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The Missions Of James, Peter, And Paul: Tensions In Early Christianity (Supplements to Novum Testamentum 115) PDF

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Supplements to Novum Testamentum Executive Editors M.M. Mitchell Chicago D.P. Moessner Dubuque Editorial Board C.K. BARRETT, DURHAM - P. BORGEN, TRONDHEIM J.K. ELLIOTT, LEEDS - H.W. HOLLANDER, LEIDEN C.R. HOLLADAY, ATLANTA - H.J. DE JONGE, LEIDEN A.J. MALHERBE, NEW HAVEN - M.J.J. MENKEN, UTRECHT J. SMIT SIBINGA, AMSTERDAM VOLUME 115 The Missions of James, Peter, and Paul Tensions in Early Christianity edited by Bruce Chilton & Craig Evans BRILL LEIDEN • BOSTON 2005 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Library of Congress cataloging-in-publication data can be found on the Library of Congress website: http://catalog.loc.gov. ISSN 0167-9732 ISBN 90 04 14161 8 © Copyright 2005 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill Academic Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. AH rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Brill provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910 Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS CONTENTS Preface vii Abbreviations Contributors xv PART ONE JAMES AND PETER BRUCE CHILTON James, Peter, Paul, and the Formation of the Gospels 3 PETER H. DAVIDS James and Peter: The Literary Evidence 29 MARKUS BOCKMUEHL Simon Peter and Bethsaida 53 RICHARD J. BAUCKHAM James, Peter, and the Gentiles 91 JOHN PAINTER James and Peter: Models of Leadership and Mission 143 CRAIG A. EVANS A Fishing Boat, a House, and an Ossuary: What Can We Learn from the Artifacts? 211 PART TWO JAMES AND PAUL JOHN PAINTER The Power of Words: Rhetoric in James and Paul 235 JACOB NEUSNER What, Exactly, Is Israel's Gentile Problem? Rabbinic Perspectives on Galatians 2 275 BRUCE CHILTON Wisdom and Grace 313 WIARD POPKES Leadership: James, Paul, and their Contemporary Background . . 323 vi THE MISSIONS OF JAMES, PETER, AND PAUL PETER H. DAVIDS The Test of Wealth in James and Paul 355 MARIANNE SAWICKI Person or Practice? Judging in James and in Paul 385 JACOB NEUSNER Sin, Repentance, Atonement, and Resurrection: The Perspective of Rabbinic Theology on the Views of James 1-2 and Paul in Romans 3-4 409 PETER H. DAVIDS Why Do We Suffer? Suffering in James and Paul 435 ITHAMAR GRUENWALD Ritualizing Death in James and Paul in Light of Jewish Apocalypticism 467 BRUCE CHILTON Conclusions and Questions 487 Index of Biblical Literature 495 Index of Modem Authors 521 Index of Subjects and Figures 529 PREFACE The first volume of our Consultation on James sets out the purpose, methods and aims of concentrating on Jesus' brother in an attempt to trace the complexity of Christian origins in relation to Judaism.' The focus of that work engaged the nature of the evidence in regard to James and considered how to approach it, because its evaluation is a necessarily inferential endeavor, given the sources and their attenuated links to James. As our consultation progressed, the participants (many of whom have continued to work through the present phase of the project) proposed a fresh dimension of research. We considered the possibility that our comparative approach might be refined and at the same time broadened significantly. The comparison with contemporary Judaism was a foundational element of our orientation from the beginning, but the comparison we then became intrigued with was much more specific and more contextual at the same time, aimed within the movement which came to be called Christianity in its various cultural settings. How did James relate to such prominent figures as Peter and Paul? Given James' own eminence, those relationships must have been hallmarks of his own stance and status, and they open the prospect that we might delineate James' theological perspective more precisely than otherwise possible by means of this contrast with Peter and Paul. That is the reason for the division of the present volume into two parts. The whole issue of James' relationship to Paul is fraught, in that the latter has become a pivotal figure ("the Apostle") in Christianity since the second century (and contentiously so at least since the Reformation). For that reason, it seemed wise to begin our comparison with Peter (in November 1999), and then to take up the issue of Paul ' See B. D. Chilton and C. A. Evans (eds.), James the Just and Christian Origins (NovTSup 98; Leiden: Brill, 1999). Part I of this collection reviews background and context; Part II investigates James and Jewish Christianity. VIU THE MISSIONS OF JAMES, PETER, AND PAUL in a final consultation (in November 2001).