Have you ever criticized your own country – the government, the way Australians behave sometimes, the attitudes some people have? Criticized it because you care about it and want it to be better.
In Re-Reading Paul: A fresh look at his attitude to Torah and to Judaism, Brendan Byrne suggests Paul is not so much saying that the Torah was no longer valid but that there was a need for revitalizing its core. It was also not necessary for Gentiles to accept all elements of the Torah when they became Christian.
The Booklet has been given to all theological students in the Synod of Victoria and Tasmania of the Uniting Church in Australia. In it many ideas taught about Paul in the past century have been shown to be biased and inaccurate if one reads Paul carefully and in the context of his time. There is no disputing the fact that Paul’s certainty that Jesus is the Messiah is a major point of division between Christians and Jews. Paul felt he was living in the end times and his understanding of who Jesus is changed his understanding as a Jew. This book makes not attempt to suggest Christianity and Judaism are the same.
Paul was an intense person who made enemies as well as friends. His natural intensity was impelled by two firmly held convictions: first, that he was the divinely called and appointed Apostle to the Gentiles and, second, that he was witnessing the events of the Endtime, the sure sign of which was the response of the nations to the God of Israel.
Brendan Byrne asserts that it is essential that those who interpret Paul should be cognisant of these factors, at least, and that they should also be aware of the prejudice that has been engendered by the previous failures to do so.
The first part of this book is by Father Brendan Byrne SJ of the Jesuit Theological College and the United Faculty of Theology, Melbourne. The central and most important sections of previous works, for the purpose of this book, "Paul the Jew", "Paul and Torah'' and "Paul and the Jewish People'', are drawn from a paper Father Byrne delivered to the Council's 1997 Day Seminar on Torah. This was supplemented, with his consent, by a few extracts from a lecture entitled Paul: Apostle or Apostate? which he gave as part of the 1998 series sponsored by this Council and the Council of Adult Education.
The second half of the book is The Annotated Bibliography, which is quite substantial and is the work of The Reverend Professor Emeritus Nigel Watson and exhibits all the signs of his customary meticulous scholarship.
There is a history of biblical scholarship, showing changing attitudes to the Pauline writings over the last century, as well as in early times including Augustine of Hippo. There is also an analysis of how some passages have been read out of their original context and used to sustain prejudice by Christians against Jewish people today.
Paul the Jew, Paul and Torah, and Paul and the Jewish people are the three main sections of this book. It is easy to read and does help to maintain respect for special elements of Christian Faith, respect for the Jewishness of Paul and much of the early church who were Jewish, and a chance to reread Paul with different eyes.
The book may be obtained through the Council of Christians and Jews in Victoria or online at http://www.ccjaustralia.org/en/?item=211