SAET Blog

David Rudolph Posts

  • July 18, 2011 by Gerald Hiestand

    David J. Rudolph, A Jew to the Jews

    Dr. David J. Rudolph (SAET First Fellowship), has recently published his Cambridge dissertation, A Jew to the Jews: Jewish Contours of Pauline Flexibility in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 (Mohr Siebeck). David tells me that it should be on Amazon US soon.

    I’ve not read it, but I’ve read a number of papers David has written on related topics. Fascinating stuff.  David’s thesis has a great deal of relevance for those wanting to understand Paul’s view of the Law, what constitutes jewishness, etc. While not the focus, there’s obvious relevance here for the justification debates and the NPP stuff. Here’s the publisher’s write-up:

    David Rudolph’s primary aim is to demonstrate that scholars overstate their case when they maintain that 1 Cor 9:19-23 is incompatible with a Torah-observant Paul. A secondary aim is to show how one might understand 1 Cor 9:19-23 as the discourse of a Jew who remained within the bounds of pluriform Second Temple Judaism. Part I addresses the intertextual, contextual and textual case for the traditional reading of 1 Cor 9:19-23. Weaknesses are pointed out and alternative approaches are considered. The exegetical case in Part II centres on interpreting 1 Cor 9:19-23 in light of Paul’s recapitulation in 1 Cor 10:32-11:1, which concludes with the statement, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ”. Given the food-related and hospitality context of 1 Cor 8-10, and Paul’s reference to dominical sayings that point back to Jesus’ example and rule of adaptation, it is argued that 1 Cor 9:19-23 reflects Paul’s imitation of Jesus’ accommodation-oriented table-fellowship with all. As Jesus became all things to all people through eating with ordinary Jews, Pharisees and sinners, Paul became “all things to all people” through eating with ordinary Jews, strict Jews (those “under the law”) and Gentile sinners. This Cambridge University dissertation won the 2007 Franz Delitzsch Prize from the Freie Theologische Akademie.

    Categories: David Rudolph | General | Gerald Hiestand

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  • July 23, 2010 by Gerald Hiestand

    David Rudolph on “Paul’s Rule in All the Churches”

    Do you know Paul’s rule in all the churches? Can’t say that I did either. Until I read David’s paper, that is, published in the latest issue of CCJR. David is one of our SAET Fellows, and has done some important work on contemporary Jewish/Christian relations. If this is an area of interest to you, I strongly encourage you to get acquainted with David’s work. Here’s the intro to his article:

    “In preparation for this conference, I asked a number of church leaders if they were familiar with Paul’s “rule in all the churches.” Notably, not a single leader who responded to my ad hoc survey was aware of such a rule. Based on this response and my general familiarity with ecclesial theology, I think it is likely that Paul’s “rule in all the churches” has become a “rule in few of the churches” today. While many would probably be content to see this state of affairs continue, especially those who do not like church rules, there remains the nagging question, “Should a teaching that Paul considered important enough to be a universal rule be almost universally neglected by contemporary Christians?”

    The aim of this paper is to introduce Paul’s rule to those who are unfamiliar with it, and to make the case that Paul’s rule is a lynchpin that sustains the church as a body of Jews and Gentiles. In part one of the paper, I will discuss Paul’s rule as it relates to Jewish continuity, the apostle’s indifference to Jewish difference (1 Cor 7:19), and the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15). In part two, I will address the effects of the church not keeping Paul’s rule, the Jew-Gentile ekklesia, and whether Paul’s rule can be implemented today.”

    You can read the rest of the article online here.  David teaches at the Messianic Jewish Theological Institute, and blogs here and here.

    Categories: David Rudolph | SAET Fellow Publications

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