^ But having pursued that agenda, we believe the results are best presented together. Our decision displays one of the characteristics of a genuinely comparative interest in theologies: the aim is to evaluate by distinguishing one perspective from another, without any desire to provide a hierarchy of preference. This project of comparison has involved an expanded horizon of interest and discussion as compared to much discussion of the New Testament today. Our participants represent a wide spectrum of expertises and approaches. For that reason, comparison is not simply within the idiom of Judaic literature or of Hellenistic literature, for example, but searches into the range of resonances of James' position within his environment and the environment of his circle. Differing approaches have also been involved. But in this preface, we refer simply to the topics that have concerned, leaving reflections on modes of analysis to "Conclusions and Questions." In the first article of Part One, Bruce Chilton takes up the discussion of James' Nazirite practice with which James the Just closed, and relates that to sources within the Gospels that seem to derive from James, contrasting their concerns with those of Peter and Paul. Peter H. Davids carries on the task of comparison and contrast by assessing the literary relationship between the Epistle of James, 1 Peter, and 2 Peter, allowing for the factor of pseudepigraphy. In "Simon Peter and Bethsaida," Markus Bockmuehl turns us from texts to stones, and shows how an archaeological assessment, with an appropriate allowance for our uncertainty, may illuminate the culture context of Christian origins. Richard J. Bauckham's essay concerns culture in a more anthropological sense, by reflecting on the category of "purity" within the primary texts and scholarly discussion. John ^ In 2000, the consultation convened in order to produce a less technical treatment of James. See B. D. Chilton and J. N. Neusner (eds.), The Brother of Jesus: James the Just and His Mission (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001); and B. D. Chilton and C. A. Evans (eds.), The Missing Jesus: Rabbinic Judaism and the New Testament. New Research Examining the Historical Jesus in the Context of Judaism (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2002). PREFACE IX Painter's analysis is exegetical, but it is concerned to identify models of leadership in the distinction and the coherence between James and Peter which go beyond the circumstances reflected in particular passages. In his study of artifacts, Craig Evans closes Part One with an investigation of recent excavations and finds that allegedly relate to James and Peter, assessing their historical value and what they might tell us about these figures. Part Two takes up a differing range of topics, owing to the challenge of comparing the Epistle of James with the Pauline corpus. John Painter therefore begins with "The Power of Words," and depicts the evocative contrast between the word of the cross in Paul and the power of the implanted word in James. The "Israel" addressed by the word concerns Jacob Neusner in "What, Exactly, Is Israel's Gentile Problem?" He shows in a systemic analysis that while Israel for James is a matter of sanctification, for Paul Israel pivots on salvation, and Professor Neusner at the same time illustrates a cognate contrast in Rabbinic thought. "Wisdom and Grace," by Bruce Chilton, represents a similar, connected contrast, but at the level of theology. Wiard Popkes then takes us into the practice of theology by relating the leadership of James and Paul in light of the rhetorical moves and metaphors of the literary evidence. Peter H. Davids's concern is also practice in "The Test of Wealth," because he delineates the existential issue of what that challenge makes of a person's stature in theological terms. He makes the distinction between the aim of righteousness in James and the aim of sacrifice in Paul, and this opens the way for Marianne Sawicki in "Person or Practice? Judging in James and Paul." She there makes the acute distinction between justice and justification, relating that difference to issues of time and eschatology as well as judgment. This difference is also reflected in "Sin, Repentance, Atonement and Resurrection" by Jacob Neusner, where James' construction of the "crown of life" seems congruent with the promise of the sages, albeit less strictly eschatological. In stark contrast, the truncation of repentance and atonement within Paul's system of Christianity seems to speak a different language. Peter X THE MISSIONS OF JAMES, PETER, AND PAUL Davids explores that apparent chasm between James and Paul, in "Why Do We Suffer?" There the distinction between an emphasis upon righteousness and a theology of the cross again becomes apparent. Ithamar Gruenwald maps Paul's theology as a variant of apoclayptic Judaism in "Ritualizing Death in James and Paul in Light of Jewish Apocalypticism." Once James is considered, not only on his own terms, but also in relation to Peter and Paul, it becomes plain that the pluralism of earliest Christianity is more comprehensive and more radical than the simple, binary opposition between "Jewish Christianity" and "Gentile Christianity" can possibly express. All the terms of those categories were themselves redefined in the experience of Jesus' first followers, and within the ferment of early Judaism. James has therefore aided us in coming to a more critical appreciation of aspects of Jesus' movement that he did not himself lead. We remain grateful to Mr. Frank T. Crohn for the impetus to study James, as well as for his interest in assessing where that study may illuminate the origins and evolution of Christianity. The editors also thank Danny Zacharias for his assistance in the preparation of the indexes. Bruce Chilton June, 2004 Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard College Craig Evans Acadia Divinity College

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