St. Paul's Deuteronomy

Thesis

Amid the recent turn to Paul’s reading of Scripture, the role Deuteronomy plays in his letters has generally been examined in individual citations without regard to the larger role Deuteronomy plays in Paul’s letters, or with an exclusive focus on either the theological or the ethical importance of Deuteronomy for Paul. In contrast, this study argues that Paul read Deuteronomy with three interlocking construals (as ethical authority, as theological authority, as an interpretation of Israel’s history), each equally basic. These construals can be combined to achieve a sense of the shape of Paul’s Deuteronomy as a whole. In order to ascertain and specify these construals, Paul’s engagement with Deuteronomy is examined as an instance of Jewish engagement with the book. Part I, therefore, supplies the historical conditions of Paul’s and other Jewish authors’ encounter with the scroll of Deuteronomy (Chap 2). On this basis, Part II proceeds to survey the major Jewish interpreters of Deuteronomy from the 3rd c. BCE to the 3rd c. CE (Chaps. 3-8). Because Paul is himself a Jewish author, this study foregoes the traditional bi-partite thesis division into “background” and Paul, opting instead to see Paul as one in a chain of Jews who turned to Deuteronomy to make sense of the present. These chapters thus also provide a sustained analysis of Deuteronomy’s broader effective history in Second Temple Jewish writings – and, in a few cases, beyond. In light of the range of interpretations to which Deuteronomy was susceptible, the concluding chapter examines what is distinctive about the shape of Paul’s Deuteronomy and what contribution this may make to debates on Pauline theology and to the study of Second Temple Jewish biblical interpretation.

Authors: Lincicum, D

• Alternative title: The end of the pentateuch and the apostle to the gentiles in Second Temple Jewish context
• Publication date: 2009
• DOI: 10.5287/ora-qqpv95qjp
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: Oxford University, UK
• Language: English
• Keywords: Deuteronomy; Apostle Paul; Old Testament in the New; biblical interpretation; Second Temple Judaism
• Subjects: Theology and Religion; Biblical studies; Religions of antiquity