ENGBERG-PEDERSEN, T., (ed.), — Paul Beyond the Judaism / Hellenism Divide.

Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville (...), 2001. X,355p. Paperback. Spine with reading trace. Some highlighting and underlinings from pp.241-260. Else fine. ‘The book’s aim, as Troels Engberg-Pedersen outlines it in his introduction is ‘quite radical’: ‘scholars must attempt to shed all unacknowledged, ideological, and historically unfounded presuppositions in addressing Paul in his context, by giving up altogether using any form of the Judaism/Hellenism divide as an interpretive lens. Instead, one must look entirely open-mindedly at the facts.’ The eleven articles that follow explain why scholars should realise this aim and different ways in which it may be accomplished. In his first of two contributions, W.A. Meeks (…) traces succinctly yet superbly the history of the Judaism versus Hellenism debate from the time of F.C. Baur, through the history of religion school, and reactions to it by scholars emphasising Paul’s Jewishness, down to the present day. He shows how the terms ‘Judaism’ and ‘Hellenism’ have been employed as ‘code words for complex sets of ideas masquerading as historical entities.’ Meeks then turns his attention to how scholars have been reassessing the pictures of Judaism and Hellenism in antiquity, concluding that the words ‘Jewish’ and ‘Hellenistic’ are basically of no help at all in sorting out the character of early Christian groups. (…) Ph.S. Alexander (…) also exposes ways in which the category of Hellenism has been ideologically driven. He calls into question whether it and Judaism as well can be useful any longer once the essentialist notion of Hellenism as an autochthonous culture irreconcilably opposed to its counterpart is abandoned. It should be abandoned, or at least handled with utmost care, he says, because ‘all the cultures of the eastern Mediterranean and Near East were in constant contact and interchange at both the material and intellectual levels from earliest antiquity’. (…) L. Alexander (…) approaches the book’s theme from the perspective of a first-century cultural tourist. Such a person would have seen parallels in the way medical and philosophical schools, the Jewish synagogue, and Pauline Christinas structured themselves. Fascinating is the parallel drawn between Galen’s criticism of Christians and Cicero’s criticism of Pythagoreans: Both appeal to the authority of the founder-figure, ‘he himself said so’, rather than to reason. (…) In his second contribution, Meeks (…) argues that the Pauline groups at Corinth were comparable to an association of ‘resident aliens’, such as ‘Jewish immigrant associations of the Diaspora cities’. (…) H. Tronier (…) says that an examination of isolated ideas in Paul’s theology may naturally lead to the emergence of either a ‘Hellenistic’ of ‘Jewish’ Paul. He proposes instead to elucidate the inner logic of Paul’s thought, which he sees entering on an epistemological dualism with its two different modes of perception, ‘psychic’ and ‘spiritual’ (1 Cor. 2). He devotes considerable space to showing how structural similarities exist in this respect among Paul, the apoclypes of Enoch, and Philo within their shared context of Hellenistic dualism. Trotter’s treatment deserves considerate attention. (…) D.E. Aune (…) provides a stimulating exegesis of selected themes in 2 Cor. 4:16 - 5:10 - apart passage where Hellenistic, Jewish, and early Christian anthropological and eschatological ideas intersect- showing just how limiting that old approach is. (…) Aune moves freely across a wide spectrum of literary sources (e.g. Plato, early Jewish apocalypses, Philo) to draw in whatever linguistic or conceptual background seems appropriate for expelling the text. He does not thereby underestimate ‘the creative genius of Paul as a religious thinker’ (…). ‘Paul beyond the Judaism/Hellenism Divide’ is an important contribution and should be recommended reading for all students of Paul.’ (KENNETH A. FOX in Novum Testamentum 45, 2003, pp.300-304).