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Intimations of Exegesis

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  • #31
    Originally posted by Scrawly View Post
    Source: Peter Enns

    Paul quotes the Old Testament a lot and it looks like Paul is riffing—at times it almost seems like he is grasping for a text, any text, that he can use to make his case stick, that all this unexpected Jesus business (discontinuity) is fully anticipated in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (continuity).

    I want to tease this out a bit because saying that Paul is “winging it” doesn’t quite get at the dynamic. On one level, yes, Paul’s use of the Old Testament seems haphazard, but on another level it’s not.Let me put it this way: it seems to us that Paul is winging it, playing fast and loose with the Old Testament, rummaging through it to find passages that sorta kinda work and then bending them to his will.From our perspective—and I think it is crucial to acknowledge this—Paul is out there when it comes to Old Testament interpretation. But our perspective can’t drive our understanding of what Paul is up to and it can’t be the basis upon which we judge what Paul is doing. From an ancient Jewish perspective, Paul isn’t winging it. And that’s my point..

    ..What is interesting about Paul, historically speaking, isn’t his method of interpretation. What set him apart was his content. For Paul, as for his Jewish contemporaries, scripture was malleable—like forging metal or shaping clay on a potter’s wheel. Scripture necessarily had to be “worked with”. Paul’s faith in God’s dramatic inbreaking of the kingdom in the resurrected Christ, however, is what drove him to read his scripture in a particular way—to fill in the content by bending Israel’s past toward the Lord Jesus Christ and his kingdom, made up of Jews and Gentiles as fully equal partners.

    This is why I absolutely never get bored reading Paul. Wrapping our heads around what exactly he is up to and why is an energizing and uplifting mental workout that takes us out of our stale modern expectations of how the Bible is supposed to behave. In other words, for me, watching Paul at work (rather than judging or defending him) is interesting not simply for understanding Paul, but coming to terms with the nature of scripture: what the Bible “is,” what we should expect of it, and therefore what it means to read it today.

    © Copyright Original Source



    Let's look at two examples Pete provides:

    1) Romans 10:4-13 citing Lev. 18:5/Deut. 30:11-14

    Scripture Verse: Romans 10:4-13

    For Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. Moses writes concerning the righteousness that comes from the law, that “the person who does these things will live by them.” But the righteousness that comes from faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say?

    “The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart”

    (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. The scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

    © Copyright Original Source



    Scripture Verse: Leviticus 18:5

    You shall keep my statutes and my ordinances; by doing so one shall live: I am the Lord

    © Copyright Original Source



    Scripture Verse: Deuteronomy 30:11-14

    Surely, this commandment that I am commanding you today is not too hard for you, nor is it too far away. It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up to heaven for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?” Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will cross to the other side of the sea for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?” No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe.

    © Copyright Original Source



    Peter Enns makes the following observation: To support his claim that Christ is the “end” (better “culmination” or “completion”) of the law, Paul pits two passages from Torah against each other. Leviticus 18:5, which speaks of obedience to Torah, is a “righteousness that comes from the law.” But the “righteousness that comes by faith” is about Christ, which Paul sees in Deuteronomy 30:11-14 (Romans 10:4-13). The problem is that the passage in Deuteronomy is about as strong a language as one can find about the dire consequences for not keeping the Law of Moses. Indeed, the commands that God is giving to the Israelite's are doable. They are not out of anyone’s reach. They are not up in the heavens or somewhere across the ocean. They are right here–“in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.” Paul bypasses the clear meaning of that text—Torah obedience—in favor of a creative Christ-centered reading that marginalizes Torah obedience.

    2) Rom. 11: 26-27 citing Isa. 59:20-21

    Scripture Verse: Romans 11: 26-27

    And so all Israel will be saved; as it is written,

    Out of Zion will come the Deliverer;
    he will banish ungodliness from Jacob.”

    “And this is my covenant with them,
    when I take away their sins.”

    © Copyright Original Source



    Scripture Verse: Isaiah 59:20-21

    And he will come to Zion as Redeemer, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression, says the Lord. And as for me, this is my covenant with them, says the Lord: my spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouths of your children, or out of the mouths of your children’s children, says the Lord, from now on and forever.

    © Copyright Original Source



    Peter Enns makes the following observation: In Romans 11:26-27, Paul cites Isaiah 59:20-21 but changes one crucial word to allow him to make his theological point. In context, Isaiah speaks of God (the Deliverer) coming to Zion (Israel) to deliver them from Babylonian captivity. Paul, however, uses this passage to speak of a different kind of deliverance that will come not to Zion but out of Zion—meaning (I think) that the deliverance of both Jews and Gentiles originates with a Jewish Jesus.

    Source
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Of course Peter Enns' approach isn't the only view out there.

    So, what are your thoughts on the NT author's appropriation of OT texts?
    If Jesus is the Goal/Completion/Destination/Perfecting/Conclusion of the TaNaKh, then it is legitimate to read the TaNaKh in the Light of the Father’s revelation that Jesus is the Messiah.

    What is primary, for that reading, is not the letter of the text, but the Reality of Jesus the Messiah, and everything that He is, does, signifies, means & implies.

    So St Paul can legitimately engage in a sort of Christological Rabbinism. For him, as for St John, Christ is the Wisdom/Chokmah/Sophia Who is needed for the understanding of the text - He is the answer to the prayer in Ps 119.18: “Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wonderful things out of Thy Law”.

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