Theology and Ethics in Paul (The New Testament Library) [61803 ed.] 9780664233365, 0664233368

Table of contents :
Cover
CONTENTS
SERIES PREFACE
CONTENTS
AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION
AUTHOR'S 1968 PREFACE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABBREVIATIONS
INTRODUCTION TO VICTOR PAUL FURNISH,THEOLOGY AND ETHICS IN PAUL
I
II
III
IV
Appendix
Bibliographyof Major Works Cited
INDEX OF BIBLICAL REFERENCES
INDEX OF SUBJECTS AND AUTHORS

Citation preview

THEOLOGY AND ETHICS IN PAUL

THE NEW TESTAMENT LIBRARY Editorial Board C. CLIFTON BLACK

M.

EUGENE BORING

JOHN

T.

CARROLL

Victor Paul Furnish

1rllile(Q) li (Q) gy ffiilll cdl IEltllilJl c § ilim IP 211lllli New Introduction by Richard B. Hays

W]K

WESTMINSTER }OHN KNOX PRESS LOUISVILLE • KENTUCKY

© 2009 Victor Paul Furnish Introduction © 2009 Westminster John Knox Press Originally published 1968 by Abingdon Press, sixth printing, 1988. 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18--10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Westminster John Knox Press, 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202-1396. Or contact us online at www. wjkbooks.com. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Furnish, Victor Paul. Theology and ethics in Paul I Victor Paul Furnish ; new introduction by Richard B. Hays. p. cm.--(The New Testament library) Includes bibliographical references and indexes. ISBN 978-0-664-23336-5 (alk. paper) I. Bible. N.T. Epistles of Paul--Theology. 2. Ethics in the Bible. I. Title. BS2655.E8F8 2009 227'.06-dc22 2009015181 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

i§ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences--Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39 .48-1992. Westminster John Knox Press advocates the responsible use of our natural resources. The text paper of this book is made from at least 30% postconsumer waste.

In honor of my mother, Mildred Feller Furnish To the memory of my father, Reuben McKinley Furnish (1896-/961)

CONTENTS

Series Preface .............................................. xi Author's Preface to the New Edition ........................... xii Author's 1968 Preface ...................................... xiii Acknowledgments ......................................... xix Abbreviations ............................................... 3 Introduction to Victor Paul Furnish, Theology and Ethics in Pau~ by Richard B. Hays

................ 7

I. The Sources of Paul's Ethical Teaching ............... 25 Introduction .......................................... 25 1. The Old Testament and judaism ....................... 28 a. The Old Testament b. The Apocrypha and Pseudepig;rapha c. Rabbinic Judaism d. Summary and results

2. The Hellenistic World ............................... .44 a. Hellenistic terminology and style b. Hellenistic concepts c. Summary and results 3. The Teaching of Jesus ................................ 51 a. Paul's citations of "the Lord" b. Other alleged "allusions" to jesus' teaching c. Paul and the "law of Christ" Conclusion ............................................ 65

CONTENTS

Vlll

II. The Pauline Exhortations ................................ 68 Introduction .......................................... 68

1. The Use of Traditional Material ........................ 69 a. The concern to be concrete and relevant b. The concern to be inclusive c. The concern to be persuasive

2. The Assimilation of Traditional Material ................. 81 a. b. c. d.

Selection and inter;ration The vice lists Lists of "virtues" The Pauline context

3. The Varied Modes of Exhortation ....................... 92 4. The Problem of "Kerygma" and "Didache" ............... 98 a. The letter to the Romans b. "Kerygma," "didache, "and "paraclesis"

III. The Themes of Paul's Preaching ......................... 112 Introduction ......................................... 112 1. This Age and the Age to Come ........................ 115 a. The powers of this age b. The "transcendent power" of God c. Salvation and "the new creation" d. The "first fruits" of salvation, the "guarantee" of hope 2. The Law, Sin, and Righteousness ...................... 135 a. Sin and its "reign" through the law b. Righteousness and justification c. The law as an instrument of God 3. The Event of Grace: Death and Resurrection ............ 162 a. b. c. d.

Jesus Christ as "crucified" and as "Lord" Dying and rising with Christ Belonging to Christ Summary

4. Faith, Love, and Obedience .......................... 181 a. Faith as obedience b. The "will of God"

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CONTENTS

c. The "law offaith" d. Romans 6: 12ff e. Obedience in love f. The "household offaith"

IV. The Character of the Pauline Ethic ....................... 207 Introduction ......................................... 207 1. The Theological Structure of the Ethic ................. 208

a. Is there a "Pauline ethic"? b. Three basic motifs of the Pauline ethic c. Indicative and imperative in Pauline theology 2. Problems of Ethical Action ........................... 227 a. Discerning God's will b. Doing God's will

Appendix:

A Survey of Nineteenth- and TwentiethCentury Interpretations of Paul's Ethic ............ 242

Bibliography of Major Works Cited ........................... 280 Index of Biblical References ................................ 295 Index of Subjects and Authors ............................... 297

SERIES PREFACE

In this volume's insightful introduction, Richard B. Hays with precision identifies the currents of Pauline study in the first half of the twentieth century: the scholarly world in which Victor Paul Furnish's Theology and Ethics in Paul was born (1968). Roughly characterized, it was an era in which the primary lenses for viewing Paul's ethics were experiential idealism (Albert Schweitzer), purported theological disintegration (Martin Dibelius), dubious dichotomies (C. H. Dodd and W. D. Davies), and sociological interpretations (Morton Scott Enslin). In 2009, it is curious to note that-with allowance for different framing of recurrent questionsall these currents, or at least their tributaries, are still flowing in Pauline scholarship. (Just how new "the New Perspective on Paul" really is, or how fast the sheen of its newness is fading, are questions worth pondering.) Into a surprisingly similar context, Furnish's first monograph is now returned to print, performing in our day the invaluable function that it served over four decades ago: to rivet the interpreter's attention onto the indissoluble coinherence of Pauline theology and ethics. "The apostle's ethical concerns are not secondary but radically integral to his basic theological convictions" (below, p. xvii). Then and now, Theology and Ethics in Paul is an indispensable work precisely because it grasps "The Themes of Paul's Preaching" (pp. 112-206) and never lets go. Exquisitely exegetical, scrupulously balanced, crystalline in penetration and presentation, Victor Furnish's first extended publication in Pauline thought is a genuine classic. The New Testament Library is delighted to reintroduce it to a new generation of scholars. The Editors The New Testament Library

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AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION

Perhaps every book has a life of its own apart from the life its author could have envisioned for it. This is the case, at least, with the present volume, which I penned (literally, before the advent of personal computers) with no idea that it would still be read and referenced four decades later. I am certainly pleased that others have judged it consequential; and I am grateful to the editors of the New Testament Library, who approached me with the proposal to include it in this series. I am especially indebted to Richard Hays for providing an informative and perceptive introductory essay for this edition. His observations about the state of Pauline scholarship at the time I conceived and carried out this study are very much on target, and so is his identification of the interpreters and concerns that influenced my thinking about Paul. I am particularly appreciative of his comments about how this study reads in the light of more recent interpretations of Paul's thought, and of his suggestion that it still has a contribution to make. V. P. F.

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AUTHOR'S 1968 PREFACE

The present study is offered as a small contribution to a neglected area of biblical research. While the resurgence of interest in biblical theology which followed publication of Karl Barth's commentary on Romans opened the way for a mutually enriching dialogue between systematic theologians and biblical scholars, as yet there have been little effective communication and collaboration between biblical scholars and theologians working specifically in the field of Christian ethics. Only a few major critical studies of biblical ethics have been published in the last several decades, and most ofthe exegetical work on which Christian ethicists are forced to depend is sadly inadequate. Tormenting the "paucity of material that relates the two areas in a scholarly way," James M. Gustafson has called urgently for more work to be done on this topic, 1 and Thomas C. Oden suggests that "the simple task of honest and clear exegesis may be the undiscovered beginning point for contemporary Protestant ethics. "2 It is not surprising that most writers on Christian ethics should feel obliged to devote some attention to the ethics of Paul, for the apostle's place in the history of Christianity and his decisive influence on Protestant thought in particular give his teaching special prominence. But a glance at the rather different ways in which these writers characterize Paul's ethic, and the problems with it which they themselves raise, is enough to underscore the need for a thorough review and reevaluation of the primary sources. Paul Ramsey, for instance, reduces the Pauline ethic to the formula, "Love and do as you then please,"3 while E. Clinton Gardner imputes to Paul a concern for "the objective structure of the moral order." 4 H. Richard Niebuhr argues that Paul's imperatives are necessary because although the Christian's inner moral transformation 1 2

3

4

"Christian Ethics" in Religion, ed. Paul Ramsey (1965), pp. 337-38. Radical Obedience: The Ethics of Rudolf Bultmann (1964), pp. 18, 21. Basic Christian Ethics (1953), pp. 75 ff. Biblical Faith and Social Ethics (1960), p. 83. X Ill

THEOLOGY AND ETHICS IN PAUL

XIV

has begun, it is not yet complete; 5 Emil Brunner calls the Pauline exhortations "pedagogical instructions ... not binding on the conscience"; 5 George F. Thomas describes Paul's ethic as an "ethic of redemption, an ethic for the regenerate"/ Joseph Sittler invokes Paul's name in support of the view that the Christian's ethical acts are to be "faithful reenactments of [Christ's] life. "8 And while Reinhold Niebuhr is bothered by Paul's view of sin which "imperils and seems to weaken all moral judgments which deal with the 'nicely calculated less and more' ofjustice and goodness as revealed in the relativities ofhistory,"9 Joseph Fletcher calls on Paul to support the idea of a Christian "situation ethic. "10 What, then, is the essential character and structure of the Pauline ethic? In particular, what are the theological presuppositions, if any, of Paul's ethic and the ethical implications, if any, of his theology? These are the concerns which have prompted the present investigation. The ultimate objective here is not the compilation of a "Pauline code of ethics" but a better understanding of the structure of his ethical thinking, its ground, and its guiding convictions. Attention will not be focused on the "practical" content of the apostle's moral teaching (which other scholars have ably handled), but on its theological foundations and context. Valuable help in approaching the task here undertaken is gained by examining the varied nineteenth- and twentieth-century attempts to interpret Paul's ethic. Some significant results of such a survey are reported in the appendix. The major conclusion to be drawn from that survey and thus one of the controlling presuppositions of this present study is that the relation of indicative and imperative, the relation of "theological" proclamation and "moral" exhortation, is the crucial problem in interpreting the Pauline ethic. Therefore, this fresh inquiry has, necessarily and simultaneously, two focuses. It must give attention to the origin, form, and character of the specifically "ethical" materials in Paul's Letters (see especially chapters I and II), and at the same time seek to discover how if at all these are related to the "theological" aspects of the apostle's preaching (see especially chapter Ill). The question is not just whether doctrinal and moral concerns exist side by side in Paul. That coexistence is self-evident. Therefore, only to affirm that Paul never separates morals from religion does not yet speak to the real issue: Is there 5

"Introduction to Biblical Ethics" in Christian Ethics, ed. Waldo Beach and H. Richard Niebuhr (1955), p. 42. 6 The Divine Imperative: A Study in Christian Ethics, trans. Olive Wyon ( 1937), p. 601 n. 8. 7 "The Ethics of St. Paul" in Christian Ethics and Moral Philosophy (1955), p. 87. 8 The Structure of Christian Ethics (1958), p. 48. 9 The Nature and Destiny of Man (1941), I, 219-20. 10 Situation Ethics: The Nnv Morality (1966); see esp. pp. 30, 49, 69, 81, 151-52.

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1968 PREFACE

XV

any inner, essential relationship between them? How is this question to be approached? Previous interpretations of the Pauline ethic have usually begun with questions being raised about Paul's own past moral life and religious experience, and an examination of such topics as his presuppositions about man's nature, his Christian ethical ideal, the theological sanctions and motives of his ethical teaching, and so forth. The present study, however, will seek a different angle of vision. In the first place there will be no systematic attempt to chronicle the private religious and moral life of Paul. Despite claims to the contrary 11 his Letters simply do not yield that kind of data. The apostle's preaching does not have the character of "personal testimony," and he makes no specific attempt to interpret the "religious meaning" of his own conversion-to which he himself only briefly refers, and then in a polemical con text .(Gal. 1: 12ff.). Deissmann 's famous distinction between "letters" and "epistles"12 is greatly overdrawn. He was correct in saying that Paul's Letters are not literary essays ("epistles"), but they are not "personal correspondence" in the modern sense, either (not even the Letter to Philemon). They are apostolic communications to congregations, and they are all (with the possible exception of Philemon) intended for public reading, usually if not always in the context of the community's worship. They are pastoral letters and have certain important literary aspects. 13 It is inevitable that they should reveal some things about the writer, but these revelations are incidental and accidental and not integral to the writer's purpose. That purpose is evangelical:. to reaffirm the salient features of the gospel and to expound its meaning to Christians who are in need of encouragement, exhortation, and instruction. The apostle's themes are thus indisputably theological in the broad sense-related to the cardinal tenets of the gospel to which his readers had been converted and in which he now seeks to help them be built up and stand fast. One must therefore start with the theological ideas of Paul's Letters and abandon the attempt to start with "Paul the man" and his "religious experience." It is not to be presumed from what has been said so far that Paul's Letters exhibit anything like a systematic theology. Although virtually all the 11 See especially the book by Mary Andrews, discussed below (appendix, notes 33, 43, 44). Nygren has rightly seen that the attempt to reconstruct the apostle's psychological experience "is one of the chief errors of Pauline scholarship" (Agape and Eros, trans. P. Watson [1953], p. 109). 12 E.g. The Religion ofjesus and the Faith of Paul (1923), where Deissmann goes so far as to say that Paul's Letters must be read as "confessions" (p. 160). 13 This is a major contribution of Paul Schubert's Form and Function of the Pauline Thanksgivings in BZNW, 20 (1939). Dibelius acknowledges that Schubert has demonstrated the "half literary character of the Pauline letters" ( ThLZ, LXVI [ 1941], coL 28).

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THEOLOGY AND ETHICS IN PAUL

interpreters of Paul's ethic concede this, there is often a tendency to overschematize the data which bear on their topic. False systematizations are to be avoided, and to facilitate this the present study will presuppose as little as possible about the structure of Paul's ethic. No attempt will be made from the outset to inquire into its "principles," "norms," "ideals," "sanctions," "motives," and such. Rather, an attempt will be made to start where Paul starts in his preaching, insofar as this can be determined from his Letters. Chapter III is thus devoted to an examination of what appear to be the central themes of his preaching and to whatever ethical impulses and dimensions they may have. Finally, however, it is important to arrive at some overall judgment about the character of Paul's ethic and its decisive features. What is to be regarded as the touchstone of his ethic? Most interpreters have presumed it to be his view of the Spirit's presence and power in the Christian life; others regard the vital factor in his ethic as the concept of justification, baptism, the church, or the eschaton. Or is the clue to be found in some special "ethical doctrine" of "sanctification"? One's judgment on this matter inevitably determines his interpretation of the relation of indicative and imperative in Paul's thought and his estimate of the extent to which there are ethical dimensions to the apostle's theology and theological dimensions to his ethical teaching. These are the questions which finally must be tackled in chapter IV. The primary sources for this study are of course Paul's own Letters, and the investigator's presuppositions in this matter also need to be stated. The Pastoral Epistles are here regarded as deutero-pauline; the hypothesis that they contain fragmentary materials from Paul himself is too problematic to be of consequence in a study of his ethic. At various times and by various scholars the authenticity of Colossians, Ephesians, and II Thessalonians has also been questioned. It is not possible here to argue the cases pro and con for each of these, although the present writer is inclined to regard all three as deutero-pauline. In any case, the soundest procedure methodologically is to limit oneself to the Letters of indisputable authenticity: Romans, I and II Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, I Thessalonians, and Philemon. 14 Any errors resulting from 14 Statistical analysis of the vocabulary of the Letters in the Pauline Corpus has recently called into question also the authorship of Philippians, I Thessalonians, and-less seriously-Philemon. See now esp. A. Q. Morton, 'The Authorship of the Pauline Corpus" in The New Testament in Historical and Contemporary Perspective, Essays in Memory of G. H. C. MacGregor, ed. H. Anderson and W. Barclay (1965), pp. 209 ff.; and Morton's (with james McLeman) Paul: The Man and the Myth (1966). It would be presumptuous to say that the employment of a statistical methodology can never help with these problems of authorship, for its effectiveness has been shown rather convincingly in other cases (see esp. Frederick

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1968 PREFACE

XVII

the omission of Colossians, Ephesians, and II Thessalonians will surely be less crucial than would be those resulting from their false inclusion as Pauline homologoumena. A further problem of methodology is more complex. What allowance is to be made for the possibility of a change or "development" in Paul's thinking (for example, with respect to the eschaton or the law) during the course of his ministry? Dodd has argued forcefully for this, 15 and the question has recently been approached anew by John Coolidge Hurd Jr., in his important analysis of the Corinthian correspondence. 16 Even under optimum conditions it is a difficult matter for interpreters of a given writer to reach agreement about the "development" of his thinking. (Note the recent controversies among scholars as to continuity and development in the thought of such men as Karl Barth, Rudolf Bultmann, and Martin Heidegger.) In the case of Paul, optimum conditions do not prevail; not only is the subject himself long deceased, but there is no certainty of the chronology, either relative or absolute, of his literary remains. Therefore, the possibility of reaching any kind of consensus about change and development in Paul's thought is not very great, even though research must push ahead to some eventual result. In the meantime other Pauline studies cannot be postponed and are obliged to proceed with the presupposition that the indisputably authentic Letters, examined critically, can yield meaningful even though always provisional glimpses of something like "Pauline theology." The thesis which finally emerges from this investigation is that the apostle's ethical concerns are not secondary but radically integral to his basic theological convictions. In a sense, therefore, this study calls into question the very presupposition with which it begins-that there is some identifiable "Pauline ethic" amenable to critical analysis in its own right. But perhaps readers will agree that there are still some things to be learned along the way to that conclusion.

Mosteller and David L. Wallace, Inference and Disputed Authorship: The Federalist [1964]). But it would be equally presumptuous to believe that this method can be used in isolation from other data or that, at this stage in the discussion, it has achieved results of such statistical probability as to be taken into account here. (For a critique of this methodology as applied to the Pauline Letters, see Harvey K. McArthur, "Computer Criticism," ET, LXXVI [1965], 367 ff.) So far, then, the inclusion of Philippians, I Thessalonians, and Philemon among the "indisputably authentic" Letters of Paul needs very little qualification. 15 See "The Mind of Paul: II" in Dodd's volume of essays, New Testament Studies (1953), pp. 83 ff. This article was first published in 1934. A criticism of Dodd's developmental hypothesis is to be found in the article by John Lowe, "An Examination of Attempts to Detect Development in St. Paul's Theology," }ThS, XLII (1941), 129 ff. 16 The Origin of I Corinthians ( 1965).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many persons have, in various ways, supported and contributed to this study of the Pauline ethic. My interest in Pauline theology was first kindled by Professor Paul Schubert at Yale, and under his guidance my doctoral dissertation-a first tentative venture into the subject of Pauline ethicswas conceived and completed. Although the present work is entirely new, there is a clear genetic relationship between these, most evident in chapter II of the present study. It is also a pleasure to acknowledge the support ofDeanJoseph D. Quillian Jr. and numerous other colleagues of mine at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. Major portions of this book were completed during a year's research leave (1965-66) spent in residence at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat in Bonn as a fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung. The courtesies extended to me by the von Humboldt staff and by many other persons in Bonn must not go unrecorded. I am especially indebted to Professor Wolfgang Schrage of the Protestant theological faculty there. He not only allowed me to sit in on his seminar on Pauline ethics, but in many additional ways also exhibited his interest in my work on a topic to which he himself has made substantial contributions. The tedious job of producing the final typescript was skillfully accomplished by Mrs. Bonnie Jordan and Mrs. Charlaine Brown. My wife,Jody, concretely demonstrated her interest in the whole project by assuming the awesome task of deciphering my original penned manuscript and converting it into a first typed draft. Translations of biblical materials, unless otherwise specified, are my own. Other ancient writings, where possible, have been cited and quoted according to the texts and translations of the Loeb Classical Library. Where English translations of secondary literature exist, these have been cited, although the date of publication in the original language has also been indicated where I have deemed it relevant. Where no English translations exist, I have presumed to make and quote my own.

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THEOLOGY AND ETHICS IN PAUL

ABBREVIATIONS

I. ANCIENT WRITERS AND WRITINGS Apoc. Bar.

Apocalypse of Baruch

Epict.

Epictetus, Discourses

LCL

Loeb Classical Library editions

LXX

The Septuagint. Edited by A. Rahlfs

Test. XII P.

Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (Ben., Benjamin; Jud., Judah; Lev., Levi; Reu., Reuben)

II. SECONDARY LITERATURE AB

Anchor Bible

ABR

Australian Biblical Review

AGJU

Arbeiten zur Geschichte des antiken Judentums und des Urchristentums

AThANT

Abhandlungen zur Theologie des Alten und Neuen Testaments

AThR

Anglican Theological Review

Bauer

W. Bauer. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament

BEvTh

Beitrage zur evangelischen Theologie

BFChTh

Beitrage zur Forderung christlicher Theolog1e

BhEvTh

Beihefte zur evangelischen Theologie

BHTh

Beitrage zur historischen Theologie

Bibl

Biblica

3

4

THEOLOGY AND ETHICS IN PAUL

Billerbeck

(H. L. Strack-) P. Billerbeck. Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch

BJRL

Bulletin of the john Rylands Library of Manchester

Bl-Deb-Funk

F. Blass-A. Debrunner. Edited by R. Funk. A

BZNW

Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fur die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft

CNT

Commentaire du Nouveau Testament

ERE

The Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics. Edited by J. Hastings

ET

Expository Times

Exp

The Expositor

FRLANT

Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments

HNT

Handbuch zum Neuen Testament. Founded by H. Lietzmann

HNTC

Harper's New Testament Commentaries

HThR

Harvard Theological Review

ICC

International Critical Commentary

IKZ

Internationale kirchliche Zeitschrift

IntB

Interpreter's Bible

IntDB

The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible. Edited by G. A. Buttrick

JBL

Journal of Biblical Literature

Greek Grammar of the New Testament

JewEnc

The Jewish Encyclopedia

]ThC

Journal for Theology and the Church

]ThS

Journal of Theological Studies

KuD

Kerygma und Dogma

KEK

Kritisch-exegetischer Kommentar uber das Neue Testament. Founded by H. A. W. Meyer

MNTC

Moffatt New Testament Commentary

Moffatt

The New Testament in the James Moffatt Translation

Moulton

J.

H. Moulton. A Grammar of New Testament Greek

5

ABBREVIATIONS

NEB

New English Bible

NKZ

Neue kirchliche Zeitschrift

NovTSup

Novum Testamentum Supplements

NRSV

New Revised Standard Version

NTD

Das Neue Testament Deutsch

NTS

New Testament Studies

RGG

Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart

RSV

Revised Standard Version

SAB

Sitzungen der deutschen (until 1944: Sitzungsberichte der preussischen) Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin

SAH

Sitzungen der heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften

SANT

Studien zum Alten und Neuen Testaments

SBTh

Studies in Biblical Theology

S]Th

Scottish Journal of Theology

StTh

Studia theologica

TDNT

Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. ET of Th W Translated by G. W. Bromiley

ThBl

Theologische Blatter

ThEx

Theologische Existenz heute

ThLZ

Theologische Literaturzeitung

ThR

Theologische Rundschau

ThW

Theologisches Worterbuch zum Neuen Testament. Founded by G. Kittel. Edited by G. Friedrich.

ThZ

Theologische Zeitschrift

TU

Texte and Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur

UNT

Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament

WMANT

Wissenschaftliche Monographien zum Alten and Neuen Testament

WUNT

Wissenschaftliche Neuen Testament

ZNW

Zeitschrift fur die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft

ZThK

Zeitschrift fur Theologie and Kirche

Untersuchungen

zum

INTRODUCTION TO VICTOR PAUL FURNISH, THEOLOGY AND ETHICS IN PAUL Richard B. Hays

In the field of biblical studies, a scholarly work may be deemed a classic for at least three different reasons. Some works are immediately recognized as classics because of their comprehensive marshaling of data: they gather up what is known about a subject in an all-inclusive way. In this category, one thinks ofworks such as Martin Hengel's judaism and Hellenism or Raymond Brown's The Birth of the Messiah and The Death of the Messiah. Such books are characteristically written by senior scholars as they gather the fruits of a lifetime of study. Some other books become classics because they formulate a provocative, paradigm-changing thesis. Books of this kind are often highly controversial, and they generate ongoing debate within the discipline for many years after their publication. Recent examples of this sort of book include]. Louis Martyn, History and Theology in the Fourth Gospel, and E. P. Sanders, Paul and Palestinian judaism. But there is also a third sort of classic work, more subtle in its impact, but no less important to scholarship: the concise but sagacious study that enters a confused, amorphous area of inquiry and articulates balanced synthetic judgments that promote the formation of a new consensus. Such works do not always make a big splash, but they stand the test of time. Upon initial publication, they are met neither with raves of astonishment nor with howls of protest, but years later, when asked what is the best book on topic x, informed scholars in the field will say, "Well, of course, you must ready." Victor Paul Furnish's Theology and Ethics in Paul is a classic of the third kind. Forty years after its publication in 1968, it has remained-at least until very recently-the best full-length general study we have of Pauline ethics. 1 I am particularly grateful to Westminster John Knox Press for issuing this new edition, because my old paperback copy, dog-eared and 1 The cautious qualifier in this sentence is meant to acknowledge the very significant study of David G. Horrell, Solidarity and Difference: A Contemporary Reading of Paul's Ethics (London: T&T Clark, 2005). Horrell draws richly on social-scientific studies of the Pauline communities, and also seeks to bring his reading of Paul into conversation with recent studies in the field of ethics. As a study of the theological character of Paul's ethics, however, Furnish's work may still have greater depth. The two books can be profitably read alongside

