Note that in all these cases…
Yes. I see now. ergon (works) in the singular is used as a sort of singular plural in an inseparable sense, as say people of a nation. Ergwn (works) in the plural is used in a sense of something that can be separated out each from another as work(s).
See what I mean…
Yes.
Very interesting and enlightening! Thank you!
Thus I think he is elsewhere distinguishing some specific works (plural) of the Law from the singular work of the Law, which is known even to gentiles as the moral law
So, in a sense, the moral law is inseparable from the Torah, but what is separable is distinguished as some specific works.
I think it gets a little sticky!
Hayes thinks that the pedagogue narrative is serviceable in that his audience being Greek would understand and be able to relate to it. In particular she writes concerning Gal 3:19 “the Greek can be understood to suggest that the Law either controls sin or provokes it, and it is entirely possible that Paul uses this formulation precisely to convey both meanings simultaneously.”
And is it significant though, that Paul doe say “he is not free of God’s law”.
And consider:
Jeremiah 31
33
“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
34
No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the Lord.
Ezek 36
24 “‘For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. 28 Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.
Robert asked
With respect to universalism, do you think Paul was a universalist?
I think it might be easy to confuse Paul’s apocalyptic expectation of an imminent kingdom with the idea that all will be saved. But there is a difference between saying that every knee will bow, and every tongue confess, and saying that everyone will willingly enter the kingdom. Bringing one’s enemies to heel seems part of the triumph. And yet, and yet, Paul does seem to hold out some hope for the Jews. And in this he has the imprimatur of the prophets Jill quoted, Jeremiah and Ezekiel.
Jill, does Hayes deal with this idea at all?
“think Paul was a universalist?”
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Universal Restoration & the Fate of the Wicked
a Tentmaker.com handout, modified
Christians in the twentieth century have primarily three views of the fate of the wicked:
The Majority View: Eternal Torture
The Minority View: Annihilation, or Eternal Death
The Remnant View: Eventual Salvation Through Jesus Christ
The eternal torture view has been the majority view for about the last fifteen hundred years in the West. The main Scriptures used to support that view are:
Matthew 25:31-46
Mark 9:42-48
Luke 16:19-31
Matthew 12:24-37
John 3:35-36, 5:24-29
Revelation 19:19-21
Revelation 20:7-10
Revelation 20:11-15
The annihilation view has been the minority view since the beginning of church writings after the disappearance of the apostles. Several of the most ancient of the Christian writings taught this view. Some Scriptures used to support this view are:
2 Thessalonians 1:7-10
John 3:16
Jude 1:7
1 Timothy 6:9
Jeremiah 51:39, 57
Malachi 1:4, 3:19-21
Obadiah 1:15-16
Matthew 10:28
Hebrews 10:39
Revelation 20:11-15
This may come as a shock to most Christians today, but what is today a remnant view in the West was the majority view for the first five hundred years of Christianity. As a matter of fact, of the six theological schools we know existed in the second to fourth century, four of them believed in the salvation of all mankind, only one taught annihilation, and only one taught eternal torture, the school at Rome– see _Heaven’s Doors: Wider Than You Ever Believed!_ by George W. Sarris. For a brief history of how this reversal of doctrines came about, see the article, The Early Christians’ View of Salvation. The doctrine of eternal torture did not become popular in the West until the fifth century when Augustine began to push it. The Early Church’s majority view remains to this day the Eastern Orthodox understanding:
Orthodox view of Salvation – Steve Robinson
Brad Jersak – The Gospel in Chairs
Most Christians, when they are told their doctrines do not agree with the views of the bulk of early Christians, do not believe it. They are so certain that the Bible does not contradict itself and that their beliefs are based upon the Bible. Those who are in the majority and minority views often have those Scriptures that support their position memorized. Evangelists always use them at revival time to scare people into their church.
Below is a list of Scriptures that are used to support the view that all mankind will be saved. Do they contradict the beliefs that you presently hold? If they do, does the Bible contradict itself? And if it doesn’t, is it possible that the present church majority is wrong?
