Book Notice: The Offering of the Gentiles

David J. Downs

The Offering of the Gentiles: Paul’s Collection for Jerusalem, in its Chronological, Cultural, and Cultic Contexts
Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2016.
Available at Amazon.com.

This book by David Downs (Fuller Seminary) is based on his Princeton PhD thesis about Paul’s collection for the saints in Jerusalem. Downs rejects prior views of the collection as an expression of the eschatological pilgrimage of the gentiles bringing gifts to Jerusalem, the collection as a type of obligation incumbent on Paul by the Jerusalem church, the collection as an ecumenical effort, and the collection as a pure instance of material relief under hardship. In the end, Downs accepts a variation of the ecumenical view, with the “offering of the Gentiles” (Rom 15:16) serving to unify the Pauline Gentile churches together and corporately with the Jerusalem church to provide them with financial assistance. Interestingly Downs regards Gal 2:10 (“remember the poor”) as something to be associated with the famine relief visit described in Acts 11:27-30 and not a commission from the pillar apostles for Paul to embark on a collection from the Gentiles churches. The initiative for the Jerusalem collection was a separate financial venture first mentioned in 1 Cor 16:1-4. Downs also locates the Jerusalem collection in the context of ancient benefaction and gift-giving in Greco-Roman associations. What is distinctive of Downs’s thesis is how he see Paul investing the collection with cultic metaphors of worship and harvest. Downs contends that gift-giving between the churches results not in praise for a human benefactor, but comprises an expression of mutual obligations among the Christian communities that results in praise for God, who is ultimately responsible for all good things. Accordingly, “This matter cuts to the very heart of Paul’s apocalyptic gospel, for it suggests that, just as God is the active, invasive agent in the event of human rectification, God is also the source of and power behind every act of human beneficence” (164). In terms of application, Downs comments: “Perhaps Paul’s vision has the potential to help contemporary communities of faith to articulate and embody models of giving and care for the poor that bring glory and thanksgiving to the God who still stands behind human beneficence” (165).

An interesting and I think convincing read, a study that should be read alongside others such as Josh Jipp (Saved by Hospitality) and Bruce Longenecker (Remember the Poor).

I’d be interested to know if David Downs wrote a review of the documentary called A Polite Bribe.