From Plight to Solution: A Jewish Framework for Understanding Paul's View of the Law in Galatians and Romans (Supplements to Novum Testamentum

by Frank Thielman

""[This book] represents an experiment in understanding Paul from the perspective of Jewish eschatology--an experiment, it must be said, which many believe has already been weighed and found wanting. I attempt to argue, below, however, that the failure of this method in the hands of Montefiore, Schweitzer, and others was due to an underestimation of the complex nature of first-century Judaism. When the Judaisms of late antiquity are allowed a voice in the debate on Paul, Paul appears as less a renegade than a reformer. . . . ""The argument below must not be taken to conclude that there was no discontinuity between Paul and Judaism. It is only an attempt to show that in his basic attitude toward the law Paul stands in continuity with parts of the Hebrew scriptures and with many Jewish contemporaries."" --from the Preface Frank Thielman is professor of divinity at Beeson Divinity School of Samford University where he has taught New Testament for nearly twenty years. He is the author, among other books, of Paul and the A Contextual Approach, The Law and the New The Question of Continuity, and Theology of the New A Canonical and Synthetic Approach.

170 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

Reviews

[Ryan Storch · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Paul's concern is not so much that unbelieving Israel tries to do the law and thus make a claim upon God, but that she continues in her disobedience by not having faith in God's provision through Christ and the Spirit for obedience to the law. Thus, Paul has nothing against
"doing" or against the concept of the human as "doer," but claims that outside the believing community it is impossible to keep the law." (pg. 121)

In this book, Frank Thielman provides one of the most helpful approaches to Paul and the law. He makes it clear that Paul, contrary to many in Protestant circles, is not anti-law. But, Paul sees the law through a plight-to-solution paradigm. In that, outside of the redemption provided by Christ and the renewing work of the Holy Spirit, no one can do the law.