1 Timothy 2:4 God will have all to be saved
Psalms 135:6 God does what pleases Him
Isaiah 46:10 God will do all His pleasure
John 8:29 Jesus always does what pleases His Father
Ephesians 1:11 God works all after the counsel of His will
2 Peter 3:9 God isn’t willing that any should perish, but that all would come to repentance
Daniel 4:35 God’s will done in heaven and earth
Hebrews 7:25 Jesus is able to save to the uttermost
Proverbs 16:9 Man devises, God directs his steps
Proverbs 19:21 Man devises, but God’s counsel stands
Psalms 33:15 God fashions all hearts
Deuteronomy 32:39 God kills and makes alive
Psalms 90:3 God turns man to destruction then says “return”
Lamentations 3:31,32 God will not cast off forever
James 5:11 End of the Lord is full of mercy
1 Timothy 2:6 Salvation of all is testified in due time
1 Tim 4:10 God is the life-giver of all people– esp. of the believers
John 12:47 Jesus came to save all
I Timothy 4:9-11 Jesus is the Savior of all
John 12:32 Jesus draws all to Himself
Colossians 1:20 All reconciled unto God
Romans 5:15-21 In Adam all condemned, in Christ all live
1 Corinthians 15:22 In Adam all die, in Christ all live
Ephesians 1:9-10 All made new in Jesus at the fullness of times
Romans 11:36 All out of God, through Him, and into Him
Revelation 21:4-5 No more tears, all things made new
Ephesians 1:22-23 all things subjected under Jesus’ feet
Philippians 3:21 all things are made subject to Jesus
Psalms 66:3-4 Enemies will submit to God
1 Corinthians 15:26 Last enemy, death, will be destroyed;
Rev 20:14 death and hell will be cast into the lake of fire
Isaiah 25:8 He will swallow up death in victory
Philippians 2:9-11 (from Aramaic, dukhrana.com) Every tongue shall confess Jesus is of Master Yah (cf. 1 John 2:22)
1 Cor 12:3 Cannot confess except by the Holy Spirit
Acts 2:16-18 Holy Spirit is poured out on all flesh
II Corinthians 5:17 whoever is in Christ is a new creation;
Ephesians 1:10 in the fullness of time God will gather together into one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth
Ephesians 4:10 Jesus will fill all things
1 Corinthians 15:22, 24-28 God will be all in all
Revelation 5:13 All creation seen praising God
Colossians 1:16 all things were created for Him
Romans 8:19-21 Creation set at liberty
Romans 11:32 All subject to unbelief, mercy on all
Isaiah 45:23 All descendants of Israel justified
Romans 11:26 All Israel will be saved
Ezekiel 16:55 Sodom will be restored
Isaiah 19:14-25 Egypt and Assyria will be restored
Acts 3:20-21 Restoration of all
Psalms 138:4 All kings will praise God
Isaiah 25:7 Will destroy veil that is spread over all nations
Psalms 86:9 All nations will worship God
Isaiah 2:2 All nations shall flow to the Lord’s house (cf. Micah 4:1-7)
Revelation 15:4 All nations worship when judgments are seen
II Corinthians 5:15, 19 Jesus died for all
Psalms 22:25-29 All will turn to the Lord and all families will worship before Him
Hebrews 8:11-12 All will know God
Titus 2:11 Grace has appeared to all
1 Corinthians 4:5 All will have praise of God
Psalms 145:9-10 He is good to all and merciful to all His work
Psalms 145:14 God raises all who fall
Psalms 65:2-4 All flesh will come to God
Psalms 145:10 All God’s will praise Him
Isaiah 25:6 Lord makes feast for all people
Luke 2:10 Jesus will be joy to all people
Luke 3:6 all flesh will see the life that is of God (cf. Isaiah 40:5)
1 Corinthians 3:15 All saved, so as by fire
John 1:9 Jesus enlightens everybody that comes into the world
John 1:29 the Lamb of God bears the sin of the world
1 John 2:2 Jesus is the propitiation for our and for all the world’s sins
John 3:16-17 God loved the world and sent his son into the world that the world might live by means of him
John 6:33 Jesus gives life to the world
John 8:12 Jesus is the light of the world
John 4:42 Jesus is the Savior of the world
1 John 4:14 Jesus is the Savior of the world
Romans 11:15, 32, 36 Reconciliation of the world
John 6:37 all that the Father gave Jesus will come to Jesus
John 6:39 whatever the Father gave Jesus, Jesus will lose nobody, but raise them up
John 3:35 All has been given into His hand
John 17:2 Jesus will give eternal life to all whom His Father gives to Him
John 13:3 The Father gave Him all things
Hebrews 1:1-2 Jesus is heir of all things
Ephesians 2:4-10 when we were dead in our sins, God gave us life in Christ; we are God’s, created in Jesus Christ for doing good works; His grace shown in the ages to come
Romans 8:38-39 nothing can sever us from God’s love
Psalms 72:18 God only does wondrous things
What Pleases God?
