Synopsis: The relationship between the church and Israel in Pauline
interpretation has long been an area of considerable debate. The
traditional view has understood Paul to identify the church with
Israel, such that the church is the sole inheritor of Israel's
sacred history, privileges, and divine promises. Yet recent
developments in Pauline scholarship have called this view into
question. The so-called New Perspective and its emphasis upon the
decidedly Jewish context of Paul's theologizing, along with an
increasing sensitivity to the post-Holocaust context of modern
interpreters, have brought about readings that understand Paul to
maintain a distinction between God's historical people, Israel, and
the newly created multiethnic communities of Christ followers, that
is, the church. Nevertheless, there are still scholars who, while
embracing the New Perspective, have interpreted Paul as holding
that the church is indeed identifiable in some way as Israel. This
work explores a spectrum of scholarly views on the subject advanced
between 1920 (as per the publication of C. H. Dodd's The Meaning of
Paul for Today) and the present. Furthermore, it examines the most
relevant Pauline texts upon which these views are founded, in
dialogue with various readings of these texts that have been
offered. Each view on Paul's understanding of the church vis-a-vis
Israel is critically assessed in light of the exegetical findings.
Using this approach Zoccali demonstrates that a view holding to
both a certain distinction between, as well as an equating of, the
church and Israel represents the most plausible interpretation of
Paul's understanding. Endorsements: "Christopher Zoccali is a
careful reader. His volume offers a clear, critically nuanced
overview of prevailing and emerging views of the last century of
scholarship. He makes his own analytical framework clear as well,
and from therein perceptively explains how each viewpoint sustains
or strains the contours of the textual evidence." --Mark D. Nanos
Rockhurst University "As with any fundamental shift in perspective,
the 'new perspective on Paul' has brought with it a new set of
puzzles and problems. Of these, none is more puzzling or
problematical than the significance of 'Israel' for Paul. In this
excellent book, Zoccali provides us with a very helpful description
of the variety of interpretation among contemporary scholars and a
penetrating analysis of the key points of exegetical debate. A very
welcome contribution." --Terence L. Donaldson Wycliffe College,
Toronto Author Biography: Christopher Zoccali (PhD, University of
Wales Lampeter) is an independent scholar in Rochester, New York,
and is the author of several articles and papers on the New
Testament.
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