The Conversion of the Imagination: Paul as Interpreter of Israel's Scripture

by Richard B. Hays

The Conversion of the Imagination contains some of the best work on Paul by first-rate New Testament scholar Richard B. Hays. These essays probe Paul's approach to scriptural interpretation, showing how Paul's reading of the Hebrew Scriptures reshaped the theological vision of his churches.

Hays's analysis of intertextual echoes in Paul's letters has touched off exciting debate among Pauline scholars and made more recognizable the contours of Paul's thought. These studies contain some of the early work leading up to Hays's seminal Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul and also show how Hays has responded to critics and further developed his thought in the years since. Among the many subjects covered here are Paul's christological application of Psalms, Paul's revisionary interpretation of the Law, and the influence of the Old Testament on Paul's ethical teachings and ecclesiology.

Genres: Theology, New Testament, Christianity, Christian, Nonfiction, Church, Judaism

233 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2004

About the author

Richard Bevan Hays was an American New Testament scholar and George Washington Ivey Professor Emeritus of New Testament Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina. He was an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church.

Reviews

[Tim Norman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great piece on Paul’s use of OT in his epistles.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a follow-up to Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul, in which Richard Hays discusses literary "echoes" of the old testament in the letters of Paul, whether in the form of direct quotation, indirect references, or just reappropriated imagery. In our day we might off-hand make a reference like "may the Force be with you" in our writing or speech, and our reference creates a new meaning by reusing a quote from a movie that everyone knows and applying it to a new context. In the same way, Paul was constantly referring (directly or indirectly) to the scriptures, and the interplay of meaning between the scripture's original context and Paul's application of it to his context creates new meaning that cannot be heard unless we are familiar with the old testament like Paul is.

This idea is fairly simple to understand, but once you see how important and prevalent these echoes are, you start looking for them and seeing them everywhere. You know how your bible has all those little footnotes and cross references that I always skip over? This book might make you want to dig into them more!

The structure of this book is a collection of essays making use of and extending the concepts from the first Echoes book. Since the essays were written separately across many years, they don't form a single unified whole as much as the first book, but generally they argue that Paul finds the church of Jesus Christ prefigured in the old testament, and that Paul finds warrant for this hermeneutical strategy in the apocalyptic event of the gospel of Jesus. The exegesis is of course top notch and I had the best experience reading this book with my bible open, and the LXX open on my laptop. Not all the essays are equally hard hitting, but I in particular enjoyed the careful consideration of some important passages in Romans, and how our understanding of Paul's argument is illuminated by understanding the OT backdrop. The couple of essays toward the end discussing how Paul's hermeneutics might inform our ethics were also very interseting, and made me super interested to dig into Hays' The Moral Vision of the New Testament: Community, Cross, New Creation: A Contemporary Introduction to New Testament Ethics

[Jacob Aitken]

In this book Hays develops many of his thoughts from Echoes. He addresses criticisms and expands upon previously vague thoughts and points. This book is a collection of some of his more prominent essays.

Hays employs a key concept throughout his work: metalepsis. Metalepsis is when one text alludes to another text and evokes resonances beyond those explicitly cited (2). Hays then gives his criteria for employing and recognizing metalepsis, or “echoes.” The text must have availability—it must have been extant to its original hearers and users (this is a fairly obvious point). Volume is the second criterion—how loud is the echo? This will vary from a faint allusion to an overt citation. While this appears subjective, Hays gives several points on how to recognize loud echoes in Scripture. Thirdly, is the echo recurring elsewhere in a writer’s corpus?

Hays’ first essay deals with eschatology in Corinth. Hays asks whether the Corinthians should be seen as “performing Isaiah’s script.” Through identification in Christ, the Corinthian Church (and by extension ourselves today) were to see Gentiles brought in (Isa. 49:23; 60:1-16). Hays ties this in with Scripture by noting Scripture is a narrative in which the Corinthians sought identification. They participated in Israel’s story (1 Corinthians 10: 1-13) and in doing so fulfilled Israel’s proper goal—to bring the Gentiles to the worship of God.

