Bros.,

The hardest part of Wright's notion here for me to understand was the
coporate part.  Torah-keeping, acc. to Wright is a sign of membership in a
people, not just individual status.

For a while after I read Wright on this topic, I had imagined second-Temple
Jews sitting around like Puritans doing the practical syllogism.  "Avoiding
Gentile stuff is a sign of right relationship to God.  I avoid Gentiles.
Therefore, I have a sign of right relationship to God."

Of course, y'all can see the mistake I made, reasoning with the pronoun "I"
rather than "we."  Chalk it up to Protestant culture, to the Declaration of
Independence, or to modernity, but I was thinking like an individualist.  I
think that Wright explains pretty well, even to my slow brain that Torah was
more about belonging than personal reward.  I suppose that for most Jews
Torah-keeping was a sign of belonging; for the Pharisees, keeping Torah was
a more urgent and visible thing than for other Jews.  And how one kept Torah
showed which kind of Pharisee one was.  I've been trying to think of a
modern analogy to make this clearer to myself but haven't yet.

Paul+



----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Clavier+" <anglican@...>
To: <faithandlife@...>
Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2003 10:58 AM
Subject: Re: [FaithandLife] SAUL THE PHARISEE


> Mike+,
>
> First of all, I believe what Wright is saying in his discussion of Sanders
> is that prior to Sanders most Pauline scholars believed the Law was about
> getting into the covenant (sort of an OT Pelagianism).  Sanders argues
that
> obedience to the Law was a grateful response to the gift of covenant and
> thus something performed to remain in that convenant.
>
> Wright modifies this argument a little to say that obedience to the Law
was
> the public sign that one was within the convenant.  In other words, how
> could one tell whether or not one was within the covenanted community and
> among those who would inherit the earth: because that person in the
present
> kept the Torah.
>
> I'll leave to later how he ties this into Paul's theology.  But I hope
this
> at least makes some sense.
>
> Mark+
>
>
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