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heavily annotated from many years of use in the study and the classroom, is literally falling apart and desperately in need of replacement. My reference to the classroom is not simply accidental; Theology and Ethics in Paul is a teacherly book, in the best sense of the word. It organizes great quantities of knowledge; presents it clearly, fairly, and engagingly; and invites the reader into the world of its subject matter. The fact that this was Vic Furnish's first book makes the maturity and depth of its presentation all the more remarkable. 2 In the interest of full disclosure, I should divulge that Vic was one of my first teachers in the study of the New Testament. But the fact that I had the privilege early on to sit under his teaching does not render my appreciative assessment of his work idiosyncratic; from the time of the book's publication, its quality was widely recognized. Edgar Krentz, reviewing the book within months of its appearance, wrote: 'This reviewer has only praise for this book. It is clear, comprehensive, illuminating, and stimulating. It should become a standard work in the bibliography of Pauline ethics."3 Over the past forty years, these judgments have been echoed by many more colleagues in the field, and Krentz's prophecy that it would become a standard work has been amply fulfilled. That is not to say that Theology and Ethics in Paul is beyond criticism; no scholarly work, however excellent, is immune to retrospective reassessment. Indeed, in the course of this introduction I will suggest several ways in which the book's argument could be reconsidered or strengthened in light of subsequent developments. No doubt Victor Furnish himself would want, after the passage of these years, to amend and refine his work in various ways. But this study still stands as a landmark of twentiethcentury interpretation of Paul, a work that has defined the framework for the ongoing discussion of Paul's ethical teaching. 4 one another. Horrell notes (p. 10) that "Furnish's 1968 book still stands as probably the most wide-ranging and systematic modern study." Note should also be taken of]. Paul Sampley, Walking between the Times: Paul's Moral Reasoning (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991 ). 2 The book was developed out of the topic of Furnish's 1960 Yale dissertation, "Paul's Exhortations in the Context of His Letters and Thought," written under the direction of Paul Schubert. It is perhaps a sad commentary on current academic practices and pressures that aspiring scholars in major American universities today can no longer afford to spend the first eight years of their careers in developing and refining their initial doctoral research into a mature monograph of this kind; the tenure process requires them to publish their dissertations quickly and move on to new projects. 3 E. Krentz, Concordia Theological Monthly 39 (1968), p. 791. 4 For a comprehensive exposition and analysis, see Michael Patrick Cullinan, Victor Paul Furnish's Theology ofEthics in Saint Paul: An Ethic of Transforming Grace (Tesi Accademia Alfonsiana 3; Rome: Ed. Accademiae Alfonsianae, 2007). Furnish contributed the preface to this volume.

INTRODUCTION TO VICTOR PAUL FURNISH

9

In this introduction I seek to set Furnish's work in its own historical context within the discipline of New Testament studies and summarize some of its key contributions to our understanding of Paul. My remarks, however, will serve merely as an invitation to the main attraction: the reader's engagement with Furnish's rich interpretation of Pauline ethics.

THE SETTING OF FURNISH'S WORK WITHIN THE HISTORY OF PAULINE STUDIES One of the first surprises that awaits the reader is Furnish's observation in his 1968 preface that the book addresses "a neglected area of biblical research." 5 In light of Paul's pervasive concern to provide practical instruction for his congregations, we might have expected that his ethical teaching would long have been a hot topic for New Testament scholars, but clearly that was not so forty years ago. The near absence of significant contributions in this field by American scholars before Furnish is a particularly striking datum that emerges from a survey of previous scholarship. Furnish also notes that, at the time of his writing, there had been little exchange between biblical exegetes and Christian ethicists. And in fairness we must observe that Furnish's book, with its careful descriptive reading of Paul, remains preliminary to such an exchange; the author makes little attempt to relate his findings explicitly to categories or controversies in the field of theological ethics. It is not difficult, however, to locate Theology and Ethics in Paul within the landscape of Pauline studies because in an appendix to the book Furnish himself maps out the history of modern studies of Paul's ethics. His account of this history is evenhanded but critical of interpretations that he deems inadequate. Consequently, it is not hard to see the gaps and deficiencies that Furnish set out to remedy. It would be redundant to repeat the details of Furnish's survey, but, painting with a broad brush, we can mark four major targets of Furnish's critique-four major foils for his own reading-and one important theological influence that provides the starting point for his constructive account of Paul. First, with various differences in detail, most nineteenth-century critical interpreters represented an experiential-expressive view of Paul, with idealist tendencies. They tended to focus on Paul's religious experience and the role of the Spirit in providing an inspired freedom and effecting the transformation of the individual believer's character. Their emphasis on the fusion of the divine with the human personality made it difficult for these interpreters to account for the specificity of Paul's 5

Theology and Ethics in Paul (Nashville: Abingdon, 1968), p. 7; in this edition, seep. xiii.

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actual ethical instructions and admonitions to his churches. Consequently, they tended to speak in various ways of a disjunction between the "ideal" claimed by Paul's own experience and the "reality" of his converts' lives. Or similarly, they distinguished between what was true "in principle" of the Christian life and what was true "in fact." In any case, all such schemes had great difficulty accounting for any direct connection between Paul's theology (for example, his doctrine of justification by faith) and his ethics. Furnish suggests that Albert Schweitzer's The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle represents the climax and summation of this pre-World War I approach; indeed, Schweitzer explicitly argued that Paul's ethics simply could not be derived in any way from his teaching about justification, and that the real center of Paul's thought lay, therefore, in his participationist doctrine of dying and rising with Christ. Furnish remains unsatisfied with such interpretations because they simply fail to account for the complex ways in which Paul does actually argue for a connection between his ethical teachings and his gospel. Even more radical was the approach advocated by the great German form critic Martin Dibelius, who argued that earliest Christianity had no ethic of its own because of its expectation of the imminent return ofJesus and the end of the age. When the Parousia did not come as expected, the church was forced simply to adopt commonplace ethical teachings from its Hellenistic environment. The ethical sections of Paul's Letters, then, should be understood to belong to the genre of parenesis-grab bags of ethical maxims unrelated to any particular situation in Paul's churches and completely unconnected to the theological teachings found in the central sections of his Letters. This interpretation, if followed consistently, would render any attempt to give a properly theological account of Pauline ethics impossible. Once again Furnish finds this approach unsatisfactory, not only because of its theological consequences but also because it fails to do justice exegetically to the actual evidence of the Letters. A third approach that comes in for particularly insistent criticism from Furnish is the effort of C. H. Dodd and W. D. Davies to distinguish sharply between kerygma (proclamation) and didache (moral teaching) and to derive the latter from the early church's transmission of the teachings of Jesus as a new moral law. In contrast to Dibelius, who saw Paul's ethics as dependent upon Stoicism and Hellenistic popular morality, Davies situated Paul strongly within a Jewish tradition of Torah-obedience. But this also has the (perhaps unintended?) effect of driving a wedge between Paul's ethical teachings and his theological convictions. Moreover, as Furnish emphasizes at several points in the book, it is difficult to identifY

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more than a scant few passages in Paul's Letters that are demonstrably dependent on teachings ofjesus. 6 Finally, the one American scholar who figures significantly in Furnish's survey of predecessors is Morton Scott Enslin, who represents a pragmatic interest in the sociological setting of Paul's ethics. Enslin emphasized the Jewish roots of Paul's practical moral instruction, but he disavowed any serious connection of this instruction to the Christian theology of the Letters. Indeed, as Furnish reports, Enslin even approvingly cites Percy Gardner's astounding judgment that, "though the apostle occasionally 'drifts into a doctrinal discussion,' he returns to his ethical exhortation 'with obvious relief. "'7 Against this view, Furnish emphatically maintains-without denying the importance of the social dimension of Paul's concerns-that we must seek to discern the lines of connection between Paul's theological convictions and his ethical teachings. It is precisely this organic connection that is lacking in all four of the quite different approaches described above. And it is against this background that we can begin to grasp the salient contribution of Furnish's work. By insistently pressing the question of how Paul's ethic hangs together with his theology, he forces us to consider the overall coherence of Paul's vision. But before we can fully appreciate Furnish's constructive advances, we need to take note also of the one New Testament scholar who provides, in his judgment, a more adequate starting place for his account: Rudolf Bultmann. We can hardly summarize here the full scope of Bultmann's reading of Paul and his more general hermeneutical program, but Furnish draws particular attention to four features of his understanding of Pauline ethics that emerge in his important essay "Das Problem der Ethik bei Paulus"8 and at greater length in his Theology of the New Testament. 9 First, Bultmann takes the relation between the indicative and the imperative in Paul's thought to be the central issue for any account of Pauline ethics: how is the indicative proclamation ofjustification in Christ related to the imperative expressed in Paul's call for moral action? Second, Bultmann resolves this problem in a way that shows how the imperative, rather than standing in contradiction to the indicative of the gospel, actually arises directly out of it. Third, this solution is made possible by interpreting "righteousness" or 'justification" as an eschatological concept rather than a moral 6 For a concise,judicious discussion of this issue, see V. P. Furnish ,jesus according to Paul (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), pp. 40-65. 7 Furnish, Theology and Ethics, p. 267. 8 ZNW23 (1924), pp. 123-40. 9 R. Bultmann, Theology of the New Testament, vol. I (l 951).

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one: righteousness refers not to a new moral quality of the justified sinner but rather to the event by which God's grace embraces the human individual (an interpretation deeply rooted in Bultmann's own Lutheran tradition-a point to which we shall return below). Fourth, following on the previous point, faith is to be understood as obedience, whereby the believer surrenders to God's judgment and appropriates the gift of grace-the key text here is Rom. 1:5, which refers to "the obedience of faith." Furnish is not uncritical ofBultmann, 10 but he does take all these points to be of great importance for a right reading of Pauline ethics. The greatest difficulty with the Bultmannian reading, as Furnish recognizes, is that its resistance to defining any this-worldly empirical content to the notions of righteousness and obedience sits oddly in tension with what Wolfgang Schrage has described as die konkreten Einzelgebote-the specific ethical commandments that play a fairly prominent role in Paul's Letters. 11 Likewise, Bultmann's demythologizing interpretation of eschatology requires significant revision in light of Ernst Rase mann's insights about the apocalyptic character of Paul's thought. Nonetheless, what we see in Theology and Ethics in Paul is an attempt, launched from a Bultmannian platform, to develop a coherent account of the way in which the complex interrelation between theology and ethics is actually played out in Paul's Letters.

FURNISH'S MAJOR CONSTRUCTIVE EMPHASES What, then, are the major ways in which Furnish seeks to correct the interpretations of his predecessors and to move the discussion forward? And what are the most salient characteristics and achievements of Furnish's account? First and foremost, Furnish insists on testing any and all claims about Pauline ethics exegetically against the full range of evidence in the authentic Pauline corpus. 12 One of the most impressive features of the book is its wide-ranging sifting of evidence from the various individual Letters. As a corollary of the first point, Furnish is an integrative reader. He proceeds on the assumption that there is a coherent Pauline ethic that comes to expression in the various Letters, and that the Letters may be read in complementary fashion to supply various pieces of the puzzle. Likewise,

°For a list of critical questions posed by Furnish, see Theology and Ethics, 262.

1

11

W. Schrage, Die konkreten Einzelgebote in der paulinischen Pariinese (Gutersloh: Gutersloher Verlagshaus [Gerd Mohn], 1961). In the acknowledgments, Furnish notes that he wrote much of the book during a 1965-66 research leave in Bonn, where he was in conversation with Professor Schrage. 12 In accordance with the prevailing convention of critical scholarship, Furnish works on the assumption of a collection of seven authentic Pauline Letters.

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he is a sympathetic reader; though the mode of his discourse is chiefly descriptive, there is little doubt that he finds Paul's theological position existentially compelling, not merely an interesting artifact of antiquity. One of the most striking features of Furnish's approach is that he avoids a narrow focus on the specific content of Paul's ethical admonitions. Instead, his dominant interest is in the conceptual pattern or structure of Paul's moral logic. This distinctive feature of the book is clearly articulated in the final chapter of the book, in his discussion of 'The Theological Structure of the Ethic": The study of the Pauline ethic, therefore, is not the study of his ethical theory, for he had none, nor of his code for Christian living, for he gave none. It is the study, first of all, of the theological convictions which underlie Paul's concrete exhortations and instructions and, secondly, of the way those convictions shape his responses to practical questions of conduct.l 3

There, in a nutshell, is the genius of Furnish's project. He proposes that the thing we need to understand, if we want to understand Paul's ethics, is an underlying set of theological convictions, which can then be observed in action as they give particular shape to the concrete advice he sends to his congregations. It is the structure of this dynamically integrative movement from theology to ethical discernment that is at the heart of Paul's distinctive ethic. 14 Precisely for this reason, in Furnish's view, Paul's ethic should 13

Furnish, Theology and Ethics, 211-12. In the first sentence of this quotation, the key terms being denied are the nouns "theory" and "code." 14 In some respects, then, Furnish's approach contains the seeds of a view that would later spring up vigorously in the SBL (Society of Biblical Literature) Pauline Theology Group, in which some members urged that it would actually be more fitting to speak not of "Paul's theology" but of "Paul's theologizing," in order to signify more clearly the dynamic, occasional character of his thought. For a thoughtful account of this approach, seeP. W. Meyer, "Pauline Theology: A Proposal for a Pause in Its Pursuit," in Pauline Theology, vol. IV, Looking Back, Pressing On, ed. E. E. Johnson and D. M. Hay (SBL Symposium Series; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1997), pp. 140-60; repr. in P. W. Meyer, The Word in This World: Essays in New Testament Exegesis and Theology, ed.John T. Carroll (New Testament Library; Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox, 2004). For Furnish's contribution to that project, see his essay, "Theology in 1 Corinthians," in Pauline Theology, vol. II, 1 and 2 Corinthians, ed. D. M. Hay (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993), pp. 59-89. In that essay, he describes his undertaking: 'The subject of the present essay is not' the theology ofl Corinthians,' but Paul's theological reflection as that is evident in this letter" (p. 61). This seems to me to reflect a subtle but significant shift from Furnish's earlier emphasis on "an underlying set of theological convictions." One can see, however, the way in which his thought could develop from one to the other. For essays that provide other indications of that development, see V. F. Furnish, "Paul the Theologian," in The Conversation Continues: Studies in Paul and john in Honor of]. Louis Martyn, ed. R. T. Fortna and B. R. Gaventa (Nashville: Abingdon, 1990), pp. 10-34; idem, "Where Is 'the Truth' in Paul's Gospel? A Response to Paul W. Meyer," in Johnson and Hay, Pauline Theology, vol. IV, pp. 161-79.

