Search

Why does the author of the Gospel of Matthew include non-Judean characters in his narrative? Tekalign Duguma Negewo attempts to answer this question based on the assumption that Matthew's Gospel played an identity-forming role for its community. As a heuristic interpretive tool, he uses the socio-narrative reading method, which merges socio-scientific criticism, narrative criticism, and semiological reading through social identity, narrative, and semiotic theories. Tekalign Duguma Negewo argues that the implied author used the non-Judean characters to form the identity of the ideal readers'community.

Are the gentiles under the law in Paul? This question has three possible answers: (1) Paul understands that gentiles are not under the law because they do not have the law; (2) conversely, and although it appears to be ironic, Paul puts gentiles under the law even though he acknowledges that they do not have the law; or (3) he reveals his confusion concerning the relationship between the law and gentiles by saying gentiles are under the law in one place and then saying gentiles are without the law in another place. This book investigates the literature of Second Temple Judaism and the Greco-Roman world to uncover the possible background of Paul's understanding of law and its relationship to the gentiles. This book then engages in exegetical studies on key texts of Paul relative to the law and gentiles by way of historical-grammatical research. The thesis of this book is that, although Paul acknowledges gentiles to be without the law (Rom 2:14) and Israel as having the law as her privilege (Rom 9:4), Paul paradoxically places gentiles along with Jews under the law which gentiles never possessed. For Paul, gentiles not having the law are under the law and its curse. Christ's sacrificial death on the cross redeemed Jews and gentiles from the curse of law.

Paul's discipleship agenda was defined by his native Jewish apocalyptic worldview. The novelties of his thought--namely, the death of Israel's Messiah, the unique gift of God's Spirit, and the intentional mission to the gentiles--seem to be framed within the common Jewish eschatological parameters of the day of the Lord, the judgment, the resurrection of the dead, and the messianic kingdom. Moreover, for Paul this eschatology was the primary driver of discipleship--comforting in the midst of tribulation, anchoring the gifts of the Spirit, and informing divine mission. Paul thus discipled the gentiles into the hope of Israel.

Terence L. Donaldson's scholarship in the field of New Testament studies is vital, as he has pressed scholars to pay closer attention to the complex relations between early Christ-followers-who were mostly non-Jews-and the Jewish matrix from which the narrative of the Christian proclamation comes from. This volume allows prominent New Testament scholars to engage Donaldson's contributions, both to sharpen some of his conclusions and to honour him for his work. These essays are located at the intersections of three bodies of literature-Matthew, Paul and Second Temple Jewish Literature-and themes and questions that have been central to Donaldson's work: Christian Judaism and the Parting of the Ways; Gentiles in Judaism and early Christianity; Anti-Judaism in early Christianity. With contributions ranging from remapping Paul within Jewish ideologies, and Paul among friends and enemies, to socio-cultural readings of Matthew, and construction of Christian Identity through stereotypes of the Scribes and Pharisees, this book provides a multi-scholar tribute to Donaldson's accomplishments.

Over fifty years ago, Vatican II's Nostra Aetate 4 drew from Romans 11 to challenge the way Paul's voice has been used to negatively discuss Jews and Judaism. The church called for Catholics to conceptualize Jews as'brothers'in'an everlasting covenant,'and many other Christian organizations have expressed similar sentiments in the years since. Nevertheless, the portrayal of Jews as'branches broken off,''hardened,''without faith,''disobedient,'and'enemies of God'whom Christians have'replaced'as'true Israel,'are among the many ways that readers encounter Paul's views of Jews and Judaism in today's translations and interpretations of this chapter, and throughout the letter as well. In the chapters in this volume, Nanos shows why these translations and interpretive decisions, among others, do not likely represent what Paul wrote or meant. Each essay offers challenges to the received view of Paul from the research hypothesis that Paul and the Christ-followers to whom he wrote were still practicing Judaism (a Jewish way of life) within subgroups of the Jewish synagogue communities of Rome, and that they understood Paul to observe Torah and promote Judaism for their communities.

This volume contains seventeen essays written by Eckhard J. Schnabel, written over the past 25 years. The essays focus on the realities of the work of Jesus, Paul, John, and the early church, exploring aspects of the history, missionary expansion, and theology of the early church including lexical, ethical, and ecclesiological questions. Specific subjects discussed include Jesus'silence at his trial, the introduction of foreign deities to Athens, the understanding of Rom 12:1, Paul's ethics, the meaning of baptizein, the realities of persecution, Christian identity and mission in Revelation, and singing and instrumental music in the early church.

