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

553 Pages·2004·27.52 MB·English

by  Bruce Chilton

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
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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