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definitely not be identified with the precise moral judgments he renders (preference for celibacy, advice to slaves to remain in their social condition, and so forth). And yet, if we see how he derives these judgments from his underlying convictions, we can employ similar theological structures of reasoning to form moral judgments in other historical situations. On Furnish's reading of Paul, the movement from theological conviction to practical action is always governed by love. This is a fundamental element of the theological structure that Furnish identifies. (It should come as no surprise, therefore, that his next major book following Theology and Ethics in Paul was The Love Command in the New Testament. 15 ) On the basis of strong exegetical analysis, Furnish insists that "love" in Paul cannot be understood as a vague moral intuition, but that it is always given christological shape. We know love because it is definitively expressed in God's love for us through the self-sacrificial action ofjesus Christ: "God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8). But how does this manifestation of divine love lead to the determination of ethical norms and obligations? (This was a problem that Paul himself already recognized; see, e.g., Rom. 6:1.) Throughout his study, Furnish returns repeatedly to the problem of the relation between indicative and imperative, seeking to account for the apparently paradoxical evidence of the Letters. He remains committed to finding a theological solution to this difficult problem, not merely an unstable compromise or contradiction in Paul's thought. The solution that he settles upon is to identifY eschatology as the key to understanding Paul's ethic. At the beginning of his lengthy chapter on "The Themes of Paul's Preaching," he suggests that the heuristic key to Paul's theology as a whole, the point in which his major themes are rooted and to which they are ultimately oriented, is the apostle's eschatological perspective. Eschatology, therefore, is properly the first, not the last, section in an exposition of Paul's theology. 16

This claim is so central to Furnish's project that it requires a little further exposition. Despite taking a cue from Bultmann to highlight Paul's eschatology, Furnish had already realized, by the time of writing Theology and Ethics in Paul, that Bultmann 's reading of Pauline eschatology required significant critique and revision. Earlier in the 1960s, Ernst Kasemann had articulated a forceful challenge to Bultmann, contending that dikaiosyne theou (the righteousness of God) did not refer to a status of righteousness given by God to human beings; rather, it was a concept rooted in Jewish apoc15 16

Nashville: Abingdon, 1972. Furnish, Theology and Ethics, p. 114.

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alyptic thought that referred to God's salvation-creating power reaching out to reclaim the world. 17 Consequently, the eschatological character of the righteousness of God is to be understood in terms of God's final lordship over creation, rather than in terms of Bultmann's demythologized eschatology, which-in Kasemann's emphatic view-turns theology into anthropology and reduces the kerygma to a message about revised human "self-understanding." Furnish was well aware of this critique, and in his book's climactic treatment of the indicative/imperative problem, he explicitly credits the influence of Kasemann. 18 Accordingly, Furnish distances himself from Bultmann's well-known slogan "Become what you are," and he rejects the view that the indicative of the gospel creates only a "possibility" of salvation. In place of such formulations, he opts for the solution set forward by Kasemann's interpretation of dikaiosyne theou as God's world-claiming power. Furnish writes, 'The believer ... stands under the aegis and hegemony of a new Sovereign."19 The gospel, in other words, speaks of the power of God for salvation. Thus, at the end of the day, Furnish embraces Kasemann's view of Paul as an apocalyptic theologian. 2 Consequently, he argues that Paul's ethic depends upon the theological conviction that believers have already been claimed by the lordship of Christ: "The total claim which Christ's lordship lays upon the believer is a basic and pervasive element of Pauline thought and is implied in almost every paragraph he writes. "21 In this way the integral connection oftheology to ethics is secured. 22

°

17 E. Kasemann, '"The Righteousness of God' in Paul," in New Testament Questions ofToday (London: SCM, 1969), pp. 168-82. This essay was originally published in German eight years earlier: "Gottesgerechtigkeit bei Paulus," ZTK58 (1961), pp. 367-78. 18 Furnish, Theology and Ethics, p. 225 n. 44. It remains an open question whether the wide-ranging implications ofKasemann's paradigm shift to apocalyptic eschatology are fully worked out in the rest of Furnish's work. 19 Ibid., p. 225. Although Furnish accepts Kasemann's position, he is notably restrained in articulating a critique of Bultmann on this point. I attribute this to the fact that, at least in Theology and Ethics, Furnish's agenda does not include proposing an alternative to Suitmann's hermeneutics. In this book it therefore remains somewhat unclear what the "modern" interpreter is meant to make of Paul's apocalyptic eschatology. 2° Furnish rightly insists that Paul does not simply adopt Jewish apocalyptic thought forms unchanged, for he insists that the new age is not simply future; it has already broken in upon the present time. See, e.g., ibid., pp. 134-35, 214-16. 21 Ibid., p. 169. 22 For later interpretations of Paul that also highlight eschatological concerns in different ways, see J. C. Beker, Paul the Apostle: The Triumph of God in Life and Thought (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1980) ;J. L. Martyn, Theolog;icallssues in the Letters ofPaul (Nashville: Abingdon, 1997); B. R. Gaventa, "The Singularity of the Gospel: A Reading of Galatians," in Pauline Theology, vol. I, Thessalonians, Philippians, Galatians, Philemon, ed. J. M. Bassler (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991), pp. 147-59.

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Here, as he does again and again throughout Theology and Ethics, Furnish returns to his basic thesis that "the apostle's ethical concerns are not secondary but radically integral to his basic theological convictions"23 (and I would add, vice versa). If we think that "ethics" involves only some indirect inferences from Paul's theology, we have not yet understood the theology in the first place; likewise, if we think that Paul's ethic is somehow autonomous or derived from sources other than his own deepest theological reflection, we have simply failed altogether to grasp the real subject matter of his Letters. The fact that such assertions may now seem obvious to many is a measure of the success of Furnish's argument in changing the conversation in the field. 24

THEOLOGY AND ETHICS IN PAUL AFTER FORTY YEARS: AN ONGOING CONVERSATION Given that Furnish's work has been highly influential, both as a corrective to earlier efforts and as a constructive reading of Paul, it may be useful to consider how the study of Paul has moved forward in the last forty years and how a retrospective reading of Furnish's landmark book might stimulate fresh reflections on its subject matter. After all, just as Furnish insists that Paul's moral teachings should not remain frozen in time as authoritative dicta, so surely he would want his own work to receive a similar charitable but open-ended engagement on the part of readers in a later time! Out of the many issues that might be addressed, I want to identify four areas where new directions in scholarship have posed questions that were not on the table at the time of Furnish's writing of Theology and Ethics in Paul. To name such additional areas of inquiry is not to criticize Furnish's book, since he can hardly have been expected to know the future shape of the field. I will raise these matters simply as a way of considering how the conversation might be expanded as the republication of Furnish's insightful work brings it into dialogue with these new questions. One of the first things that strikes the reader of Theology and Ethics in Paul is its studied refusal to engage in any extended analysis of the spe23

Furnish, Theology and Ethics, p. xvii (this edition). To be sure, many biblical scholars today would resist identifying their own work with any sort of constructive theology. My point, however, is that, among scholars who study Paul seriously, there is now widespread agreement, at the level of historical description, on the necessity of understanding Paul's ethical teachings as integraiiy related to his theological convictions, even if such scholars sometimes prefer other ways of describing these convictions ("symbolic world," etc.). 24

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cific directives found in the Letters. For example, one would hardly realize from reading this book that Paul had put forward teachings dealing with issues of gender and sexuality that might prove to be controversial in a changed cultural setting. In defense of Furnish's project, the analysis of gender was scarcely on the cultural radar screen in 1968; moreover, it was clearly his intention to explicate the deeper logic of Paul's theological ethic rather than to discuss particular problems of practical application. But now, in the early twenty-first century, surely no one can discuss Pauline ethics without seeking to come to grips with questions about the roles of women in ministry, the relation between men and women in marriage, the question of same-sex relationships, and other related matters. Readers looking for guidance from Furnish on such questions should be advised to consult his later book The Moral Teaching of Paul, written at a popular level to address precisely such issues in and for the church. 25 Still, some readers might press the question of whether the ethical directives issued by the apostle on these matters of sexual identity and conduct can really be adequately understood in light of the theological structure of the Pauline love ethic that Furnish describes in his earlier work. There are actually two intertwined issues here. On the one hand, does Paul's understanding of creation play a more significant role in his judgments about sexual issues than Furnish acknowledges, with the consequence that the specific Pauline ethical teachings actually have more normative theological weight than it would appear from Furnish's account? Or, on the other hand, would closer attention to the themes of gender and sexuality actually expose a deeper incoherence between Paul's ethical teaching and his theology, by showing that he simply falls back on traditional gender norms not grounded in his own best theological insights? In my own view, Furnish's position is capable of standing up to the latter challenge but vulnerable to critique from the former. But the question must-and, with the republication of this book, will_:_at least be asked. 26 Similarly, Theology and Ethics in Paul has little or nothing to say on the topic of Paul and politics, an issue that has emerged as a significant topic 25

V. P. Furnish, The Moral Teaching of Paul: Selected Issues, 2nd ed. (Nashville: Abingdon, 1985); 3rd ed. (2009). 26 For important studies bearing directly or indirectly on such questions, see E. Schussler Fiorenza, In Memory ofHer: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins (New York: Crossroad, 1983); A. J. Levine and M. Blickenstaff, eds., A Feminist Companion to Paul (Cleveland: Pilgrim, 2004); B. R. Gaventa, Our Mother Saint Paul (Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox, 2007); S. G. Eastman, Recovering Paul's Mother Tongue: Language and Theology in Galatians (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007).

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for investigation in recent scholarship. 27 The theme of "Christians and the Governing Authorities" is another issue treated briefly in Furnish's later book The Moral Teaching ofPaul, 28 but it would be an interesting exercise to read back through the 1968 study-a study that, after all, first saw the light of day at a time of great social ferment-and ask whether and how Furnish's theological approach to Paul's ethics might help us to think better about such questions. In my view, one is likely to find limited help on this question from Furnish's early work; his Bultmannian sympathies disposed him against linking the obedience offaith with any sort of historically specific political agenda. This is one of several points where one may ask whether Furnish's own reading has fully taken on board the implications of Kasemann's apocalyptic interpretation of Paul. Presumably the confession of Christ's cosmic lordship should have serious implications for the way Christians respond to Caesar's claims of political sovereignty. On a closely related point, one of the major growth areas in Pauline studies over the past generation has been the study of the social history and setting of the Pauline communities. In Theology and Ethics in Paul, however, Furnish explicitly distances himself from such concerns, "for Paul's letters do not yield the kind of data which are required for direct sociological and psychological analysis. "29 So formulated, Furnish's point is well taken, but the wealth of insight generated by the sort of social history practiced by scholars such as Gerd Theissen, Wayne Meeks, and David Horrell might surely prove relevant for a more nuanced reading of Paul's ethical teaching. 30 (For example, it is surely illuminating to discover that "the 27

In recent years we have witnessed a surge of publications investigating Paul's stance toward the Roman Empire, some of them proposing that his organizing of churches was either overtly or covertly a counterimperial activity. Richard A. Horsley has edited a series of collected essays treating these issues: Paul and Empire: Religion and Power in Roman Imperial Society (Harrisburg, Pa.: Trinity Press International, 1997); Paul and Politics: t'kklesia, Israel, Imperium, Interpretation: Essays in Honor ofKrister Stendahl (Harrisburg, Pa.: Trinity Press International, 2000); Paul and the Roman Imperial Order (Harrisburg, Pa.: Trinity Press International, 2004). For a dramatically different perspective, see J. M. G. Barclay, "Why the Roman Empire Was Insignificant to Paul," forthcoming in SJT. 28 Furnish, Moral Teaching, pp. 115-39. In the forthcoming third edition of The Moral Teaching of Paul, Furnish has revised and expanded this chapter on governing authorities into a new chapter on 'The Church in the World." 29 Furnish, Theology and Ethics, p. 26. 30 G. Theissen, The Social Setting of Pauline Christianity: Essays on Corinth (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1982); W. A. Meeks, The First Urban Christians: The Social World of the Apostle Paul (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983); D. G. Horrell, The Social Ethos of the Corinthian Correspondence: Interests and Ideology from 1 Corinthians to 1 Clement (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1996). Furnish's disinclination to approach Paul from a "sociological" point of view was no doubt spurred in part by a reaction against the theologically reductive approach of Enslin (see above).

