Sharing in the Son’s Inheritance: Davidic Messianism and Paul’s Worldwide Interpretation of the Abrahamic Land Promise in Galatians

by Esau McCaulley, Chris Keith (Series Editor)

This book explores the link between Paul's belief that Jesus is Israel's Messiah, and his interpretation of the Abrahamic Land Promise in Galatians. Countering claims that Paul replaces the Promised Land with the gift of the Spirit or salvation, Esau McCaulley argues that Paul expands this inheritance to include the whole earth; believing that, as the seed of Abraham and David, Jesus is entitled to the entire world as his inheritance and kingdom.

McCaulley argues that scholars have neglected Paul's expanded interpretation of the inheritance of the earth, rarely appreciate the role that messianism plays in Galatians, and fail to acknowledge that Second Temple authors often portrayed royal and messianic figures as God's means of fulfilling the promises made to Abraham and Israel, via the establishment of kingdoms. Through a comparison
of texts from the Pseudepigrapha, apocrypha, and the Dead Sea Scrolls with Galatians 3:1–4:7, 5:21, McCaulley argues Paul's interpretation of Jesus's death is a manifestation of Second Temple messianism because it ends the covenant curses outlined in Deuteronomy and begins the restoration of the inheritance to Abraham's offspring through the establishment of Jesus's worldwide kingdom; he concludes that Paul's interpretation of the Abrahamic inheritance is inseparable from his belief that Jesus is Israel's Messiah.

Genres: Theology

240 pages, Hardcover

Published April 18, 2019

About the author

Esau McCaulley, PhD is an associate professor of New Testament at Wheaton College in Wheaton, IL. He is the author of many works including Sharing in the Son’s Inheritance and the Children’s Book Josie Johnson Hair and the Holy Spirit. His book Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope won numerous awards, including Christianity Today’s book of the year. His latest project is a memoir entitled: How far to the Promise Land: One Family’s Story of Hope and Survival in the American South. He is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. His writings have also appeared in places such as The Atlantic, Washington Post, and Christianity Today. He is married to Mandy, a pediatrician and navy reservist. Together, they have four wonderful children

Reviews

[Sanjuro · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did one of my master's dissertations on inheritance in Galatians, so I was excited to finally sit down and read this book on that topic. McCaulley's work, as a PhD dissertation, is obviously a lot more detailed than my own master's work, but he and I came to the same conclusions: the inheritance is not spiritualized, but is the whole renewed earth, and the promise in Galatians is not the Spirit, but the inheritance. McCaulley helpfully ties Paul's arguments to the Deuteronomic curses (Deut 27-29), a detail I had not noticed. He also offers a very compelling interpretation of Gal 3:28 based upon inheritance norms in ancient Israel.

The book is loaded with analyses of possible intertextual echoes and allusions, but not all of the links are convincing. I also think the book would have been strengthened by considering the ways Paul's Galatian audience might have received the adoption and inheritance metaphors. It's one thing to say, "Paul had this in mind," but another to say, "Here is how much of that might have been caught by a largely Gentile audience in a Roman region that once functioned as a slave colony." There were a few socio-critical comments in the book, but too little.

Overall, this is a very good book, full of fresh insights. It's not only important for those interested in inheritance contexts, but for anyone interested in the interpretation of Galatians as a whole.

[Nick Hay · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book. McCaulley attempts to show the place of Abrahamic land promises in the argument of the Epistle to the Galatians. He first demonstrates that the coming of a royal figure was commonly associated with the final realization of the land promises in second temple literature. This resulting kingdom took the form of anything from the land of Israel in some texts, to the whole Earth in others.
McCaulley shows that Jesus, as the Davidic (and consequently, Abrahamic) seed, has a right to an inheritance of the whole Earth, and now, having taken away the covenant curses on the cross, shares this inheritance with all those who share his own son-ship through faith and baptism into him.
While some may feel that parts of the argument lean too heavily on supposed allusions, his exegesis and suggested messianic background create strong explanatory power for the text of Galatians. McCaulley has put together a convincing argument that should inform ongoing study on the role that the land promises play in the New Testament.

[Christopher Hutson · Rating 2 out of 5]

McCaulley mounts a dogged case for the proposition that God promised Abraham that his descendants would inherit land, first the traditional "Promised Land" in the Levant and then, under the Messiah, the whole world. But it is never clear why such a promise would be of any concern to Paul's gentile converts in Galatia. If they were after land, wouldn't they be much more likely to cast their lot with the Roman Empire? Conversely, if they were attracted to Paul's message of the value of spirit over flesh, then why would they be concerned with acquiring physical land? Despite the numerous interesting lexical connections he makes between details in Paul's argument and various ancient Jewish texts, this seems to be a case of not seeing the forest for the trees. McCaulley may well be right about ancient Jewish expectations regarding the land promised to Abraham, but it's hard to see how that clarifies Paul's gospel or questions about circumcision or questions about Jews and gentiles in Galatia.

[Steve Stanley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interview:
http://williamsipling.com/podcast-int...

Review:
https://rbecs.org/2021/01/22/mccaulley/