Title of the Article: The Jewish Messiahs, the Pauline Christ, and the Gentile Question
About the Author: Matthew V. Novenson
Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, NJ 08542
Bibliographic Data: Journal of Biblical Literature
JBL 128. No.2 (2009): 357-373
Outline of the Article:
- Messiah Language And The Problem Of Meaning
- Messiah Traditions And The Gentiles Question
- Paul And The Gentile Mission
- Isaiah 11 And Roman 15
What is the Article all About:
The messianic ideas in the first century were hopelessly diffuse and effectively non-referential, is grossly over drawn. We do better to speak not about the importance of messiah language but rather about its meaning, that is, the particular things that is signifies. What the spare distribution of the concept in the extant literature shows us is that a messiah figure was not a subject of extensive, concerted literary reflection in Judaism at the turn of the era. The coherence and distribution of popular messianic hope are fascinating historical questions, but it is almost entirely irrelevant to the question of whether messiah words have meaning. In fact, messiah language does signify in Paul’s first century context. It is not entirely determinate; there is some diversity to the set of things signified. But this diversity is closely circumscribed; it includes just a handful of ideas. And users of messiah language typically indicate which of these ideas they have in mind by citing or alluding to particular biblical traditions rather than others. If messiah traditions could incite Gentiles to take an interest in Judaism, they could also provide a framework in which Jews could make sense of the role of the Gentiles in the world. Paul is a famous anomaly in the history of Judaism, a self-styled Jewish apostle to the Gentiles. Previous generations of Christian scholars found in Paul the liberator of universal religion from its nationalistic Jewish fetter. But what was always clear to some interpreters is now generally recognized, that this account of Paul is a historically absurd as it is morally repugnant. Paul understands himself to be living at the dawn of the new age. His Gentiles mission is his own effort to bring about in reality the state of affairs that he believes to have begun with the resurrection of Jesus. The scattered children of Israel will soon be regathered, and the Gentiles, with Paul’s help, will abandon their idols and turn to worship to the true God. Paul believed that in his own time a man from the East was rising to rule the whole world; unlike those anonymous Jews, Paul believed that God had enlisted him to recruit pagan subjects for this Jewish king.