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strong" in Corinth who are contemptuous of the "weak" conscience of others may also be precisely the socioeconomically privileged members of the Corinthian church who are shaming their brothers and sisters at the Lord's Supper and taking them to court over civil disputes. One would think that the study of Paul's ethics would be intensely interested in data of this kind.) On this point, Furnish would surely now agree-without, however, surrendering his primary interest in analyzing the inalienably theological structure of Paul's thought. One of the ongoing agendas for the field of New Testament studies is to bring social history and theological analysis into a more mutually fruitful relationship. Finally, one of the most dated sentences in Furnish's book is his explanation of why he chooses to begin his history of research on Pauline ethics with the nineteenth century: "A survey of interpretations of Paul's ethic need begin only with nineteenth century, for only then were the tools of critical biblical scholarship beginning to be honed with sufficient precision and employed with sufficient maturity to yield lasting results." 3 I In point of fact, this judgment is ironically undercut by the content of Furnish's own account, which shows again and again how erroneous and inadequate were the readings of the critical scholars he surveys. Their work on Pauline ethics can hardly be said to have produced mature or lasting results. By contrast, Furnish's history of interpretation would have been far more interesting and theologically illuminating if it had encompassed such profound readers of Paul as John Chrysostom, Augustine, Luther, Calvin, and Wesley. Augustine and Luther, after all, are particularly important theological precursors of Bultmann, and the results of their reading of Paul have certainly had an enduring impact on all of Western culture. And Wesley, the founding figure of Furnish's own Methodist tradition, is surely one of the most powerful advocates for the very position Furnish seeks to defend: the integral relation between theology and ethics in Paul. (It was precisely Wesley's complaint against the Lutheran tradition that it failed to maintain this vitallink.) 32 Furnish, Theology and Ethics, 242. Nowhere in Furnish's survey of critical scholarship does he make any mention of the specific ecclesial traditions represented by the scholars he treats. As recent scholarship has begun to acknowledge, a fuller understanding of intellectual and theological history would recognize the many ways in which all interpretation is influenced by religious and cultural location. For example, readers of this introduction might well consider whether my emphatic approval of Furnish's efforts to hold theology and ethics together is in any way conditioned by the fact that both he and I come to the study of the New Testament out of the Wesleyan theological tradition. This does not mean that such ideas are simply superimposed on the Pauline Letters, but it may mean that our common heritage prepares us to perceive elements of Pauline theology that others might overlook. For reflection on such matters, see W. Klaiber, "Gibt es eine methodistische Exegese?" Theologie fur die Praxis 14 3!

32

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Furnish's dismissal of pre-Enlightenment interpretation was simply representative of the conventional wisdom of the guild of New Testament scholars in the middle of the twentieth century. But on hardly any other issue has the current of scholarly opinion shifted so dramatically in recent years as we have come to realize how much we have to learn from critical dialogue with early interpreters. A book such as Margaret Mitchell's The Heavenly Trumpet-a learned study of Chrysostom as an interpreter of Paul-might now be read in counterpoint with Furnish's own magisterial work in order to open up many fresh questions about how to understand the apostle's teaching. 33

CRITICAL ENGAGEMENT WITH FURNISH'S THEOLOGICAL READING Thus far, I have been offering suggestions about new fields of scholarly inquiry that might be brought into fruitful engagement with Theology and Ethics in Paul. In the final section of these introductory remarks, I want to move more directly into a critical engagement with matters precisely on the home turf of Furnish's theological reading of Paul. In several areas that Furnish did treat substantially, the subsequent development of Pauline scholarship has produced new insights that might modify but also actually strengthen and enrich his analysis of Paul's thought. First, on the topic of Paul's view of the law, a number of important scholars (most prominently, Krister Stendahl, James D. G. Dunn, and N. T. Wright) have argued that Paul's critique of "boasting in the law" seeks not so much to dispel the illusion that the individual can attain sal. vation through personal striving (Bultmann's view, reproducing the classic Lutheran reading), as to criticize Jewish ethnic exclusivism. On this reading, the law is problematic for Paul because it fosters "cultural imperialism-regarding Jewish identity and Jewish customs as the essential tokens of membership in the people of God. "34 This is the most salient, and controversial, feature of what is often rather imprecisely dubbed "the (1988), pp. 1-13. For a concise survey of Wesley's teaching with a view to its relation to Pauline theology, see S. Westerholm, Perspectives Old and New on Paul: The "Lutheran" Paul and His Critics (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004), pp. 64-87. Wester holm, while acknowledging Wesley's critique of Luther on questions of ethics and obedience, argues that Wesley's view ofjustification by faith in Paul is on the side of Luther and against his recent critics. 33 M. M. Mitchell, The Heavenly Trumpet: John Chrysostom and the Art of Pauline Interpretation (Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox, 2002). 34 ]. M.G. Barclay, Obeying the Truth: A Study ofPaul'sEthics in Galatians (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1988), 239.

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New Perspective on Paul." By contrast, Furnish's study followed the older Bultmannian/Lutheran path decisively on this question. But it seems clear that the study of Pauline ethics might be significantly enhanced by developing more fully the insight that Paul's understanding of righteousness by faith has the effect-as the author of Ephesians well understood-of breaking down the "wall of separation" between Jew and Gentile (cf. Eph. 2: 11-22). This insight, which has been developed extensively in recent scholarship, should supplement Furnish's account of Paul's critique of the law as a basis for individual religious achievement. If Furnish were to undertake the rewriting of his early work, he would surely profit from giving a thicker account of what Nils Dahl called the "social function and implications" of the doctrine of justification. 35 Second, over the past couple of decades we have seen a substantial outpouring of work on Paul as interpreter oflsrael's Scripture. 36 Furnish was surely well aware of the significance of the Old Testament as one source for Paul's ethic. In a brief but incisive section of his opening chapter, he gives an excellent account of the way in which the Old Testament functioned in the formation of Pauline ethical teaching. It is not a "source" in the sense that it was read as "a manual of ethical norms." Instead, "the Old Testament is scriptural witness to the history of God's dealings with his people, his claim upon them, and his promises concerning their future. "37 Or, as I might prefer to articulate the point, Paul reads the Old Testament as a narrative that prefigures and shapes the new community of jews and Gentiles together in Christ. Despite his preliminary identification of the Old Testament's importance, however, Furnish's actual exposition of "The Themes of Paul's Preaching" and "The Character of the Pauline Ethic" (chapters III and IV), tends to give it relatively little emphasis. 38 It would be a highly instructive exercise to work carefully through Furnish's analysis of Paul's thought and to identifY places at which further attention to Old Testament narrative 35 N. A. Dahl, 'The Doctrine of justification: Its Social Function and Implications," in Studies in Paul (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1977), 95-120. 36 This has been an area of my own interest. Yet I am thinking not only of my own work but also that of scholars such as D.-A. Koch, Die Schrift als Zeuge des Evangeliums: Untersuchungen zur Verwendung und zum Verstiindnis der Schrift bei Paulus (BHTh 69; Tiibingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1986); B.S. Rosner, Paul, Seripture, and Ethics: A Study of 1 Corinthians 5-7 (AGJU 22; Lei den: Brill, 1994); F. Wilk, Die Bedeutung des Jesajabuches fur Paulus (FRLANT 179; Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1998) ;J. Ross Wagner, Heralds of the Good News: Paul and Isaiah "In Concert" in Romans 9-11 (NovTSup l 01; Leiden: Brill, 2002); and Francis Watson, Paul and the Hermeneutics ofFaith (London: T&T Clark, 2004). 37 Furnish, Theology and Ethics, pp. 33-34. 38 Is this another way in which Furnish's actual readings are influenced, perhaps subliminally, by Bultmann's legacy?

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prefiguration would illumine our understanding of the pattern of Paul's ethical reasoning. 39 Third-and here I can hardly avoid the charge of special pleading for my own views-1 would propose that Furnish's insightful discussion of "faith as obedience" and of the christological shaping of Paul's ethic would be greatly strengthened by adopting the christological interpretation of Paul's pistis Christou passages: it is not "faith in Christ" but rather "the faithfulness of Jesus Christ" in his self-giving death that simultaneously manifests God's grace and embodies the pattern of obedient faithfulness to which we are conformed by participation in Christ. 40 When Furnish was writing Theology and Ethics in Paul, this interpretation of the faithfulness of jesus Christ was not regarded as a serious option on the menu of critical Pauline scholarship. (Bultmann dismisses it peremptorily without even bothering to make an argument against it.) 41 But as the reader of the present volume works through Furnish's excellent discussions of 'The Event of Grace" (pp. 162-81), of "Faith, Love, and Obedience" (181-206), and of the christological character of Pauline ethics (216-24), I urge that the recent debate about "faith of Christ" be kept firmly in mind. I would suggest that at every point the subjective genitive christological reading clicks firmly into place in support ofF urn ish's interpretation. Indeed, this reading lends additional coherence to Paul's ethic, thereby further supporting Furnish's fundamental thesis: the deep integration of theology and ethics in Paul. For the past few pages I have been raising questions from various angles about Theology and Ethics in Paul, and suggesting various ways its arguments might be amended or strengthened. These critical engagements, however, should be understood fundamentally as attestations to the importance of Furnish's work and the range of reflections it is capable of stimulating. Let it be said once again, therefore, that this wise and richly integrative book demonstrates high standards of scholarly excel-

39 For a sketch of what results this might produce, see my essay, "The Role of Scripture in Paul's Ethics," in The Conversion of the Imagination: Paul as Interpreter of Israel's Scripture (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005), 143-62. This essay originally appeared in a Festschrift in honor of Victor Furnish: Theology and Ethics in Paul and His Interpreters, ed. E. H. Lovering Jr. and]. L. Sumney (Nashville: Abingdon, 1996). 40 In addition to my own book The Faith ofjesus Christ: The Narrative Substructure of Paul's Theology in Galatians 3:1-4:11, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002), see esp.J. L. Martyn, Galatians (AB 33A; New York: Doubleday, 1997), 263-77. The most extensive exposition and defense of this interpretation to date is to be found in D. A. Campbell, The Deliverance of Cod: An Apocalyptic Rereading ofJustification in Paul (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, forthcoming 2009). 41 R. Bultmann, TDN7~ VI, 204 n. 230.

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lence in the service of its insistent argument for the coinherence of theology and ethics in Paul's thought. The final words of this introduction should reemphasize the impressive quality of Victor Furnish's important study and observe how well it has held up over time. A Pauline text suggests itself: According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Each builder must choose with care how to build on it. For no one can lay any foundation other than that which has been laid: that foundation is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw-the work of each builder will become visible, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done. (1 Cor. 3:10-13) In an important sense, Theology and Ethics in Paul is a new edifice built on the foundation laid by Paul. The fact that it has served so well and endured for forty years is an indication that the builder has adhered closely to the ground plan first laid by the master builder, and employed consistently high-quality exegetical materials. If the building has not yet been tested in the fires of the judgment day, it has at least been tested in the fires of critical scrutiny by New Testament scholars-which may be almost as dire a test! And much of it has proved to be constructed of gold, silver, and precious stones. Every reader of the book, while touring through the building and peering through its archways, will discover splendid gems of exegetical insight. If I may step into the role of tour guide for a moment, allow me to point out just four of my own favorites: Furnish's skillful exposition of the way that Rom. 12:1-2 recapitulates and reemphasizes themes found earlier in the Letter (pp. l 02-6); his concise but illuminating sketch of the parallelism of three Pauline epigrams in 1 Cor. 7:19; Gal. 5:6; 6:15 (200-201); his provocative but pastorally helpful account of how Paul does and does not speak of "the will of God" ( 188-91); and his clear and judicious survey of the imitatio Christi passages in Paul (218-23). Those who read closely will discover many more such exegetical treasures within the architecture of this book. The point is that Theology and Ethics has lasting value because of the precision and depth of its exegesis. In this study, Furnish exemplifies the practice of listening carefully to the texts and demanding that all ethical constructions be disciplined by solid exegesis. But even beyond its technical care, there is one other factor that lies just beneath the surface of Furnish's sturdy and sustained exposition of Paul's thought: a vivid sense of the reality and truth of the book's subject matter. Getting the exegesis

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right matters for Furnish because the gospel matters. And because Theology and Ethics in Paul patiently and persistently shows how our own ethical reflection must be built on the one foundation of God's love in Jesus Christ, its message will prove, in this new edition, greatly edifying to a new generation of readers. Richard B. Hays Clare Hall, Cambridge University

I The Sources of Paul's Ethical Teaching

INTRODUCTION It would be na'ive to presuppose that Paul's ethical teaching is a completely new creation, like Melchizedek without progenitors, or like Athena sprung fully armed from the deity himself. Of course one must not discount the importance of unique factors or hapax phenomena which may have played a role in the apostle's conversion and in the formation of his message; he himself refers these to divine revelation (e.g. Gal. 1:15-16). Nor should one ignore those aspects of Paul's teaching which seem to be genuinely new and creative. Yet events of divine grace or supernatural revelation are hardly amenable to the methods of historical-critical research, and it is doubtful whether the vague concept of "creative genius" should be employed as a regular category of historical explanation. The historical investigator has his own work to do, partial and provisional though his results always are. In this particular case the task is to ascertain in what formal and material ways Paul is indebted to movements, traditions, and perspectives which do lie within the operative field of historical analysis.

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There are at least three conceivable approaches to the broad topic of Paul's ethical and moral heritage. These must be clearly differentiated, although they are of course also significantly related. One, sociological and even psychological in its orientation, seeks to discern the various environmental influences upon the apostle's personality, attitudes, and concerns. Mary Andrews has purposefully identified herself with such an approach.l But, as already noted,2 such questions cannot be directly studied, for Paul's letters do not yield the kind of data which are required for direct sociological and psychological analysis. Moreover, there is not even complete certainty about where or under what specific conditions Paul was reared, what formal training he had as a youth, or with what particular activities he was engaged prior to his conversion. While the interpreter of Paul's ethic must be ever alert to clues about social and psychological factors, this hardly seems to be the place for him to begin. It is conceivable, secondly, that one could employ a "comparative" approach to the topic. If we view the Pauline ethic overall, against the background of what total thought-complex may it most illuminatingly be interpreted? Is it, for example, an ethic cut out from the Old Testament pattern, or has it more affinity with late Jewish and rabbinic ethics? Or with the ethical systems of Hellenistic popular philosophy? Or with the familiar motifs common to the syncretistic religious movements of the Hellenistic world? As appropriate as such questions are, the interpreter is here involved in a kind of "hermeneutical circle." While his overall estimate of the ideological background of Paul's ethic will determine his analysis and interpretation of individual Pauline concepts (e.g. righteousness, sin, obedience, salvation), it is really only by means of an analysis of such individual concepts that an overall estimate of the ideological background can be attained. Thus, the interpreter's judgment about the general ideological background of the ethic must always be tentative and open to correction in the light of his analysis of particular concepts, and vice versa. Moreover, a comparative approach always 1

t

The Ethical Teaching of Paul. See Appendix, notes 33, 43, 44. See Preface, pp. 9-10.

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requires expertise in several areas and demands that the scholar grasp clearly not only the character of Paul's ethic, but also, just as clearly, the character of those ethical perspectives and systems with which he seeks to compare it.3 A comparative approach can do much, in the long run, to reveal the background of Paul's teaching, but it is neither the easiest nor the best approach with which to initiate such an investigation. A third approach is, all things considered, the most practical beginning point, although it has its own difficulties and dangers. One may ask what similarities, formal and material, exist between Paul's ethical teaching and the various traditions to which he was exposed in the Hellenistic world of the first century. Thus the vague and difficult question of the "background" of Paul's ethic is converted into the more concrete and manageable question of the sources of his ethical teaching. Is one able to identify with any certainty the origins of the apostle's actual moral instruction? If so, it may then be possible to draw some tentative conclusions about its "background" in a more general sense. This investigation of sources is not without its own problems. For instance, there is always the danger that discovered parallels will automatically be used as evidence for direct dependence, literary or otherwise, of one upon the other, whereas the possibility of a source on which the two are "independently dependent" is overlooked. And as Erwin Goodenough was fond of emphasizing to his students, a "parallel" consists, by definition, of "straight lines in the same plane, which never meet however far produced in any direction" (Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd ed., 1955). That is, parallels do not necessarily indicate actual genetic relationships.4 Moreover, one must not presuppose that identification of the origins of Paul's ethical a This was one of the points at issue in the spirited exchange between Bultmann and A. Bonhiiffer concerning the similarities and differences between New Testament ethics and the ethic of Epictetus. See Bultmann's response to Bonhiiffer's monograph, Epiktet und das Neue Testament (1911), "Das religiose Moment in der ethischen Unterweisung des Epiktet und das Neue Testament" (ZNW, XIII [1912], 97 If., 177 If.), and Bonhiiffer's reply, "Epiktet und das Neue Testament" (ZNW, XIII, 281 If.). • See Samuel Sandmel, "Parallelomania," ]BL, LXXXI (1962), pp. 1 If.

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teaching is sufficient to explain its meaning and function within the context of his own thought and letters. That is a question deserving of discussion in its own right.5 Although considerable effort has been expended in the attempt to trace the sources of Paul's ethical teaching, different conclusions have been drawn. Some scholars believe he was primarily dependent upon and influenced by Old Testament and Jewish traditions, others stress his use of Hellenistic materials, and still others emphasize his dependence upon the teachings of Jesus.6 Obviously, a full-scale discussion of this topic is not possible here, and it would be fruitless only to rehearse the arguments and evidence already advanced in support of each of these positions. However, it is necessary for the sake of orientation and perspective on subsequent topics to consider briefly the most important data and to arrive at some general understanding of Paul's sources. His use of Old Testament-Jewish and Hellenistic materials, and his dependence upon the teaching of Jesus must be considered in turn.

1. THE OLD TESTAMENT AND JUDAISM a. The Old Testament That Paul's heritage is at least partly Jewish is beyond dispute. In Phil. 3:4-6 he identifies himself emphatically with the people of Israel and speaks of the Pharisaic attitude toward the law which had characterized his preconversion life. His belonging to Abraham's people is further stressed in II Cor. II :22, and in Gal. I: 13-14 he refers to his past zeal for the traditions of Judaism. Indeed, the whole of Romans 9-11 is a poignant testimony to the extent to which, even as a Christian, the apostle feels himself bound to the people of Israel. All Paul's letters attest his indebtedness to the faith of the Old Testament and to the traditions of this covenant people. Even though he often sets himself over against those traditions and concepts, he does • See Chapter II. • See Appendix, pp. 252, 253, 259-60, 267-68, 274.

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not abandon the fundamental conviction that the Christian community is the true Israel (e.g. Gal. 3:7, 29), that the patriarchs themselves played a key role in the proclamation of the gospel (e.g. Romans 4; Gal. 3:8-9), that the event of Christ's coming is integral to the history of Israel (e.g. Gal. 3:16 ff.; Rom. 9:5) , and that in the economy of God's divine plan the Jews have an undiminished advantage over the Gentiles (e.g. Rom. I: 16; 3: I ff.). It would be impossible to understand the Pauline gospel apart from the apostle's Jewish heritage. But the special question to be considered here is whether, in his ethical teaching, Paul is actually dependent upon Old Testament and Jewish sources, whether the concrete ethical materials of Judaism are actually employed by him in his own moral instruction. At least with respect to the Old Testament the answer can be unequivocally affirmative. Harnack's reference to the importance of the Old Testament for the development of early Christian parenesis, and thus for the mission and expansion of Christianity itself, 7 may be amply documented from the Pauline letters. Near the close of the extended exhortations in Romans 12-15 Paul specifically says, after an Old Testament citation (Ps. 68:10, LXX), that "whatever was formerly written was written for our instruction [515aoxuO"EI] what the law prescribes, they-though not having the law-are a law to them•• G. Bornkarnrn, "Gesetz und Natur," Studien zu Antike und Urchristentum in BEvTh, 28, II (1963), 113, n. 49. •• Pierce, Conscience in the New Testament, pp. 60 ff.; Maurer, Th W, VII, 912. •• Below, pp. 228-29. •• Bultrnann, Theology of the New Testament, trans. K. Grobe! (1951), I, 216-17. Cf. Maurer, pp. 912 ff.; Enslin, The Ethics of Paul, pp. 101-2; Schrage, Die konkreten Einzelgebote, pp. 153-54; Bornkamrn, "Gesetz und Natur," pp. Ill If.

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selves [taUTo!c; dow v61-1oc;]. They show that what the law requires is written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness [aullllOPTupouCTTJc; auTC>v Ti\c; auv£15f}a£c.>c;] and their inner thoughts accusing, or perhaps also commending one another [Kal llETa~u aAATJAc.>v TC>v AOYIO"IlC>v KOTT')yopouvrc.>v i\ Kal CtlTOAOyOUilEVc.>v).

G. Bornkamm argues that the contrast Paul draws here between q>uatc; ("nature") and v61-1oc; ("law"), his concept of the Gentiles' being "a law to themselves," his reference to the requirements of the law being "written in their hearts," and, of course, his mention of their conscience as an inner judge-that all these elements are un-Jewish but thoroughly and specifically Greek.67 The most impressive support for Bornkamm's conclusion is the fact that so many Hellenistic motifs are present here in the same context and even arranged in a way which has a Hellenistic ring. On the other hand, it can be argued that q>ua£1 here is not used as a technical term but only with the meaning "instinctively" or "spontaneously," and that, therefore, the law which the Gentiles sometimes obey is none other than God's law (the Torah) , not a universal "law of nature." At any rate, as Bornkamm also acknowledges, the application and point of Paul's a,rgument in this passage are specifically his own and "fully unGreek." ss

c. Summary and results One must conclude that Paul's Jewish background does not fully account for the manner, or even the substance, of his ethical teaching. That teaching is in various ways dependent upon Hellenistic forms and concepts even though there is nothing in the least way analogous to his specific citation of the Old Testament. And yet the familiar controversy about whether Jewish or Greek influences have contributed more to the apostle's thought neglects to recognize the essential point-that Paul's Judaism was itself already substantially modified by Hellenism 07 "Gesetz und Natur," pp. 101 ff. Others who support the view that the background of Rom. 2:14-15 is Hellenistic are cited by Bornkamm on p. 101, n. 11. •• Ibid., p. 117. See also John L. McKenzie, S.J., "Natural Law in the New Testament," Biblical Research, IX (1964) , 3 ff.

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and that his thought does not reflect his own fusing of two backgrounds so much as it reflects the syncretistic culture of his day.s9 The fact that the question: "More Jewish or more Greek?" can be raised not only with respect to Paul's letters, but also with respect to many other writings of the period (for example, the didactic poem of the Pseudo-Phocylides), is but one indication of the extent to which syncretistic tendencies were taking effect. A one-sided decision about Paul's background, whether in favor of his Jewish (e.g. Enslin) or Greek (e.g. Andrews) heritage, is bound to result in a one-sided interpretation of his ethic. This ethic can be brought into sharper focus when it is acknowledged that Paul was a Jew of the Diaspora--of the Hellenistic world. There is, however, a further and decisive factor in Paul's "background." Both Jewish and Greek influences upon his life and thought are in an important sense secondary to the fact of his conversion to Christianity. Although there are rabbinical aspects to his thought and to his ethical teaching specifically, he is not a rabbi. And although there are both formal and material similarities between his teaching and that of Hellenistic popular philosophy, he is not a Cynic or Stoic street preacher. His message is the gospel of Christ, his mission is to be an apostle, and -whatever else must be said-his ethical teaching stands in the broad context of this message and mission. To remember that Paul was a convert to Christianity involves the recognition that he was converted by and to a movement which was already beginning to have and to protect its own traditions and forms. Paul was converted to a movement which was already in possession of liturgical, homiletical, and catechetical materials, and in which the rudimentary lines of an ecclesiastical structure were already becoming visible. It is therefore logical and important to ask whether, in his ethical teaching, the apostle has made use of materials which can be identified as specifically Christian. •• Thyen's study of the Jewish- Hellenistic homily illustrates the way in which this interpenetration of Jewish and Greek elements was present in the Diaspora synagogues themselves. See Der Stil der judisch-hellenistischen Homilie, esp. pp. 119-20 where he compares the same amalgamation of elements in Paul's letters.

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This question can be more sharply focused by dealing with the problem of the relation of Paul's ethical teaching to the teaching of Jesus.

3. THE TEACHING OF JESUS Scholarly opinion is by no means unanimous in its evaluation of the relation Paul's ethic bears to the message of Jesus. Whereas Alexander and C. A. A. Scott .view Paul as interpreting and applying Jesus' ethical teaching, 70 John Knox believes the apostle "seriously distorts" it. 71 Although Dibelius insists that Jesus' teachings were so outmoded in the context of Paul's Hellenistic society that the church had to turn elsewhere for ethical guidance, Davies insists with equal vigor that the sayings of Jesus constituted the "primary source" in Paul's work as an ethical teacher. 72 This topic clearly demands some further attention.

a. Paul's citations of "the Lord" It is clear beyond question that Paul was the recipient, and in turn bearer, of Christian traditions. This is evident when he "hands on" creedal formulations or liturgical material he himself has "received" (I Cor. 15:3 ff.; ll:23). The words he uses in these two passages (Trapaf..alll3avEtv ["receive"], Trapa8t86vm ["hand on"]) are, in such contexts, technical terms referring to the mediation of tradition.73 That the "traditions" Paul received had to do with matters of conduct, at least with matters of church discipline, is not only a priori probable, but specifically indicated in I Cor. ll:2 ff. There his commendation of the Corinthians for maintaining the "traditions" (Trapa86aw;) he has "handed on" (Trap£8wKa) to them introduces a discussion of the propriety of women's head coverings in church. Further, it is easily established that Paul's "traditions" included sayings of Jesus, for on occasion he specifically cites these. His exhortation to the married that they should not divorce (I See Appendix, pp. 253, 269. The Ethic of jesus in the Teaching of the Church (1961), p. 75. 72 See Appendix, pp. 259, 274. 78 See F. Blichsel, ThW, II (1935), 1731I. [ET: pp. 1711I.]. 70