1 Timothy 2:3-6 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires (“will have” in some translations) all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men the Man Christ Jesus, Who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time…”
I John 4:14 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world.
John 3:35 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hands.
John 6:39 This is the will of the Father who sent me, that of all He has given me, I should lose nothing, but raise it up at the last day.
Stephen,
Well, I suppose it depends on your definition of “universalism”. There seems to be a difference or a certain hierarchy established in the universality but anyone who believes in Paul’s message of Christ’s salvation is included among those present. I would say though that it’s quite Jewish centric.
– Just some notable pieces below –
p.17
In reference to Deut 4:5, biblical divine law is strikingly particularistic. Indeed according to some passages, the divine law’s purpose is precisely not to promote universalism and sameness but to ensure the opposite – particularism and difference.
You shall faithfully observe all my laws and all my regulations . . You shall not follow the practices of the nation and I am driving out before you. . .I, Yahweh, am your god who has set you apart from other peoples. Lev 20:22a, 23a, 24b
p. 18
. . . change, growth, and development of the divinely given law are all integral to the process, because the law is not an eternal and static natural order but an expression of God’s will for a particular people in ever-shifting historical time.
p. 147
Fredriksen notes (2010, 250) that like other apolcalyptically minded Jews of his era, Paul believed that the coming Kingdom’s demography would reflect the present distinction between Jews and Gentiles, Israel and the nations. What was the apolcalypic vision? For apocalyptically mended Jews, Yahweh’s eschatological kingdom maps neatly onto the concentric circles of the Temple precincts in Jerusalem (Fredriksen 2005, 205ff). Specifically, the innermost and most holy area of the Temple accessed only by the high priest was ringed by zones of decreasing holiness that were accessible to ordinary priests, Levites, pure Israelite men, pure Israelite women, and finally Gentiles, respectively. Some believed that this distinction would continue in the final age (see 4QFlor, 4Q174 1 I, 3-4). As in the Temple, so in the end-time – Gentiles are included even as they are excluded.
There are elements of this delimited inclusion in Paul’s writings*, and the mechanism for the believing Gentile’s entry into the redemption narrative of Israel is the death of Jesus, or baptism into his death (Fredriksen 2005, 210).
The Spirit, through baptism, has incorporated them (literally, somehow) into Christs’ eschatological body, so that false gods, hostile cosmic forces, and sin itself no longer have power over them (I Cor. 12:12-13, 27; Gal 3:28, 4:3-9; cf Rom. 6:11). The have been set apart: this is the biblical sense of “made holy.” (ibid., 212-33)
*Gal 3:28, however, suggests an ultimate erasure of difference. Nevertheless, Paul here refers to an erasure of difference through faith or baptism in Christ, i.e., according to the Spirit. Insofar as people have bodies, there is a difference according to the flesh.
Further
Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36 describe an ideal future in which the ingathered exiles will be able to observe the Law without struggle or effort.* This, Paul believes, is what justification through Christ Jesus offers to Jews – to Torah-observant Jews. Paul believes that Jews too are delivered from sin through faith in Christ Jesus and only through faith, not the Law (Rom 3:28-30). Having died to the body with Christ, Jews also are freed from the bodily passions and desires that prevented them from fulfilling the Torah perfectly. Thus, prior to Christ the Law aided Jews in their struggle against sin; but after Christ the Law no longer serves that function, for faith in Christ can abolish the struggle against sin and so void one of the purposes of the Law. Freed of sin (justified) through faith in Christ Jesus, Jews will be able to fulfill the Law effortlessly as intended and envisaged by Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36. Thus Jews are not freed from the Law by the advent of Jesus; they are freed from the state of sin that prevents them from fulfilling the law as intended**
* . . .This idealized effortless observance of the Torah, which will be achieved in the final age when the commandments are entirely internalized, the “curse” of moral freedom is eliminated, and humans are returned to the state of automatic obedience to God’s will that they enjoyed in Eden, before trading immortality for moral agency.
** It is only in the future messianic state of freedom from sin that the Law will be perfectly fulfilled, then it is little wonder that Paul does not emphasize its observance by Jews in the present. Nevertheless, while it may achieve little now, it has not been annulled, and indeed it will be fulfilled in the end.
