Paul and Judaism

Over the last century, Pauline scholarship has shifted from a largely negative to a largely positive evaluation and appropriation of Judaism. This essay documents key figures who helped shape that shift and explains the diversity of ways of framing the Paul/Judaism relationship found in contemporary Pauline scholarship. Based on this shift, the question as it stands now is not whether Paul is Jewish but how Paul is Jewish. After highlighting the shift as it progressed historically, this essay then explains five key influences which spurred on this transition: (1) the Holocaust, (2) the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, (3) reaction to the outcomes of the Judaism/Hellenism divide, (4) critique of the Judaism/Hellenism divide, and (5) the postmodern turn. None of these five influences alone accounts for the wider shift, but they interact with and support one another in ways that compound the wider effects.