This exciting new interpretation of Paul's Letter to the Romans approaches Paul's most famous letter from one of the newest scholarly positions within Pauline Studies: The Radical New Perspective on Paul (also known as Paul within Judaism). As a point of departure, the author takes Paul's self-designation in 11:13 as'apostle to the gentiles'as so determining for Paul's mission that the audience of the letter is perceived to be exclusively gentile. The study finds confirmation of this reading-strategy in the letter's construction of the interlocutor from chapter 2 onwards. Even in 2:17, where Paul describes the interlocutor as someone who'calls himself a Jew,'it requests to perceive this person as a gentile who presents himself as a Jew and not an ethnic Jew. If the interlocutor is perceived in this way throughout the letter, the dialogue between Paul and the interlocutor can be perceived as a continuous, unified and developing dialogue. In this way, this interpretation of Romans sketches out a position against a more disparate and fragmentary interpretation of Romans.

The apostolic mission from Israel to'the nations'forms the explicit framework for Ephesians and Colossians. Yet the concrete dynamics of this mission seldom play any significant role in modern interpretation. Scholars frequently approach these letters as if the Jew-gentile dynamics inherent in the early Christ-preaching mission are either irrelevant, or are negated by the letters themselves. This book seeks to redress this deficiency. Windsor approaches Ephesians and Colossians with an evangelical post-supersessionist perspective. By highlighting, rather than downplaying, Israel's special place in salvation history, Windsor demonstrates that Jew-gentile dynamics and missionary concerns are highly significant for understanding the overall argument of these two letters. The resulting readings offer a deeper appreciation of the biblical, Israel-centered contours in which the theological and ethical concerns of the letters are expressed. Along the way, Windsor demonstrates how certain texts in Ephesians and Colossians, which are often read as evidence of a supersessionist perspective, are capable of more fruitful and satisfactory post-supersessionist interpretations. He demonstrates that in these letters, Christ does not negate Jewish distinctiveness. Rather, Christ's mission proceeds through Israel to the nations, creating mutual blessing in the Messiah.

Paul's letter to the Philippians has often been read as one of the apostle's clearest denials of his (previous) Jewish identity in order to preempt the'Judaizing'tactics of false teachers who might infiltrate the congregation. But is this really the problem that Paul is confronting? And did Paul really abandon his identity as a Jew in order to'know Christ'? Furthermore, what should Paul's gospel converts understand about their own identity'in Christ'? Zoccali provides fresh answers to these questions, offering a more probable alternative to the traditional view that Christianity has replaced Judaism (supersessionism). Tracing Paul's theology in the light of social theory, Zoccali demonstrates that, for Paul, the ethnic distinction between Jew and gentile necessarily remains unabated, and the Torah continues to have a crucial role within the Christ-community as a whole. Rather than rejecting all things Jewish (or gentile), Paul seeks in this letter to more firmly establish the congregation's identity as members of God's holy, multiethnic people.

In mehreren Episoden wird in der Apostelgeschichte von den konfliktreichen Begegnungen zwischen Paulus und den Völkern erzählt. Diese Anlässe nutzt der Autor, um den theologischen Standpunkt seines Heidenapostels zu verdeutlichen. Nur welcher ist das? Eben dieser Frage geht dieses Buch vor dem Hintergrund der These nach, dass Lukas das Christentum als den gehorsamen Teil Israels versteht, der an die alttestamentliche Tradition gebunden ist.

Decades ago, Werner G. Kmmel described the historical problem of Romans as its'double character': concerned with issues of Torah and the destiny of Israel, the letter is explicitly addressed not to Jews but to Gentiles. At stake in the numerous answers given to that question is nothing less than the purpose of Paul's most important letter. In The So-Called Jew in Paul's Letter to the Romans, nine Pauline scholars focus their attention on the rhetoric of diatribe and characterization in the opening chapters of the letter, asking what Paul means by the'so-called Jew'in Romans 2 and where else in the letter's argumentation that figure appears or is implied. Each component of Paul's argument is closely examined with particular attention to the theological problems that arise in each.

Paul and the Gentile Problem provides a new explanation for the apostle Paul's statements about the Jewish law in his letters to the Romans and Galatians. Paul's arguments against circumcision and the law in Romans 2 and his reading of Genesis 15-21 in Galatians 4:21-31 belong within a stream of Jewish thinking which rejected the possibility that gentiles could undergo circumcision and adopt the Jewish law, thereby becoming Jews. Paul opposes this solution to the gentile problem because he thinks it misunderstands how essentially hopeless the gentile situation remains outside of Christ. The second part of the book moves from Paul's arguments against a gospel that requires gentiles to undergo circumcision and adoption of the Jewish law to his own positive account, based on his reading of the Abraham Narrative, of the way in which Israel's God relates to gentiles. Having received the Spirit (pneuma) of Christ, gentiles are incorporated into Christ, who is the singular seed of Abraham, and, therefore, become materially related to Abraham. But this solution raises a question: Why is it so important for Paul that gentiles become seed of Abraham? The argument of this book is that Paul believes that God had made certain promises to Abraham that only those who are his seed could enjoy and that these promises can be summarized as being empowered to live a moral life, inheriting the cosmos, and having the hope of an indestructible life.

Over the years Romans 9–11 has been investigated from a variety of approaches, with one of the most prominent being an intertextual reading. However, most discussions of intertextual studies on this section of Romans fail to adequately address Paul's discourse patterns and that of his Jewish contemporaries with regard to God, Israel, and the Gentiles. Adapting Lemke's linguistic intertextual thematic theory, this study uses a methodological control to analyze the discourse patterns in Romans 9–11. Through this analysis the author demonstrates the divergence of Paul's viewpoints on several typical Jewish issues, which suggests that his discontinuities from his Jewish contemporaries are obvious and sometimes radical. It is apparent that Romans 9–11 not only provides a self-presentation of Paul as a Mosaic prophet figure, but overall it appears as a prophetic discourse, reinforcing the notion that Paul's message comes from divine authority.

Paul lies at the core of the constant debate about the opposition between Christianity and Judaism both in biblical interpretation and public discourse. The so-called new perspective on Paul has not offered a significant break from the formidable paradigm of Christian universalism versus Jewish particularism in Pauline scholarship. This book liberates Paul from the Western logic of identity and its dominant understanding of difference. Drawing attention to the currency of discourses on difference in contemporary theories as well as in biblical studies, the author critically examines the hermeneutical relevance of a contextual and relational understanding of difference. He applies it to interpret the dynamics of Jew-Gentile difference reflected particularly in meal practices (Gal 2:1-21 and Rom 14:1-15:13) of early Christian communities.'Paul and the Politics of Difference'argues that by deconstructing the hierarchy of social relations underlying the Jew-Gentile difference in different community situations, Paul promotes a politics of difference. This affirms a preferential option for the socially'weak'- solidarity with the weak. Paul's politics of difference is invoked as the potential for liberation in a vision of egalitarian justice in the face of contemporary globalism's proliferation of difference.

Charles E. Carlston and Craig A. Evans examine in detail five major motifs in the theology of Matthew: Christology, Law, Church, Scripture and Tradition, as well as History and Eschatology. In this study they reveal a Jewish-Christian author who attempts to mediate the traditions of Judaism and early Christianity to Christian churches in his area that are becoming increasingly composed of former Gentiles. Diversity then, as now, offers both a challenge and an opportunity. The evangelist, moreover, was faced with rejection by the synagogue and strongly voiced skepticism with regard to the proclamation of Jesus as Israel's Messiah. To encourage believers and defend the story of Jesus, the evangelist shows how prophetic Scripture and the demands of Torah have been fulfilled. While not all of the specifics of Matthew's program are immediately usable today, the evangelist offers valuable guidance for the contemporary church in our vastly different historical situation.

Although Roman centurions appear at crucial stages in the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, the significance of the centurion's office for the development of Luke's story has not been adequately researched. To fill in that void, this study engages the relevant Greco-Roman and Jewish sources that reflect on the image of the Roman military and applies the findings to the analysis of the role of the Roman centurion in the narrative of Luke-Acts. It argues that contemporary evidence reveals a common perception of the Roman centurion as a principal representative of the Roman imperial power, and that Luke-Acts employs centurions in the role of prototypical Gentile believers in anticipation of the Christian mission to the Empire.Chapter 1 outlines the current state of the question. Chapter 2 surveys the background data, including the place of the centurion in the Roman military organization, the role of the Roman army as the basis of the ruling power, the army's function in the life of the civilian community, Luke's military terminology, and the Roman military regiments in Luke-Acts. Chapter 3 reviews Greco-Roman writings, including Polybius, Julius Caesar, Sallust, Livy, Velleius Paterculus, Tacitus, Appian, Cornelius Nepos, Plutarch, Suetonius, Plautus, Cicero, Virgil, Horace, Petronius, Quintilian, Epictetus, Juvenal, Fronto, Apuleius, as well as non-literary evidence. Chapter 4 engages the Jewish witnesses, including 1 Maccabees, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Jewish pseudepigrapha, Philo, Josephus, Talmudic sources, and non-literary sources. Chapter 5 examines the relevant accounts of Luke-Acts, focusing on Luke 7:1–10 and Acts 10:1–11:18. The Conclusion reviews the findings of the study and summarizes the results.

Paul lies at the core of the constant debate about the opposition between Christianity and Judaism in biblical interpretation and public discourse as well. The so-called new perspective on Paul has not offered a significant break from the formidable paradigm of Christian universalism vs. Jewish particularism in Pauline scholarship. This book seeks to liberate Paul from the Western logic of identity and its dominant understanding of difference, which tend to identify Pauline Christianity as its ally. Drawing attention to the currency of discourses on difference in contemporary theories as well as in biblical studies, the author critically examines the hermeneutical relevance of a contextual and relational understanding of difference and applies it to interpret the dynamics of Jew-Gentile difference reflected particularly in meal practices (Galatians 2:1-21 and Romans 14:1--15:13) of early Christian communities. This book argues that by deconstructing the hierarchy of social relations underlying the Jew-Gentile difference in different community situations, Paul promotes a politics of difference, which affirms a preferential option for the socially'weak,'that is, solidarity with the weak. Paul's politics of difference is invoked as a liberative potential for the vision of egalitarian justice in the face of contemporary globalism's proliferation of differences.

This volume describes the attitudes towards Gentiles in both ancient Judaism and the early Christian tradition. The Jewish relationship with and views about the Gentiles played an important part in Jewish self-definition, especially in the Diaspora where Jews formed the minority among larger Gentile populations. Jewish attitudes towards the Gentiles can be found in the writings of prominent Jewish authors (Josephus and Philo), sectarian movements and texts (the Qumran community, apocalyptic literature, Jesus) and in Jewish institutions such as the Jerusalem Temple and the synagogue. In the Christian tradition, which began as a Jewish movement but developed quickly into a predominantly Gentile tradition, the role and status of Gentile believers in Jesus was always of crucial significance. Did Gentile believers need to convert to Judaism as an essential component of their affiliation with Jesus, or had the appearance of the messiah rendered such distinctions invalid? This volume assesses the wide variety of viewpoints in terms of attitudes towards Gentiles and the status and expectations of Gentiles in the Christian church.

Drawing upon the concepts of cultural and linguistic hybridity developed by Homi Bhabha, Salman Rushdie, Mikhail Bakhtin, and others, Garroway suggests that the first generation of Gentile converts were uncertain whether they had become Jews or remained Gentiles in the wake of their baptism into Christ.

After a survey of recent approaches to the study of Paul's use of Scripture, the four main chapters explore the use of Isa. 54:1 in Gal. 4:27, the catena of scriptural texts in 2 Cor. 6:16–18, Hos. 1:10 and 2:23 in Rom. 9:25–26 and Isa. 57:19 in Eph. 2:17.In each case, the ancienwriter seeks to place the letter in its historical context and rhetorical situation, identify the significance of any conflations or modifications that have taken place in the citation process, analyse the citation's function within its immediate context, compare its use by Paul with the various ways in which the text is interpreted and appropriated by other Second Temple writers, and evaluate the main proposals offered as explanations for the riddle posed by the citation. That done, he offers his own account of the hermeneutic at work, based on an analysis of the explicit and implicit hermeneutical pointers through which the letter guides its readers in their appropriation of Scripture.This book compares the hermeneutical approaches of the four letters and draws conclusionsconcerning the interplay of continuity and discontinuity between Scripture and gospel in Paul's letters and the relationship between grace and Gentile inclusion in his theology.

Examines Paul's letter to the Philippians in its ancient Jewish context, making a convincing case that Paul expected churches to engage in mission.

Scholars have long recognized the importance of Paul's citations from the Pentateuch for understanding the argument of Galatians. But what has not been fully appreciated is the key role that Isaiah plays in shaping what Paul says and how he says it, even though he cites Isaiah explicitly only once (Isaiah 54:1 in Galatians 4:27). Using an intertextual approach to trace more subtle appropriations of Scripture (i.e., allusions, echoes and thematic parallels), Harmon argues that Isaiah 49-54 in particular has shaped the structure of Paul's argument and the content of his theological reflection in Galatians. Each example of Isaianic influence is situated within its original context as well as its new context in Galatians. Attention is also paid to how those same Isaianic texts were interpreted in Second Temple Judaism, providing the larger interpretive context within which Paul read Scripture. The result is fresh light shed on Paul's self-understanding as an apostle to the Gentiles, the content of his gospel message, his reading of the Abraham story and the larger structure of Galatians.

What does the phrase'people of God'mean for Paul? What is the function of the'remnant', both with respect to Gentile-Christians and to Israel as a whole? What is the relationship between Gentile-Christians and the'hardened'part of Israel? How is Paul's understanding of the future of Israel shaped by the scriptural hope for Israel's restoration? Pablo Gadenz seeks to answer ecclesiological questions such as these as he carefully examines Paul's argument in Romans 9-11. Using rhetorical analysis and paying close attention to the scriptural background of Paul's thought, he investigates the network of relationships between Israel and the nations, both internal and external to the church.

Scholarship on the uses of the Old Testament in Luke-Acts has tended to focus upon the role played by the Old Testament in the development of the author's Christology. James Meek, however, draws out the theme of the Gentile mission in Acts as it relates to the Old Testament, and gives particular attention to four texts:13:47 (Isa 49:6); 15:16-18 (Amos 9:11-12); 2:17-21 (Joel 3:1-5 MT); 3:25 (Gen 22:18). The quotations in Acts 13 and 15 receive greater attention because they explicitly address the issue of the Gentile mission (the two earlier texts anticipate it) and because of particular interpretive questions raised by these texts. Meek argues that while there are similarities in the quotations in Acts with the Old Greek form of the cited texts, the argument never depends on distinctive readings of the Old Greek. He therefore rejects claims that the author's use of Old Testament texts is dependent entirely on the Old Greek. He also maintains that all four quotations are used in a manner consistent with their sense in their original contexts, contrary to the common assertion that the New Testament commonly cites Old Testament texts without regard for original sense or context. His third principal argument is that these Old Testament quotations function as'proof from prophecy,'contrary to the argument of some. In particular, they are cited to demonstrate the legitimacy of the Gentile mission as conducted by the early church and of the Gentiles'place among the people of God, showing these ideas to be central to the author's purpose.

This groundbreaking study argues that, in the Gospel of Mark, Gentiles are recipients of Jesus'compassion and are typically depicted as desperate individuals who exhibit faith and understanding. Mark's arrangement of the sequence of Gentile episodes is progressive and envisions a theological reversal in the kingdom of God, a re-prioritization in the proclamation of the gospel message that coincides with the death of Jesus. After receiving Gentiles in the Jewish homeland (3:7-12), the Markan Jesus initiates four excursions into Gentile territory. The first journey (5:1-20) is preparatory and opens the door for future ministry in Gentile regions. Jesus symbolically cleanses the land and the healed demoniac becomes the first missionary to Gentiles. The second journey (6:45-52) ends prematurely when the disciples fail to understand the Gentile mission, leading inexorably to the third journey where the relationship between Jews, Gentiles, and the kingdom of God becomes the focal point of the narrative. Although the Jews are first, the Gentiles are not excluded from the kingdom. On the fourth journey the reader senses a subtle re-prioritization in the kingdom as an event on Gentile soil occurs before its parallel counterpart on Jewish soil, reversing an established narrative pattern in Jesus'ministry.Iverson shows how the theological reversal gains clarity when the narrative shifts to Jerusalem. The tearing of the temple curtain marks the dawn of a new era and links the temple and Gentile themes. Through Jesus'obedient self-gift, he becomes the new temple providing universal access to God for all people's depiction of the centurion is a narrative signal that the kingdom has been passed to Gentiles according to the divine plan. The Jews have not been excluded, any more than the Gentiles were when Israel was first. Mark's theological reversal looks proleptically beyond the story line to the completion of the Gentile mission by the followers of Jesus.

Bird argues that Jesus was attempting to achieve and enact the restoration of Israel, and in continuity with other strands of Jewish belief, Jesus conceived of the restoration of Israel as resulting in the salvation of the gentiles.Jesus'mission was Israel-centric, but he espoused a view of restoration that was indebted to certain strands of Israel's sacred traditions where the gentiles are implicit beneficiaries of Israel's salvation. Since this restoration was already being partially realized in Jesus'ministry, it was becoming possible for gentiles to begin sharing in Israel's salvation in the present.Additionally, Jesus understood himself and his followers to be the new temple and the vanguard of the restored Israel who would appropriate for themselves the role of Israel and the temple in being a light to the nations. Thus, a gentile mission has its germinal roots in the aims and intentions of Jesus and was developed in a transformed situation by adherents of the early Christian movement.

Much scholarship has focused on Paul's insistence on Gentile membership of the people of God equally with Jews. Dr Yee's study of Ephesians 2 reveals how the distinctively Jewish world view of the author of Ephesians underlies this key text. He explores how the Ephesians'author provides a resolution to one of the thorniest issues regarding two ethnic groups in the earliest period of Christianity: can Jew and Gentile, the two estranged human groups, be one (people of God) and if so, how? Setting Ephesians 2 as fully as possible into its historical context, he describes some of the relevant Jewish features and demonstrates them, revealing many explosive but hidden issues. This book provides an important contribution to the continuing reassessment of Christian and Jewish self-understanding in regard to each other during the critical period of the latter decades of the first century CE.

Paul seemingly nowhere in his letters commands his congregations to preach the gospel. Therefore many scholars have concluded that Paul's thinking had little or no place for a mission of the church. This study undertakes a fresh investigation of the question by devoting close attention to a text hitherto overlooked in discussion of early Christian mission, Paul's letter to the Philippians. The Jewish context of Paul's thought in Philippians is the key to unlocking his understanding of church and mission in the letter. The study accordingly begins in Part One with an investigation of conversion of gentiles in ancient Judaism. Part Two, drawing upon this Jewish context, focuses on close exegesis of Philippians, revealing the crucial place of the mission of the church in Paul's thought.The questions addressed by this study go to the heart of our understanding of Paul and of mission in earliest Christianity.

The book explores the problems faced by the church in Antioch in the mid-first century CE once the decision was taken to welcome Gentiles into the church. Slee argues that a particular problem was the celebration of the Eucharist, since some Jewish Christians felt that the table-fellowship this involved inevitably brought the risk of contamination (because of Gentile contact with idolatry). She suggests this was the subject debated at the Jerusalem conference described in Acts 15 and Galatians 2, and it was the eventual decision of the Antioch church to hold separate Eucharists that led to Paul's break with the church (Gal 2:11-14). Thus even at the end of the first century CE the Antioch church was still divided on the issue.

Wesley Olmstead examines the parables of the Two Sons, the Tenants and the Wedding Feast against the backdrop of the wider Matthean narrative. He explores Matthew's characterization of the Jewish leaders, the people and the nations, and assesses the respective roles of Israel and the nations in the plot of Matthew's Gospel. Against the current of contemporary Matthean scholarship, Olmstead argues both that the judgement this trilogy announces falls upon Israel (and not only her leaders) and that these parables point to the future inclusion of the nations in the nation that God had promised to raise up from Abraham. Bringing both literary-critical and redaction-critical tools to bear on the texts at hand, Olmstead not only elucidates the intended meanings of this parabolic trilogy but also attempts to determine the responses they elicited from their first readers. Transcending Matthean scholarship, this book has implications for all Gospel studies.

Paul and the Power of Sin, first published in 2001, seeks to ground Paul's language of sin in the socio-cultural context of his original letters. T. L. Carter draws on the work of social anthropologist Mary Douglas to conduct a cross-cultural analysis of the symbolism of the power of sin in the letters, examining thoroughly Douglas''Grid and Group'model and defending its use as a heuristic tool for New Testament scholars. He uses this model to examine the social location of Paul and the communities to which he wrote and offers a fresh insight into key passages from 1 Corinthians, Galatians and Romans. Carter concludes that an important part of Paul's purpose was to safeguard the position of law-free Gentile believers by redrawing social boundaries along eschatological rather than ethnic lines.