evolutionary social/individual mydiinformations
I wish
to reemphasize
a point that I already made before:
there is an enormous difference between the nascent Pauline doctrine
of supersession
and those of some other later
Christian theologies!
~*~
~*~
PAUL's doctrine
is NOT anti-Judaic!
It does not ascribe
any inherent fault to Israel, Jews, or Judaism
that led them to be replaced,
superseded by Christianity,
except for the very refusal
to be transformed!
As in 2 Corinthians 3,
it is the denial on the part of most Jews
that a veil has been removed
and the true meaning of Torah revealed
that leads them to become
pruned-off
branches.
I treat
Paul's discourse
as indigenously Jewish,
thereby preempting [or at least recasting]
the question of the relationship
between Paul and
anti-Semitism.
THIS
is an inner-Jewish discourse
and an inner-Jewish
controversy.
The only flaw in the rejected branches
is their rejection.
Indeed,
they still retain their character as Israel,
and if they will only return
they are assured of a successful
regrafting.
The point will only be clear
if we forget for a moment the subsequent history and imagine ourselves into the context of the
first century.
One way to do that
will be through an analogous situation in our own time,
where, once again, the meaning of Torah
is extremely contested.
Reform Jews
consider Orthodoxy seriously flawed
in its "refusal" to see that the Torah "intended" itself
to change with the times,
and Orthodox Jews
see Reformers as heretics,
but no one doubts the Jewishness
of either group,
nor considers the other
"anti-Semitic"!
I would argue
for the analogous analysis
of the situation of first-century Judaism
with the Qumran Covenanters,
Pharisees,
Sadducees,
Paul,
and others all on the same footing
as competing and mutually exclusive claims
for having the truth
of Torah.
They attack each other intemperately
but none can be considered
anti-Judaic!
~*~
In that sense,
it is an absolutely correct statement
that the only flaw that Paul finds in Jews is
that they are not
Christians?
However
- and this is a very big qualification -
"not being Christians" is,
on my understanding,
not an arbitrary,
christological,
or purely formalist disqualification,
because I understand Paul
as moving from plight
to solution,
namely,
from the theological plight
of a tension between the universalistic claims of Jewish theology [particularly as reinterpreted subconsciously
through the lens of Hellenistic "universalism,"
as they had been for centuries
by now]
and the particularistic nature of its
prescribed
practices.
THIS interpretation
is verified by Paul's insistence
that the remnant is chosen by grace [= faith]
and not by works
[verses 5-6].
PAUL
had simply taken
the first
to be the signified
of the second,
and argued that in the revelation
of Christ
[in the world and
to him individually]
the true meaning
of the particular practices as signifiers
of the universal theology
had been already
revealed!
The consequence of refusal,
however, of the lesson of THAT revelation
was to be pruned
from the branch of Israel,
lopped off and left for dead
by the roadside,
and that was, indeed,
the fate of the Jews
in Christian
history.
PRECISELY
because we understand "grace" and "works"
as sociological markers,
then we must understand ROM 11:5-6
as reflecting a replacement of the historical,
physical Jewish tribe,
with its cultural practices,
by another kind of community,
defined by
grace!
Indeed
it has always been the case
that only PART of Israel
are the elect,
but election until now
has been defined through commitment
to Israel's historical practice
and memory.
NO LONGER:
The Remnant is NOW defined through its graceful acceptance
of Christ.
No longer
Israel according to the flesh,
but Israel according to the spirit -
that Israel signified by the physical
and historical
one.
~
~
PAUL's doctrine
is NOT anti-Judaic!
It does not ascribe
any inherent fault to Israel, Jews, or Judaism
that led them to be replaced,
superseded by Christianity,
except for the very refusal
to be transformed!
As in 2 Corinthians 3,
it is the denial on the part of most Jews
that a veil has been removed
and the true meaning of Torah revealed
that leads them to become
pruned-off
branches.
I treat
Paul's discourse
as indigenously Jewish,
thereby preempting [or at least recasting]
the question of the relationship
between Paul and
anti-Semitism.
THIS
is an inner-Jewish discourse
and an inner-Jewish
controversy.
The only flaw in the rejected branches
is their rejection.
Indeed,
they still retain their character as Israel,
and if they will only return
they are assured of a successful
regrafting.
The point will only be clear
if we forget for a moment the subsequent history and imagine ourselves into the context of the
first century.
One way to do that
will be through an analogous situation in our own time,
where, once again, the meaning of Torah
is extremely contested.
Reform Jews
consider Orthodoxy seriously flawed
in its "refusal" to see that the Torah "intended" itself
to change with the times,
and Orthodox Jews
see Reformers as heretics,
but no one doubts the Jewishness
of either group,
nor considers the other
"anti-Semitic"!
I would argue
for the analogous analysis
of the situation of first-century Judaism
with the Qumran Covenanters,
Pharisees,
Sadducees,
Paul,
and others all on the same footing
as competing and mutually exclusive claims
for having the truth
of Torah.
They attack each other intemperately
but none can be considered
anti-Judaic!
~*~
In that sense,
it is an absolutely correct statement
that the only flaw that Paul finds in Jews is
that they are not
Christians?
However
- and this is a very big qualification -
"not being Christians" is,
on my understanding,
not an arbitrary,
christological,
or purely formalist disqualification,
because I understand Paul
as moving from plight
to solution,
namely,
from the theological plight
of a tension between the universalistic claims of Jewish theology [particularly as reinterpreted subconsciously
through the lens of Hellenistic "universalism,"
as they had been for centuries
by now]
and the particularistic nature of its
prescribed
practices.
THIS interpretation
is verified by Paul's insistence
that the remnant is chosen by grace [= faith]
and not by works
[verses 5-6].
PAUL
had simply taken
the first
to be the signified
of the second,
and argued that in the revelation
of Christ
[in the world and
to him individually]
the true meaning
of the particular practices as signifiers
of the universal theology
had been already
revealed!
The consequence of refusal,
however, of the lesson of THAT revelation
was to be pruned
from the branch of Israel,
lopped off and left for dead
by the roadside,
and that was, indeed,
the fate of the Jews
in Christian
history.
PRECISELY
because we understand "grace" and "works"
as sociological markers,
then we must understand ROM 11:5-6
as reflecting a replacement of the historical,
physical Jewish tribe,
with its cultural practices,
by another kind of community,
defined by
grace!
Indeed
it has always been the case
that only PART of Israel
are the elect,
but election until now
has been defined through commitment
to Israel's historical practice
and memory.
NO LONGER:
The Remnant is NOW defined through its graceful acceptance
of Christ.
No longer
Israel according to the flesh,
but Israel according to the spirit -
that Israel signified by the physical
and historical
one.
~
~
17 aug 2005 - bewerkt op 20 mrt 2008
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