71

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Cor. 7:10-11, although the possibility of such is nonetheless acknowledged in vs. lla) is specifically identified as coming from "the Lord" and reflects similar traditions incorporated in the Synoptic Gospels (Matt. 5:32; 19:9; Mark 10:11-12; Luke 16:18). "The Lord" is again specifically cited in I Cor. 9:14 to strengthen the argument that apostles are entitled to financial support from their congregations: "the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel" (RSV) . This is perhaps a formulation of the saying contained in Luke 10:7, "the laborer deserves his wages" (RSV; cf. Matt. 10:10). And in I Cor. 11:23 ff. the "words of institution" are cited (cf. Matt. 26:26ff.; Mark 14:22ff.; Luke 22:17ff.). The apostle also refers to sayings of "the Lord" in I Cor. 14:37 and I Thess. 4:15, although in these cases convincing parallels from synoptic sayings are not to be found. While no other specific citations of dominical words stand in Paul's letters, there are some instances which one may fairly judge to be allusions to teachings of Jesus. Since, however, the identification of "allusions" or "echoes" is always a particularly subjective matter, one must tread carefully here and not lay too great a strain on the imagination or too great an emphasis on the results. Certainly guilty on both counts was Alfred Resch who claimed to have located, in nine Pauline letters, no fewer than 925 parallels with the Synoptic Gospels. He found 133 more in Ephesians, 100 in the Pastoral Epistles, and 64 in the Pauline speeches in Acts.74 On the one hand Resch's massive effort was directed polemically against the "ultrapaulinism" of F. C. Baur and the Tiibingen school,75 and on the other hand it seems to have been motivated by a desire to prove that, already in the first decades of the church's life, there existed a written collection of Jesus' sayings (the "main source" of Paulinism) which served as an "authentic corrective" to the church's sacramental teaching and oral traditions.76 This written Logia source, Resch "Der Paulinismus und die Logia ]esu in ihrem gegenseitigen Verhiiltnis untersucht in TU, xxvii (1904), p. xxvii. '"Ibid., pp. 21 ff. '" Ibid., p. 635;

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maintained, is employed by both Paul and the Evangelists. In this way the hundreds of alleged parallels between the Pauline Corpus and the Synoptic Gospels are to be explained. 11 A more caudous search, however, and one limited to the ethical teaching of Paul, turns up only eight convincing parallels to the Synoptic Gospels-and therefore possible "allusions" to Jesus' teaching. Most of these eight occur in the latter chapters of Romans. In 12:14 Paul admonishes, "Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them" (RSV) , a likely echo of Jesus' command, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" (Matt. 5:44 RSV). The related exhortation, "Repay no one evil for evil" (Rom. 12: 17 RSV) , also seems to reflect the synoptic traditions about loving the enemy (above all, Matt. 5:39 ff.). Moreover, the Pauline instruction to give all men their due, including as it does mention of taxes and revenue (Rom. 13:7), could possibly be based on the traditional words of Jesus about rendering Caesar's things (taxes) to Caesar (Matt. 22: 15-22) . Also notable are the exhortations of Rom. 14:13, 14. The first prohibits judging others lest a "stumbling-block" fall in a brother's way. The striking image of a "stumbling-block" [crKav8cxAov], which appears with similar meanings in synoptic logia (Matt. 18:7; Mark 9:42; Luke 17:1-2), may well be enough to suggest that Paul has been influenced in this verse by those or similar traditions. Rom. 14:14 ("I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus 78 that nothing is unclean in itself; but it is unclean for any one who thinks it unclean," RSV) recalls the synoptic saying that it is not what goes into a man's mouth but what comes out of it which defiles him (Matt. 15:11; Mark 7: 15). Three additional allusions may fairly easily be found in I Thessalonians. The remark in 5:2 that the Lord will come like " Ibid., pp. 635 ff. •• This is the preferable translation here for tv Kupi14J 'l11crou, although it is sometimes interpreted as an instrumental dative. Thus, "I know and am persuaded by the Lord jesus" (e.g. Davies, Paul and Rabbinic judaism, p. 138). But against this instrumental interpretation is the fact that parallel phrases (forms of Trti9Etv with tv KUPtl\l) in Gal. 5:10 and Phil. 2:24 (d. II Thess. 3:4) can hardly be so interpreted.

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a thief in the night probably depends on an image also used in the Synoptics (Matt. 24:43; Luke 12:39). Also, the wording of 5:13 ("Be at peace among yourselves," RSV [EipT]VEUETE tv E:a:uTolia, and E:vvota) connotes the sort of prudential wisdom and social discretion which can be taught and learned, e.g. 23:12: "Give your mind to instruction [1Tati5Eia] and keep your ears attentive to the words of wisdom [A6yot a!o6~o-Ew~]." Paul's use of the term, then, does not really correspond at all with the LXX usage (see also Prov. 1:4, 7, 22; 2:3, 10; 3:20; 5:2; 8:10; 10:14; 11:9; 12:1, 23; 14:6, 7, 18; 15:7, 14; 18:15; 19:25; 22:12; 23: 12; 24:4).

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order to avoid conscription into the army. "He must be mad." exclaims Peer. "The thought, perhaps-the wish-the willThose I could understand; but really to do the deed! Ah, nothat beats me!" 67 It is one thing to resolve to carry out a certain course of action and quite another thing actually to do it. What has Paul to say about the Christian's actual ethical performance? Three specific questions deserve some comment in the light of the whole preceding examination of Paul's ethic: To what extent is the Christian able to respond to God's summons to "abound in love"? Is he able to "progress" in the extent and quality of his obedience? How, if at all, does the Christian's actual conduct differ from that of the non-Christian? The answers to these questions have been implicit in what has been said in earlier sections of this study; yet some further direct, though brief, attention to them is now appropriate. First, what is Paul's view of the believer's ability to obey? This, of course, is not a question which would have occurred to Paul. His concrete ethical exhortations have a real and specific intent. They are not merely rhetorical flourishes but presuppose the necessity for response. Yet "ability" as such is not a Pauline concept. His ethic does not proceed from an evaluation of man's capabilities but from a recognition of the divine imperative. And Paul understands man's response to be an expression of God's power to redeem and transform, not of man's power to comply and perform. The life the believer has was given him by God; it is a life empowered by the Holy Spirit, poured out into his heart as love (Rom. 5:5), setting him free (Rom. 8:2; II Cor. 3: 17) to serve (Rom. 7:6). The Christian's new life in the Spirit is not "new" because it has been reformed but because it has been redeemed-set free for obedience, now made possible because the divine call and claim has been acknowledged. Here, as always in Paul's thought, what God gives is inseparably tied to what he asks; where the command is heard, the power to obey is also received. This is most profoundly expressed in the famous appeal of Phil. 2:12-13 to "work out your own salvation " Henrik Ibsen, Peer Gynt ("Everyman's Library" ed.) , pp. 80-81.

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with fear and trembling; for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (RSV) . This is what is meant by being "led" by the Spirit (Rom. 8:14; Gal. 5:18) and by "living" and "walking" by the Spirit (Rom. 8:4-5; Gal. 5:16, 25; cf. II Cor. 3:6). Belonging to Christ means being subject to his power in the double sense of one who is both dependent upon and responsible to a sovereign Lord. In its own way the metaphor of "sowing to" and "reaping from" the Spirit (Gal. 6:8) expresses this central Pauline conviction. The apostle's reference to the "fruit of the Spirit" is therefore fully deliberate (Gal. 5:22). The various modes of action he thus describes are not regarded as expressions of the Christian's own performing or achieving, but as products of his life in the Spirit; expressions not of his own moral astuteness and ability, but of God's power and grace by which he lives. That Paul, in the same passage, warns his readers about the "works of the flesh" (Gal. 5: 18) shows, however, that he does not believe the Christian is exempt from the hostile powers of the world. Indeed, his decision for God always requires a decision against that which opposes the divine will. The paradox involved in speaking of the Spirit's "fruit" and the "works" of man's own "flesh" is clear: insofar as one concretely acknowledges his dependence upon God's power, he is free to respond in obedience to God's claim; and insofar as one persists in relying on his own power to perform, he is bound in sin to the "works of the flesh." This suggests already the first point which must be made in answering the question about the possibility of "progress" in the extent or quality of Christian obedience. If "progress" is to include the idea of increasing "achievement," then Paul allows no progress. The idea of progressive achievement supposes that there is some program of action which can be ultimately accomplished, such as full compliance with a law or full correspondence to a pattern or example. But nothing of this sort exists for Paul. Moreover, such could not be appropriated to his preaching, which constantly insists that fullness of life is not attained but given, and that Christian obedience is not an expression of man's effort gradually to realize his own innate potentialities, but an ever repeated response to the ever newly repeated summons of

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God. It has been seen that this is precisely the meaning of the "sanctified" life-a life given over ever anew to the service of God.6S The idea of a progressive moral achievement is hardly compatible with the apostle's insistence that every past accomplishmem is to be cast aside (Phil. 3:3 ff.) and that the life lived on the basis of faith excludes all boasting (Rom. 3:27). W. A. Beardslee's attempt to document "progress" and "growth" motifs in Paul's letters is not very successful.69 He himself admits that these are not "central conceptions" in the apostle's thought, but argues nevertheless that they indicate "his recognition of the necessity for moral development in the individual." 70 Beardslee's evidence, however, is meager and unconvincing. Paul's insistence in Phil. 3:3 ff. that his past accomplishments as a Jew totalled up to something worse than nothing certainly prevents the reference in Gal. 1:14 to his own past "progress" in Judaism from being used as evidence for a positive idea of progress.71 The only other Pauline reference to the progress of individuals is in Phil. 1:25. There he speaks of his own remaining with the Philippians "for [their] progress and joy in the faith" (RSV). But the thought is not of progress in the sense of increasing moral achievement. Rather, as the subsequent exhortations show, Paul is thinking of maintaining the unity of the Spirit and continuingly striving for the gospel even in the face of unsettling opposition (vss. 27-28). Nor are the Pauline athletic, "conflict," or military metaphors designed to illustrate the need for moral progress or "growth of character." 72 They illustrate instead the need for persistent devotion to the task in spite of all hardship and danger. The most elaborated of these metaphors (Phil. 3:3 ff.) makes the point most emphatically that it is precisely not the cumulative effect of the Christian's achievements which adds up to life.73 And the 68

Above, pp. 156-57. •• Human Achievement and Divine Vocation in the Message of Paul in SBTh, 31 (1961), esp. Chap. IV. 70 Ibid., p. 75. 71 As Beardslee does, ibid., p. 67. 70 Ibid., p. 68. Beardslee discusses these metaphors on pp. 68 !f. 78 Beardslee's own conclusions on the point are not completely clear. At one place he affirms that "Paul continues the typically Hebraic concern that

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"growth" metaphors are even "somewhat less sharply defined," 74 and thus also fail as evidence for a Pauline conception of successively greater degrees of moral achievement. Finally, the question must inevitably come whether Paul conceives of the Christian's mode of conduct as being distinctive and thus distinguishable from that of the non-Christian. If by "distinctive" one has reference to modes of conduct completely unique to Christians, then the answer must obviously be negative. The apostle does not strive for uniqueness in his exhortations and does not hesitate to commend universally accredited morality to his Christian congregations.75 If, on the other hand, one has reference to some sort of characteristic Christian style of life, the answer can be clearly affirmative, for love is without question the hallmark and urgent imperative of Christian existence. This, however, does not mean that the various forms Christian love assumes are exclusively "Christian," for the modes by which love is expressed must always accord with the realities and possibilities of human history. The range of moral possibilities open to the Christian is thus in no way different from the range of possibilities available to the nonbeliever, and Paul's own exhortations always take account of this fact. Yet in meeting these various worldly possibilities for action, the Christian operates as one whose life is claimed by a higher Sovereign whose call is ever to selfless, serving love. The believer's difficult yet glorious task is to attempt the translation of that "excellent way" of love (I Cor. 12:31) into the most appropriate of the many ways open to him in the world. In Paul's view, the uniqueness of the Christian's new life in Christ does not consist in the forms his concrete actions take in the world, but in the nature and the power of the word by which he has been redeemed from sin and death and re-created for righteousness and life. a man's activity be in such relation to God that it may have a permanent cumulative result" (p. 49) . But then later he says that Paul's comments about growth lack "any conviction that the results which are to be expected will be in any significant way permanently cumulative in this world" (p.

77). "Ibid., p. 70. •• See above, pp. 69 ff.

Appendix

A SURVEY OF NINETEENTH- AND TWENTIETH-CENTURY INTERPRETATIONS OF PAUL'S ETHIC Each new generation of scholars inevitably and properly profits from the accomplishments and mistakes of its predecessors. The present writer's indebtedness to many who have tackled the questions of Pauline theology and ethics has been acknowledged throughout. But all the scholarly footnotes, taken collectively, are still too fragmentary and unorganized to reveal the interesting course which scholarly research on the special topic of Pauline ethics has followed. There has been no recent, general survey of the literature available; thus, the following review and summary may have a useful bibliographical function. But more than that, it helps to disclose where the most crucial issues lie and what the questions of greatest urgency are in studying the Pauline ethic.

NINETEENTH-CENTURY INTERPRETERS A survey of interpretations of Paul's ethic need begin only with the nineteenth century, for only then were the tools of critical biblical scholarship beginning to be honed with sufficient precision and employed with sufficient maturity to yield lasting results. Moreover, only in the nineteenth century did interpreters begin to focus on the "ethics" of Paul per se as a suitable topic for independent investigation. Indeed, one of the earliest discussions of Paul"s ethic, the third section

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of Immanuel Berger's Versuch einer moralischen Einleitung ins Neue Testament fur Religionslehrer und denkende Christen (1798), is little more than a collation of the various Pauline statements and exhortations relevant to the moral life! Even in F- C. Baur's two-volume work on Paul, first published in 1845, 1 there is no discussion as such of the apostle's ethical concerns, exhortations, or presuppositions. The closest Baur comes to this is in his remarks on faith, love, and hope as "the three momenta of Christian consciousness" (II, 228 ff.). But his treatment of these Pauline themes is too schematic and superficial, and he never relates them to the ethical issues Paul is constantly addressing or the ethical exhortations he is constantly issuing. Credit for publishing the first critical study of Paul's ethic handled as a topic worthy of full-scale, independent treatment must go to H. Fr. Th.L. Ernesti, the first edition of whose monograph appeared in 1868. 8 For Paul, he argues, the ethical life is founded upon the insight that men as children of God are called to righteousness, which means obedience to the "absolute" and "unconditional norm" of the Christian's moral life, God's will (pp. 6, 57) . It is claimed that Paul views God's will as having both a "general" and a "special" content, the former involving the general purpose or goal of life (pp. 58-59), and the latter having to do with the concrete tasks and duties of the Christian life. Even after his conversion Paul continues to regard the law as the revelation of God's special will (p. 62). What, then, is distinctive about the apostle's ethic? Ernesti believes its uniqueness lies in the fundamentally new idea of freedom (pp. 2 ff.) and the identification of this as a gift of the Spirit, the principle of che Christian ethical life and chat in which che Christian lives (pp. 10 ff.). Through baptism and the word the Spirit is given and a new birth effected, the essence of which is described as "a real community-of-life [Lebensgemeinschaft] with Christ" in which the believer is granted forgiveness (p. 55). Those who have the Spirit are freed from the "outward authority of the law" and are able to know inwardly the truth about life's ultimate goal, as well as the specific requirements of God's will (pp. 64-65). Ernesti quotes with apparent approval Vilmar's contention that formally works done in obedience to the law 1 This book itself has not been available to me, and I am acquainted with it only through che commencs of A. Juncker, Die Ethik des Apostels Paulus, I (1904), 8. 1 F. Chr. Baur, Paul, trans. A. Menzies (2 vols.; I, 1876; II, 1875). 1 Die Ethik des A pastels Paulus in ihren Grundz.ilgen dargestellt. Citations are from the 8rd rev. ed. of 1880.

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and those which are done as a result of the "new birth" are identical, but that substantially and essentially they belong to different categories. The first are done out of fear in order to avoid hannful consequences, but the others proceed as "necessary expressions" of the new life, "out of the life of God in us," the love of God which we bear (pp. 78-79, n.) . Ernesti himself wishes to speak of the "true interpenetration [Ineinandersein] of divine and human activity," which Paul views the Spirit as accomplishing (p. 25) , and concludes that the new life is a "spontaneous" consequence of faith's acceptance of forgiveness (p. 105) . Imputation to Paul of the view that there is a "spontaneous" character to the Christian's new life creates certain difficulties, and Ernesti recognizes some of these. If, for example, the Spirit creates such an interpenetration of the human and divine that obedience to God's will is a "necessary" and "spontaneous" expression of the new life, why must Paul spend so much time addressing admonitions and exhortations to his "Christian" congregations? Ernesti's answer would seem to be that the new life really only "begins" with conversion as "the center of the personality" is renewed. Hence, the fulfillment of holiness occurs "only through an inner progressive process" by which the victory over sin which has been accomplished in the "center" of the Christian's life is extended daily farther toward the "periphery." To this process, claims Ernesti, Paul applies the term "sanctification" (p. 73). Thus, the apostle's commands, prohibitions, exhortations, and warnings do not at all contradict his teaching about "the liberating power of the Spirit," for he recognizes that the Christian life is only sound when the Christian's task (which is to achieve holiness in freedom) is ever before him as a duty (p. 79). It must be granted that Ernesti succeeds in identifying some of the Pauline themes most important for an understanding of his ethic: the Spirit, freedom, law, sin, righteousness, the new life, etc. But it is perhaps a special weakness of his exposition that he tends to thrust into the center concepts and categories, which in Paul's own letters have only a secondary place, and to give too little emphasis to Paul's own pivotal themes. Thus, on the one hand, Ernesti lays great stress on forgiveness of sins; on the other, his discussion of Paul's concept of faith is curiously brief and the Pauline eschatological motifs, save for a few references to "hope," are almost totally neglected. There are other questions which need to be raised with respect to Ernesti's interpretation: Is Paul's polemic against the law directed solely to the fact that it represents an "outward authority" rather than an "inward" one? Is there within Paul's own thought the systematic

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distinction between justification and sanctification which Ernesti's exposition involves? Can such texts as II Cor. 4:16 be made to support the notion of a daily moral "progression" in the Christian life? Is Paul's emphasis on the believer's participation in Christ's death and resurrection best described as an "interpenetration of divine and human activity"? Finally, it is worth noting that Ernesti often, and sometimes in crucial matters, employs evidence found in Colossians, Ephesians, II Thessalonians, and the Pastoral Epistles which-despite the questions being raised already in his own day-he takes as indisputably authentic. Briefer treatment is accorded Paul's ethic in an article by Hermann von Soden,' and many of the themes of Ernesti's book are also present here. This interpreter also identifies freedom in the Spirit as the crucial aspect of Paul's ethical ideal (p. 121) ; and where Ernesti had spoken of an "interpenetration" of the human and divine, von Soden now speaks of a "fusion" of God's power with the human personality, through which morality issues forth freely of itself (Ernesti had said "spontaneously") (p. 145). Thus, the power for the moral life is not in man but in God, by whose mercy man is called to a new life and a "walking worthily" of the God who calls him (p. 177) • The emphasis in von Soden's article is upon the inseparability of "religion" and "ethics" in Paul's thought, no less than in the preaching of Jesus (p. Ill) . God's character is the motive, his Spirit the power, and his will the norm for all ethical action (pp. 114-15). The Christian is thus moved to ethical action from "within," not from something "outside" himself (p. 125) . More than Ernesti, von Soden interprets Paul's ethic from within the context of the apostle's own major categories, and he assigns more importance to the Pauline christological and eschatological theologoumena. Moreover, the weight of his evidence is drawn from those parts of the Pauline Corpus whose authenticity cannot be seriously questioned. The tendency observed in both Ernesti and von Soden to speak of the new life as "spontaneously" resultant from an "interpenetration" or "fusion" of the divine power and man's will is carried to extreme lengths by Paul Wernle. Wernle was licensed as a docent at the University of Basel in 1896 after the presentation of a monograph on Paul's concept of sin which was then published the following year. • His participation in the discussion of Paul's ethic is remarkable, first, because of the radical views he set forth in his monograph of 1897, and '"Die Ethik des Paulus," ZThK, II (1892) , 109 If. • Der Christ und die Sunde bei Paulus (1897) .

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second, because in a book published only four years later• he moderated and qualified those views to such an extent that his critics (who in the intervening period had been numerous) were no longer sure what Wernle himself really believed. Nevertheless, the main aspects of Wernle's work need to be noted here, if only because they are important background for many of the subsequent investigations. In Der Christ und die Sunde bei Paulus, Wernle maintains that Pauline theology as a whole is best described as "enthusiast," governed by an overriding expectation of the imminent parousia (p. 119). "The Pauline piety," he says, "is above all a walking in the Spirit, therefore a restlessness, an enthusiasm, an intermingling• of future and present" (p. 25) . From this basic "enthusiasm" Paul developed during the course of his missionary activity his theory of the Christian life (p. 79) . Paul's theory is that, with the death of the Messiah, the Spirit is free "to inundate like an unleashed stream the hearts of all believers" (p. 87) who are thus transposed to the coming age (p. 23) . Since sin is a phenomenon of "this world," the Christian is entirely freed from sin (pp. 15·16, 24-25, et passim), and the law becomes "simply supernuous; the 'enspirited' [Begeisterte] does it of his own accord" (p. 88). Wernle insists that this doctrine of Christian sinlessness is a central and essential tenet of Pauline theology; for Paul himself, after his conversion, sin was no longer a factor (p. 15), and he subsequently projected this experience on to every Christian (pp. 103-4). Accord· ing to Wernle, "all gnostic and methodistic sects which have striven for the sinlessness of the reborn, only exaggerate a correct Pauline tradition" (p. 24). Wernle concludes on a similarly provocative note: "One can say that Paul thought worse of man and better of the Christian than Jesus. Both are foreign to Jesus, the theory of inherited sin and of the flesh, as well as the teaching that the Christian sins no more" (p. 127) • As Wernle's critics quickly pointed out, this interpretation of Pau~ not only ignores a great deal of evidence contradictory of the thesis, but also involves some naive and superficial conclusions about the evidence that is discussed. (Wemle himself notes in his foreword and introduction that this interpretation was heavily influenced by the theology of Albrecht Ritschl.) How, for example, in the light of I • The Beginnings of the Christian Religion, trans. G. A. Bienemann (2 vols., 1903; German ed., 1901). 'Wemle's word here is Ineinandermengung; cf. Emesti's use of Ineinandersein and von Soden's description of God's power as "fused" (verschmolzen) with man's personality (see above) •

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Corinthians 15, can Wernle hold that for Paul death has been abolished already at baptism, thus assuring the Christian's perfectly sinless postbaptismal life (p. 23)? Paul himself clearly indicates that the conquest of death is yet to come "in its own order" (I Cor. 15:20-28). And it is also certainly wrong to cite Paul's I.ITJ ytvotTo in Rom. 6:2 as evidence that, for him, sin (among Christians) constituted no real problem (p. 103). Clearly, the whole of chap. 6, not just the initial, rhetorical IATJ ytvotTo, is addressed to that problem! Moreover, for Wernle's interpretation even more than for Ernesti's, the presence in Paul's letters of ethical exhortations and warnings poses a serious difficulty. The variety of ways in which Wernle himself refers to these hortatory aspects of Paul's preaching indicates that his interpretation of Paul's ethic is, already with respect to them, seriously defective. In some places he refers only to the "disorders" or "excesses" among Christians, for example in Thessalonica (p. 29) and Corinth (p. 38) , apparently distinguishing these from "sinful" acts. He categorically denies any ethical dimension to Paul's theology, claiming that his preaching "was purely the preaching of faith, no morality" (p. 35; cf. pp. 26-27), since in the Pauline view baptism frees the Christian completely from the possibility of sinning. Paul could therefore regard all disturbances in his churches as merely "superficial episodes" (p. 45) . In other contexts, however, Wernle is more willing to acknowledge certain tensions or even contraditions within Paul's thought. Sometimes, he says, Paul refers to the Spirit as a supernatural power which grasps men and transfers them into a higher order (the "indicative" aspects of the apostle's preaching), whereas at other times Paul refers to the Spirit as a high, divine potentiality in man which the Christian himself can help to victory (the apostolic imperatives) • "An ethic of miracle and an ethic of the will," concludes Wernle, "here quite abruptly merge into one another" (p. 89) • But then again, the insoluble contradiction which Wernle finds between Paul's theory of righteousness and his missionary practice of preaching about God's judgment of works is accounted for by ascribing the latter to the apostle's heritage from the primitive Christian community (p. 99). Though Paul "indeed placed religion far above all else," he did not entirely forget morality (p. 100). To this extent Wernle's monograph touches upon the problem of indicative and imperative in Pauline theology, but without any attempt to discern whether these two aspects of the apostle's preaching may have been already significantly related for Paul himself.

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Perhaps as an indirect response to the sharp and widespread criticism levelled against his monograph of 1897, Wernle very shortly modified his views. In his Basel lectures delivered in the summer of 1900 8 there is not one reference to his earlier interpretation of Paul as an enthusiast who discounted the possibility of sin in the Christian's life. Now Wernle says that for Paul the Spirit does not work freely but is bound "inwardly" to faith and "outwardly" to the word, the church, and the sacraments (Beginnings, p. 156). Man must help the Spirit by restraining the lusts and the passions, by work and discipline. Here, Wernle now admits, the imperative enters into Paul's thought whether or not it has a "theoretical" place there alongside his doctrine of the Spirit (p. 168). The Christian no longer stands under the law but under an inner requirement whose content is love (p. 191). However, Wernle still feels constrained to add that the apostle's vigorous polemic against Jewish legalism precludes his expressing very well this ethical aspect of the Christian life (p. 192). Thus, when read over against von Soden's insistence that "religion" and "ethics" were inseparable for Paul, Wernle's interpretation of Pauline theology, which even in its modified form ascribes to the apostle little theoretical or practical ethical concern, raises a provocative issue which is of fundamental importance. Hermann jacoby" rejects the description of Paul as an enthusiast and the attendant imputation to him of the view that the Christian's life is totally free from sin (pp. 324 ff.) . But he acknowledges an essential element of truth in Wernle's interpretation, namely, that for Paul the Christian's life manifests the divine victory over sin and that "the key-note of [Paul's] creed is not the Kyrie eleison, but rather the Hallelujah" (p. 327). Although, like Wernle, Jacoby stresses the importance of Paul's doctrine of the Spirit, and, like Ernesti, wishes to describe Paul's ethic as "an ethic of freedom," he pointedly distinguishes this from an "ethic of choice," from enthusiasm or antinomianism. To be sure, Paul regarded Jesus as having set the old law aside by fulfilling it (pp. 398-99), but in its place the law of the Spirit exercises its own rule (pp. 301, 399). Through the Spirit the exalted Christ himself governs within each individual Christian and within the corporate life of the community "as the ethically enlivening principle" (p. 399) . Hence, "the Christian fulfils the law of God as EYYOJlO