Jewish Messiah. He came in fulfillment of the promises made to Abraham, and through his incarnation, his life full of obedience, his suffering and death, and his resurrection and glorification, he has accomplished salvation. According to Thiessen, there were two options that intended to explain how gentiles could have access to the promises made to Abraham: the “cosmetic surgery” (circumcision) and “the pneumatic gene therapy” (receiving the pneuma/spirit). Although both were two different explanations of how to partake in the promises, both were addressing the question on how to connect gentiles to Abraham and his seed, the Messiah (p. 81). Paul agrees with the second option.In chapters 9–11, Thiessen presents the aftermath of having received the pneuma. Non-Jews have now access to a new identity and a new life. At this point they become part of the Messiah’s body, which is pneumatic in nature and therefore can be “embodied in multiple ways at the same time” (p. 119). A different way of existence is accessible to all sons of God after the resurrection of the Messiah. For this reason, Paul calls them the “holy ones.” Thiessen argues that Paul probably thinks believers are in the process of becoming angelic (p. 126), and the pneuma acts like “moral steroids” (p. 131) helping them to overcome immorality. At the resurrection, believers will receive a body that consists of the material of the pneuma; it is this body that enables them to partake of the heavenly realm.Finally, in chapter 12, Thiessen addresses the question of the Jews: How is Paul’s teaching or gospel related to his fellow Jews? In simple words, the problem with his fellow Jews is that they do not believe that Jesus is Israel’s Messiah (p. 155). Paul thinks that God has temporally hardened their hearts for the sake of all humanity, but this does not mean that they are rejected by God. Eventually, God will remove this hardening thus “having mercy on gentiles and Jews alike” (p. 156).Thiessen succeeds on making his point clear throughout his work. Yet there are some points that deserve consideration. First, one on the methodology. In the introduction (p. 10), Thiessen says that he will connect the account of Paul to an ancient writer: Luke, the author of Luke-Acts. This move seems to extend only until chapter 2, after which there is no sign of a literary conversation between Paul’s writings and Luke’s. Thiessen only refers to the Acts of the Apostles in few pages outside chapters 1 and 2 (pp. 39, 60–61). Thus, readers might find Thiessen’s work wanting in this particular regard. Secondly, Thiessen discusses the importance of gentiles receiving the pneuma but not so much its importance for the Jews. It is clear that the pneuma will enable former pagans to become heirs of the promise as well as sons of Abraham, but how do Jews relate to the pneuma or in which way do they benefit from the pneuma? One would expect from a work that intends to place Paul within Judaism that the author at least discusses the significance of the pneuma for Paul’s fellow Jews. I am not sure if in the back of Thiessen’s mind is the fact that the Jews are already heirs and therefore they do not need the pneuma in the same sense that the gentiles do, but something is true, Paul’s writings imply that he as a Jew received the pneuma (e.g., 1 Cor 2:10–14; 12:13; 2 Cor 1:22; 5:5; Gal 5:25), and there are hints that Jews who believed in the Messiah received the pneuma too (e.g., Acts 1:8; 2:4, 33; cf. Eph 2:18). I am not saying that Thiessen argues that the pneuma plays no role for the Jews, I am simply indicating that this point does not receive much attention in his work, which is something that could have strengthened his main thesis. However, this point on the pneuma is perhaps one of the what abouts to which Thiessen refers to in his conclusion (p. 161), after all, it is extremely difficult to give good and complete answers to every single question one might posit on Paul.Finally, the genius of Thiessen consists in his ability to present a very complex topic in simple language. Placing Paul within Judaism is not an easy task, especially when publications on NT theologies or NT introductions have been plagued with the Lutheran or anti-legalistic reading of Paul for so long. Thiessen’s introduction is clear, concise, and exegetically and theologically sound. This monograph is a must-read for every Pauline scholar and those interested on the topic of religious identity in Paul’s letters.