![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/55\/2014\/07\/st.paul_1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nIt is difficult, some would say nigh impossible to do justice to Paul and his thought and ministry in a short book. While that is true, there are some short books on Paul that do him some justice, and are well worth the read. One such book is the revised edition of E.P. Sander\u2019s Paul: A Brief Insight. The book was originally published in 1991 by Oxford and then again in 2001, and then it was picked up for an illustrated and hardback edition by Sterling Publishing, and reissued with additional comments, updated bibliography and lovely pictures in 2009. This is a testimony to the durability of the book over a span of almost twenty years. One of the reason for this is that Sander\u2019s book is very very readable for lay person, clergy, and scholar alike. The focus in the book is mainly on Paul\u2019s writings rather than his mission and ministry, but it is none the worse for that. After so many lives of Paul in recent years that hardly deal with his thought world in any depth, this book is refreshing. <\/em><\/p>\nSanders is of course known for his game-changing book Paul and Palestinian Judaism which tried to further situate Paul in his early Jewish context, developing further some of the things W.D. Davies and others had suggested before Sanders. In this little book it becomes obvious that Sanders is rather indebted to Heikki Raisanen who has argued that Paul is no systematic theologian and that in fact there are places where Paul contradicts himself. <\/em><\/p>\nSanders does not over-emphasis this idea like Raisanen, but it does lead to some unsatisfactory analysis at points in any case in this book. One really can\u2019t have it both ways\u2014 You can\u2019t praise Paul to the moon as a deep and creative and even logical thinker and then at the same time suggest he made blunders of inconsistency or failures in thinking things through that would characterize a young school boy. Which is it? Leaving that aside, it is clear enough that Sanders himself, like Paul, is an independent thinker about Paul and brings numerous good insights to the discussion. I will focus on just a few. Let\u2019s start with what Sanders says about Paul\u2019s views on \u2018imputed righteousness\u2019 and related matters. <\/p>\n
On p. 108 Sanders says bluntly: \u201cIn the discussion of Romans 3-4 the verb \u2018reckon\u2019 (logizomai<\/em>) derived from Genesis 15.6, comes into prominence (3.28, and eleven times in Chapter 4). This does not mean, however that Paul thinks of righteousness as being fictitiously imputed to those who have faith, while they remain sinners in fact. In sharing Christ\u2019s death Christians have died to the old order. They no longer live in sin (6.2) but are \u2018slaves\u2019 of righteousness, who have become obedient to God (6.15-18). Paul picked up \u2018reckon\u2019 from Genesis, and then he repeated it, with no thought of a fictional \u2018merely imputed\u2019 righteousness.\u201d This is in judgment absolutely correct. I would add that we must note that it is Abraham\u2019s faith that is credited as Abraham\u2019s righteousness, not Christ\u2019s righteousness credited as the believer\u2019s righteousness in Romans 4. Further more the language here is not judicial or forensic, it is from the business world of credits and debits. Sanders goes on to rightly stress that Luther also had it wrong. Paul believed that believers were truly transformed by grace through faith. They were no longer in the bondage to sin, like non-believers. As Sander\u2019s adds, like a good early Jew emphasizing praxis and behavior Paul insists \u201cChristians should lead morally blameless lives. The idea of fictional ,imputed righteousness, had not occurred to him, but had it done so, he would have raged against it. Since faith in Christ was the sole pre-requisite for being a member of Christ\u2019s people, it followed that accepting the Jewish law or practicing was not necessary. As Sander\u2019s says \u201cThis is the meaning of \u2018righteoused by faith in Christ, not by works of the Law'\u201d. (p. 110). \u201cPaul thought that God did something other than keep track of people and alter his opinion about them. God \u2018righteoused\u2019 the person of faith as well as reckoned the person to be righteous. The active verb, with God as subject, occurs in Romans 3.26,30;4.5;8.30,33 and Galatians 3.8. The usual formulation is the passive verb, a person is \u2018righteoused\u2019. This passive however implies God as the understood subject\u2026This means that the person\u2019s name was not just moved from one side of God\u2019s ledger to another, as reckon might imply, but that the person was transferred to another sphere, called variously \u2018the body of Christ\u2019, the Spirit, and the like. In this transfer a real change was effected, the first step towards the glorified body which would be attained at the return of the Lord. As a result of this change the new person found that good deeds flowed out naturally and that everything which the law had required was \u2018fulfilled\u2019 in his or her life (Rom. 8.4).\u201d (p. 118). There is much more along these lines, and it should be said that Sanders agrees that Paul sometimes does use forensic language in discussing this matter (i.e. talking of acquittal for example), but he seldom talks about guilt and legal absolution. I\u2019ll let you read Sanders on this and see what you think. <\/p>\nLess satisfactory is Sander\u2019s analysis of Paul and the Law, though he makes some good points along the way (for example that only the sin of covetousness fits the discussion in Romans 7 of how there was sin which enticed and bedeviled all humans, because it could not be said that all were enticed to murder simply because the Law prohibited murder, or that all were enticed to commit actual adultery because the Law prohibited it (see the discussion on pp. 145-47). <\/p>\n