In his next essay, “How did Paul read Isaiah?”, Hays advances one of his more controversial claims: Paul’s reading of Isaiah is ecclesiocentric and not primarily Christocentric (26). Paul did not primarily appeal to Isaiah to prove the deity of Christ (as many appeals to Isa. 53 assume). Rather, his reading of Isaiah points to a final eschatological people of God in which the Gentiles are included (this is key to Hays’ next few arguments in other essays).

Hays hits gold in his next few essays dealing with “the righteousness of God.” He builds upon Ernst Kasemann’s thesis that dikaiosune theou means “salvation-creating power,” though he rejects Kasemann’s apocalyptic overtones. The heaviest use of the phrase dikaiosune theou occurs primarily in Romans 3. Hays notes that Romans 3 is an extended discussion on Psalm 143. God must be seen as faithful to the covenant despite human unfaithfulness. When read in its entirety Psalm 143 is a psalm that anticipates a salvation effected by God’s own righteousness (e.g., his saving power). In conclusion, Hays blunts any talk of construing “righteousness” as imputation, but sees it as salvation-creating power.

Hays then has an extended essay on Abraham and justification. He says any discussion of Romans 4 must take the previous paragraphs into accounot (3:27-4:1). Paul’s problem is not “how to find acceptance before a wrathful God,” but to work out the relation of Jew and Gentile in Christ (69). This means God justifies the Gentiles in the same way as Jews.

WHAT IS THE ROLE OF THE LAW, THEN?

Reformed theologians are partly correct in that the Law condemns, but that’s not the Law’s primary focus, nor does it condemn in the way they think it does. Hays points out the Law serves to identify the people of God. Hays follows Dunn’s reading of ergon tou theou as marking the identity of the people of God. If this reading is correct, Paul’s argument in Romans 3 comes into focus. While it is true that Paul would forbid boasting in our meritorious works, why then does he make the point, if the Reformed gloss is correct, using such out of the way arguments against circumcision and other identity markers (e.g., “receiving the oracles”, etc)?

True, the Law does pronounce condemnation, but here Paul “spins” the way we normally see it. Paul’s quotes several Psalms in Romans 3 to that point, but where the Psalms speak of condemning Israel’s enemies—Paul uses them to condemn Israel! On the other hand, Paul is not offering a systematic doctrine of the Law. Rather, he is destabilizing an entrenched Jewish mindset.

Hays’ final point on the law warrants reflection. Hays ties his discussion of the Law in with his earlier point about dikaiosune theou to make his conclusion: if the Law speaks of dikaiosune theou, as all say it does, and if dikaiosune theou means “salvation-creating power,” as Hays has capably argued, then Torah announces that God’s saving power is for all the nations (95ff)! Paul’s reading of the law has undergone a fundamental hermeneutical shift: 1) Torah is now seen as a narrative of promise; and 2) The promise expressed in Torah is primarily for the Church now.

Hays final essays show Christ as the paradigmatic figure in the Old Testament. Hays examines how Christ prays the Psalms and how believers can find their identification in him. Of some interest is Hays’ essay on Habbakuk 2:4 and ho dikaios, the Righteous One. Hays surveys Old Testament texts speaking of ho dikaios and possible NT parallels in the non-Pauline corpus.

Hays then notes Paul’s use of the phrase. Paul used Hab. 2:4 in Romans 1. Given its context, we see a revelation of God’s faithfulness before the nations and a coming eschatological judgment. This language echoes most of Isaiah where it is promised that when God acts to intervene on behalf of “Israel,” he will bring salvation to all the nations (137). Obviously, this reading is superior and clearer than the usual post-Reformation gloss on Romans 1. Paul is not saying that an inward human disposition (e.g., faith) is the new way in which God’s faithfulness is revealed (which would have been odd, since the Jews had “faith” in God). Rather, it is a response to theodicy: in both cases how can God be faithful to the covenant in the face of human wickedness?

