The Society for the Advancement of Ecclesiological Theology

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