Sander\u2019s little book on Paul is an excellent conversation starter, and while his analysis does not always hold up, there are plenty of good insights in the book which tease the mind into active thought about Paul and his thought world, which was the purpose of such a book anyway. For my part, I think Sander\u2019s under-estimates Paul as a coherent and consistent thinker. The Paul I encounter when I pick up the NT is rather like what John Donne says \u2018wheresoever I open the letters of Paul, I hear thunder, a thunder which rolls throughout the earth\u2019. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It is difficult, some would say nigh impossible to do justice to Paul and his thought and ministry in a short book. While that is true, there are some short books on Paul that do him some justice, and are well worth the read. One such book is the revised edition of E.P. Sander\u2019s Paul: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":10098,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
From Solution to Plight: E.P. Sanders' PAUL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It is difficult, some would say nigh impossible to do justice to Paul and his thought and ministry in a short book. While that is true, there are some\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From Solution to Plight: E.P. Sanders' PAUL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It is difficult, some would say nigh impossible to do justice to Paul and his thought and ministry in a short book. While that is true, there are some\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2014\/08\/12\/from-solution-to-plight-e-p-sanders-paul\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-08-12T05:18:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-03-14T02:52:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/55\/2014\/07\/st.paul_1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"251\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ben Witherington\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ben Witherington\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2014\/08\/12\/from-solution-to-plight-e-p-sanders-paul\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2014\/08\/12\/from-solution-to-plight-e-p-sanders-paul\/\",\"name\":\"From Solution to Plight: E.P. Sanders' PAUL\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-08-12T05:18:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-03-14T02:52:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b\"},\"description\":\"It is difficult, some would say nigh impossible to do justice to Paul and his thought and ministry in a short book. While that is true, there are some\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2014\/08\/12\/from-solution-to-plight-e-p-sanders-paul\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2014\/08\/12\/from-solution-to-plight-e-p-sanders-paul\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2014\/08\/12\/from-solution-to-plight-e-p-sanders-paul\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"From Solution to Plight: E.P. Sanders’ PAUL\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/\",\"name\":\"The Bible and Culture\",\"description\":\"A One-Stop Shop for All Things Biblical and Christian\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b\",\"name\":\"Ben Witherington\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cf1998568f0b6ccbd63f56b44d47303?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cf1998568f0b6ccbd63f56b44d47303?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ben Witherington\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/author\/benw333\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"From Solution to Plight: E.P. Sanders' PAUL","description":"It is difficult, some would say nigh impossible to do justice to Paul and his thought and ministry in a short book. While that is true, there are some","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"From Solution to Plight: E.P. Sanders' PAUL","og_description":"It is difficult, some would say nigh impossible to do justice to Paul and his thought and ministry in a short book. While that is true, there are some","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2014\/08\/12\/from-solution-to-plight-e-p-sanders-paul\/","og_site_name":"The Bible and Culture","article_published_time":"2014-08-12T05:18:14+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-03-14T02:52:13+00:00","og_image":[{"width":"200","height":"251","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/55\/2014\/07\/st.paul_1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Ben Witherington","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ben Witherington","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2014\/08\/12\/from-solution-to-plight-e-p-sanders-paul\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2014\/08\/12\/from-solution-to-plight-e-p-sanders-paul\/","name":"From Solution to Plight: E.P. Sanders' PAUL","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-08-12T05:18:14+00:00","dateModified":"2015-03-14T02:52:13+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b"},"description":"It is difficult, some would say nigh impossible to do justice to Paul and his thought and ministry in a short book. While that is true, there are some","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2014\/08\/12\/from-solution-to-plight-e-p-sanders-paul\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2014\/08\/12\/from-solution-to-plight-e-p-sanders-paul\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2014\/08\/12\/from-solution-to-plight-e-p-sanders-paul\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"From Solution to Plight: E.P. Sanders’ PAUL"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/","name":"The Bible and Culture","description":"A One-Stop Shop for All Things Biblical and Christian","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b","name":"Ben Witherington","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cf1998568f0b6ccbd63f56b44d47303?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cf1998568f0b6ccbd63f56b44d47303?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Ben Witherington"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/author\/benw333\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}