“Paul believed that the coming Kingdom’s demography would reflect the present distinction between Jews and Gentiles, Israel and the nations”
Galatians 3:28 (NIV)
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There is neither Jew nor Gentile,
neither slave nor free,
nor is there male and female,
for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Revelation 21:23-24 (NIV)
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23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it,
for the glory of God gives it light,
and the Lamb is its lamp.
24 The nations will walk by its light,
and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.
Sitz im Leben
In Biblical criticism, Sitz im Leben is a German phrase roughly translating to “setting in life”. It stands for the context in which a text, or object, has been created, and its function and purpose at that time. The Sitz im Leben is also used to refer to the social, ethnic and cultural setting of a site at a particular era.
I’d like to add that Hayes considers Paul to be a determinist for reasons she writes that will become clear. Not really understanding what being a determinist entails, and not having finished the book (WDADL) I’m not able to say anything more. I’m just putting that out there for those who may be interested. Thanks!
Thanks, Chess, probably needless to say I have more questions than answers.
Jill, I think Hayes and Fredriksen neatly lay out the problem. The prophetic view makes it sound like the Kingdom will be an idealized community that does have a place for the Gentiles but definitely favors the Jews. The prophets expect a kingdom that continues the normal round of human living and dying, a utopian version of what happens now. But in Paul’s view distinctions of gender, social status and culture, all vanish. This would follow from his view in 1 Corinthians of the pneuma resurrection body. Paul seems to imagine the kingdom, not as an earthly utopia, but as an alternate way of being. This reminds me of Matthew 22:30. But then the Enoch literature, which informs much of apocalyptic thinking, is predicated on just the fact that the “sons of God” had their way with the “daughters of men”.
So what gives? Obviously, there were a lot of viewpoints floating around. Paul is not a systematic theologian. Maybe he just couldn’t bear the idea that his people might be excluded from the kingdom.
“The prophetic view makes it sound like the Kingdom will be an idealized community that does have a place for the Gentiles but definitely favors the Jews”
Luke 4 (NIV)
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24 “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown.
25 I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land.
26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon.
27 And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed– only Naaman the Syrian.”
28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this.
29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff.
30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.
Luke 20 (NIV)
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13 “Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.’
14 “But when the tenants saw him, they talked the matter over. ‘This is the heir,’ they said. ‘Let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’
15 So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
“What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them?
16 He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.”
Matthew 21 (NIV)
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33 “Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard.
He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower.
Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place.
34 When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.
35 “The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third.
36 Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way.
37 Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.
38 “But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’
39 So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
40 “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”
41 “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”
So what gives? Obviously, there were a lot of viewpoints floating around. Paul is not a systematic theologian. Maybe he just couldn’t bear the idea that his people might be excluded from the kingdom.
Right. Thanks for your helpful guidance, Stephen.
And Robert, thank you as well! And what happened to Giorgi_Lagidze?? You know the original question was about Paul’s view of salvation. Paul certainly was influenced by a number of systems of Greek thought –systems of law, and after this discussion, it occurs to me that in the gospels there seem to be a variety of viewpoints as well and understanding this kind of offers a little different approach to understanding the gospels.
“in Paul’s view distinctions of gender, social status and culture, all vanish. …
Paul… Maybe he just couldn’t bear the idea that his people might be excluded from the kingdom”
Romans 9 (Berean Standard)
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1 I speak the truth in Christ; I am not lying, as confirmed by my conscience in the Holy Spirit.
2 I have deep sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.
3 For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my own flesh and blood,
4 the people of Israel.
Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory and the covenants; theirs the giving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises.
5 Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them proceeds the human descent of Christ, who is God over all, forever worthy of praise! Amen.
6 It is not as though God’s word has failed.
For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.
7 Nor because they are Abraham’s descendants are they all his children.
On the contrary, “Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.”
8 So it is not the children of the flesh who are God’s children,
but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as offspring.
Romans 10 (Berean Standard)
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11 It is just as the Scripture says: “Anyone who believes in Him will never be put to shame.”
12 For there is no difference between Jew and Greek: The same Lord is Lord of all, and gives richly to all who call on Him,
13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Romans 11 (Berean Standard)
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7 What then? What Israel was seeking, it failed to obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened,
8 as it is written:
…
11 I ask then, did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Certainly not! However, because of their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel jealous.
12 But if their trespass means riches for the world, and their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!
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