CONCLUSION
Hays successfully stays with his thesis throughout the book, though not all chapters are equally strong. I think his last chapter on Paul’s use of Scripture is weak. He started out by saying that Paul did not view Scripture as a “didactic database from which to draw prooftexts.” There is a truth to this point, and Hays starts out well, but it seems halfway through his essay he realized that Paul did indeed appeal to the Old Testament didactically (cf. 1 Cor. 9).

Elsewhere, I wished Hays would have expanded some of his thoughts on the Law. I agree with his and Dunn’s reading of “works of the law” as ethnic identity markers, but it would have strengthened his case considerably had he spent a few extra paragraphs arguing and developing that point, rather than consigning it to a footnote.

[Christian · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first two essays and the last were stellar. As Irenaeus talks about, understanding how the apostles interpret the O.T can help believers today and help our understanding of regula fidei.

The rest of the essays were meh. Once I learn gk and German I will come back to this, as the author uses these heavily, and I think I will appreciate his arguments more.

[Rob Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hays defends and illustrates his notion of OT echoes in the writings of Paul. This book goes further. It expands the idea to uncles the practical way that Paul uses his Scripture. Hays describes the ecclesiastical purpose behind Paul’s hermeneutics and shows why an appreciation for that strategy is so timely.

[Tanner Lowe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Favorite book on New Testament studies..

[Richard George · Rating 5 out of 5]

A new hermeneutic? John McKay would have liked this.

[Paul, · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book contains a nice thesis: Paul uses the Scripture in his writings intentionally. That is to say, when he quotes a passage, it is rarely as a context-less prooftext. Instead, Paul is often trying to remind the reader of the situation that was occurring in the original passage or reframing a confusing passage. That is helpful. Hays calls these reminders "echoes". That is nice too.

Unfortunately, this book suffers from overly technical language to the point of being abstruse (abstruse is the kind of word that Hays uses all the time, it means "confusing" or "hard to understand"). In my view, this is just poor writing. The book is a collection of unrelated articles that serve as examples of how Paul interpreted Israel's Scripture. The book does not flow well. It feels disjointed, as a collection of scholarly essays written over a span of decades will.

However, the book is well footnoted and probably worth reading. The best part was Hays response to critiques of his first book on this topic, Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul. I imagine that book is better than this one.

Here are a few good quotes:
We have become so thoroughly accustomed to thinking of Paul as "Apostle to the Gentiles" that we may be in danger of overlooking what this self-designation suggests: Paul understood himself as a Jew sent by the God of Israel to the world of Gentile "outsiders" for the purpose of declaring to them the message of eschatological salvation promised in Israel's Scriptures - preeminently Isaiah - to the whole world.

Paul does not deal with the idol meat problem in halakic fashion30 by finding a pertinent rule or commandment in the OT. For example, he does not quote commandments against idol worship (e.g., Exod 20:4-6; Deut 17:2-7). This is the correct insight underlying Harnack's observation that Paul did not treat the OT as an Erbauungsbuch for his Gentile churches: he did not treat it as a rule book. Instead, he sketches a broad narrative and invites his readers to undertake the metaphorical leap of finding their own circumstances figured in the narrative

Metalepsis is a rhetorical and poetic device in which one text alludes to an earlier text in a way that evokes resonances of the earlier text beyond those explicitly cited.

To follow Paul's example, then, as I have urged, would mean to stand with him in this life-or-death wrestling with the word, recognizing that all our claims about God's activity in our lives must be subjected to the scrutiny of Scripture and - simultaneously - that our readings of Scripture must always be subject to the test of enactment:54 "No reading of Scripture can be legitimate, then, if it fails to shape the readers into a community that embodies the love of God as shown forth in Christ."55


The Protestant reformers of the sixteenth century proclaimed that God's word in Scripture must serve as the final judge of all human tradition and experience. Left to our own devices, we are capable of infinite self-deception, confusion, and evil. We therefore must turn to Scripture and submit ourselves to it, the Reformers insisted, to find our disorders rightly diagnosed and healed. Only through the biblical writers' testimony do we encounter the message of God's grace; only the revelation of Jesus Christ, disclosed uniquely and irreplaceably through the testimony of the evangelists and apostles, tells us the truth about the merciful God and our relationship to that God.

The difficulty in which we find ourselves, however, is this: If the Bible itself - the revelatory, identity-defining text of the Christian community - is portrayed as oppressive, on what basis do we know God or relate to God? A corollary question has crucial implications for biblical interpretation: If the Bible is dangerous, on what ground do we stand in conducting a critique of Scripture that will render it less harmful?

For Schussler Fiorenza the answer to the latter question is clear: a feminist critical hermeneutic "does not appeal to the Bible as its primary source but begins with women's own experience and vision of liberation."3 Experience (of a certain sort) is treated as unambiguously revelatory, and the Bible is critically scrutinized in its light. Regrettably, many practitioners of the hermeneutics of suspicion - and by no means only feminist interpreters - are remarkably credulous about the claims of experience. As a result, they endlessly critique the biblical texts but rarely get around to hearing Scripture's critique of us, or hearing its message of grace.

[Радостин Марчев · Rating 3 out of 5]

Това е първата книга на Р. Хейс, която чета и впечатленията ми са смесени. Без съмнение авторът е капацитет относно Павел, неговите текстове, богословие и особено херменевтика. От друга страна есетата са в по-голямата си част прекалено технически, за да ме грабнат истински. почти всяко от тях съдържа някоя истински ценна мисъл, но след като тя е казана (обикновено в самото начало) дочитането му докрай е на моменти мъчение. Напълно възможно е това да е въпрос на лично усещане.
Със сигурност ще се върба към Хейс по някое време - той има на какво да ме научи - но трябва да съм в подходящо настроение.

[Ben De Bono · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Conversion of the Imagination is a fantastic and fascinating collection of essays exploring Paul's use and understanding of the Old Testament Scriptures. Hays goes far beyond just looking at Paul's direct quotes of Scripture and instead examines less obvious allusions (or, to use his term, echoes) and references. The results are very eye opening and revolutionary to how I'll read Paul from now on.

The book may be a bit dense for some, but for any serious student of Pauline theology, this is a must read.

[Clint · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great resource for exploring Paul's use of the OT. This is a collection of essays. Some stand alone while many refer to other essays in the collection. I would have liked to have read Hays earlier work on this subject, "Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul" prior to reading this book. There are many references to the earlier work, in fact an entire chapter (essay) is devoted to responding to criticisms of the earlier work.

[Ted · Rating 4 out of 5]

For me, a wonderful and interesting study of St. Paul through his use of the Scriptures of Israel, the Christian Old Testament. Written by a man who expresses his faith in Christianity. The book helps move us away from simply looking for OT quotes in Paul, to reading him with an understanding of the content of the OT that shapes Paul's thinking. Written for scholars and students of the Bible.

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of Essays that Hays has put together, and so the value of the book ranges from chapter to chapter. I found this book to be helpful in thinking about Scripture, and really enjoyed the essay on Romans 4:1. There is a lot of good stuff, but you might have to go through some not so good to get to it. Worth the dig.

[Maer]

Reading

[sch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pastor Luke was right. This is a fantastic book.

[Mac · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of essays gives an excellent treatment of Paul's use of the Old Testament. Hays is excellent as always. The first essay is particularly helpful.

[Laura Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful overview of use of the OT in Paul. Looking forward to reading the follow-up about the Gospels.

[Matt Pitts · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best chapters were the ones focused on 1 Corinthians, the Psalms, and Paul's ethics. Well worth the read.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paired with other books by Richard B Hays, to be read, fed and enjoyed.