Israel and the Nations

This book provides various perspectives of leading contemporary scholars concerning Paul’s message, particularly his expressed expectation of the end-time redemption of Israel and its relation to the Gentiles, the non-Jewish nations, in the context of Jewish eschatological expectation. The contributors engage the increasingly contentious enigmas relating to Paul’s Jewishness: had his perception of living in a new era in Christ and anticipating an imminent final consummation moved him beyond the bounds of what his contemporaries would have considered Judaism, or did Paul continue to think and act “within Judaism”?

The book is to be welcomed for its energetic engagement with the questions raised by the recent ambition to view Paul "within Judaism," in particular as it regards the central theme of the relationship of Jews and non-Jews. Scrutinizing anew main Pauline texts and comparing them with early Jewish documents, the various papers confront Paul's ideas on this relationship with the variety of ancient views. Pauline theology and Jewish history are brought into dialogue, and it is fascinating to see this happening at a conference in Bratislava.--Peter J. Tomson, Joint General Editor of Compendia Rerum Iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum, This extraordinary rich collection of essays deals with an issue that is at the heart of Paul's theological thinking. It gathers an international group of scholars who are well renowned for their historical and exegetical expertise. The variety of the contributions demonstrates convincingly that it is only a multi-perspective approach like this one that can be regarded as a suitable way to properly treat the issue that is in the focus of this volume. No one who wants to deal with this book's subject can do without this book.--Michael Wolter, University of Bonn, The great merit of this volume is the range and diversity of the Jewish material it brings into conversation with Paul. This kind of engagement between New Testament and Second Temple Studies is long overdue.--John J. Collins, Holmes Professor of Old Testament, Yale University, This fine collection of essays, the second to emerge from an international collaboration of scholars that took place in Bratislava, both broadens the geographical scope of the discussion concerning "Paul within Judaism" and serves to move it forward in significant ways. This volume will be particularly significant for the ongoing discussion of the relationship between Paul's conception of a mission to the gentiles and Jewish expectations about the place of the nations in the end-time redemption of Israel.--Terence L. Donaldson, Lord and Lady Coggan Professor Emeritus of New Testament Studies, Wycliffe College, Toronto

František Ábel is professor of New Testament at the Evangelical Lutheran Theological Faculty of Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia.