PAUL WAS NOT A CHRISTIAN REVIEW

I just finished reading PAUL WAS NOT A CHRISTIAN by Pamela Eisenbaum, associate professor of Biblical studies and Christian origins at Iliff School of Theology, Denver, Colorado. She serves as a national media expert on early Christianity. She is a practicing Jew teaching in a Christian seminary.

Contrary to what both Augustine and Luther have to say about Paul's message, Eisenbaum says that Paul never converted from Judaism to anything. Paul saw himself as a Jewish Apostle to gentiles, not to Jews.

According to the book, when Paul says that faith in Jesus saves, he means that the faithfulness of Jesus to accomplish the mission that was assigned to him by God will save gentiles that believe he is Christ and lord.  Also, Paul never said that the TORAH was abolished. It was not abolished for Jews, and gentiles never had any part of it so they were not subject to its mandates.

When Paul rails against certain people who are trying to get the Corinthians and the Galatians to Judaize, it is not against Jews in general but those who "preach another gospel".

Eisenbaum says that anything we need to know about Paul can only be discerned from his seven authentic letters: Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon. This excludes the Pastorals, Hebrews and several others. She also claims, justly I suppose, that anything said about Paul in Acts is unreliable since she vlaims that Acts of the Apostles is unreliable as a history of the Church. And Paul's letters appear to controvert much of what Acts says about him.

I found the ideas in the book interesting but I cannot bring myself to accept her premise entirely. There is too much left out unanswered about some of the language that Paul uses in his letters regarding the TORAH. However, Eisenbaum says that many modern New Testament scholars share her opinions.