A great discussion on "Paul and Early Judaism"

Earlier this week my "Paul and Early Judaism" graduate seminar took a whirlwind tour of early Jewish writings with the aid of several chapters in John Collins and Daniel Harlow, eds, Early Judaism: A Comprehensive Overview (Eerdmans, 2012). We looked at James Kugel's chapter on "Early Jewish Biblical Interpretation," Loren Stuckenbruck's contribution on "Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha," Eibert Tigchelaar's chapter on "The Dead Sea Scrolls," and Katell Berthelot's review of "Early Jewish Literature Written in Greek." Though some students had also prepared the chapters on Philo and on Josephus, we (not surprisingly) ended up having to put those on hold until next week. In between student presentations and summaries of this material, we looked at a few examples that illustrated some of the dynamics of each corpus that were relevant to our course on Paul. For example, a look at columns 7-8 of 1QpHab (Pesher Habakkuk) allowed a glimpse at Qumran biblical interpretation, an introduction to the Teacher of Righteousness, and whetted our appetite for examining Paul's interpretation of Hab 2:4 in comparison with the Jewish interpreters at Qumran. At the end of the three-hour session, we took stock of the ground we had covered and looked for common themes that ran throughout some or all of the bodies of writing we had surveyed. The class came up with what to me was an impressive list of features.

First, students were struck by the diversity of this early Jewish literature, particularly when faced with it all at once. Even students with a strong background in this area were surprised to see the scope and extent of this literature. They noted diversity of genre and of language, diversity of provenance and purpose, diversity of topics these writings covered, and the diversity of views represented on those topics. Second, they noted a surprising number of "connections within the chaos"; commonalities within the diversity. Despite the differences, these disparate writings all showed some kind of engagement with religious and cultural ideas that were important to Jews of antiquity. Thus, they were truly Jewish writings and not merely writings by Jewish authors. Third, they noted a "critical undercurrent" which flowed through many but not all of the texts, as the authors wrestled with finding acceptable ways to appropriate the traditions of the fathers in the tumultuous times of the Second Temple Period. Fourth, and related to the critical undercurrent, my class noted a particular emphasis on attention to the Law (the Torah) and its proper interpretation. Finally, it was noted that nearly every text was, to some extent, interpreting earlier traditions. And interpretation itself took on diverse forms: from the pesher commentaries of Qumran to the philosophical treatises of Philo to the apocalyptic visions of Enoch. In these diverse ways, this literature demonstrated the authors' concerns for seeing themselves as participants within the continuing narrative that begins in the Hebrew Bible and continues throughout the Second Temple Period.

What did this session do for our understanding of Paul? This discussion set the stage for us to be able to read Paul more closely as a writer, theologian, and person of faith who was squarely situated within this world of early Judaism. A quick look at pp. 105-108 in Lars Kierspel's charts of Pauline allusions to inter-testamental writings (compiled from the appendices of Nestle-Aland 27) helped to bring this point home. Whether Paul had read many of these texts or was only familiar with some of their contents as stock themes of Jewish diaspora synagogue teaching, Paul was a participant in the dynamics noted above: a movement containing diverse Jewish writings, interconnected in spite of the chaos, offering particular views of the Scriptures of Israel in contrast to other views, and ultimately interpreting those Scriptures--and in Paul's case the events surrounding Jesus--as part of the ongoing narrative of God's creative and redemptive work in the world.

In the end, I applaud my students for their high level of preparation this week which allowed a potentially dry class session to come to life with animated discussion. I am already looking forward to next week's class.