Paul and the New Perspective: Second Thoughts on the Origin of Paul's Gospel

Paul and the New Perspective: Second Thoughts on the Origin of Paul's Gospel. By Seyoon Kim. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002, 336 pp., $25.00.

In his 1977 dissertation under F. F. Bruce, Seyoon Kim argued that the origin of Paul's Gospel is to be found, not in Judaism or Hellenistic religions, but in the Christophany that Paul saw on the road to Damascus. In this Christophany, Paul not only received his commission as apostle to the Gentiles but came to recognize Jesus as the eternal Son of God, the eikon of God (from which Paul derived both his Adam Christology and Wisdom Christology) and to understand salvation as justification through grace alone and faith alone, as reconciliation, as adoption, and as transformation into the new man and new creation.

Now Kim, professor of New Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary, has sought to update aspects of his dissertation in light of developments in Pauline studies over the intervening twenty-five years, particularly the New Perspective. The real guide to the book's contents is the subtitle, Second Thoughts on the Origin of Paul's Gospel. It is not a general survey or critique of the New Perspective, nor is it the new edition of his dissertation that Kim had once planned to write. It is instead a defense of certain points from the dissertation and an expansion of others.

The first chapter, "Paul's Conversion/Call, James D. G. Dunn, and the New Perspective on Paul," is the book's longest. Against Dunn, Kim reasserts that Paul's doctrine of justification developed early and directly from Paul's encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus and that Paul's own statements offer evidence for the works-righteousness character of first-century Judaism. The detailed rebuttal of Dunn's criticisms of Kim's earlier work may fail to engage some and may unfortunately deter them from continuing to the more generally accessible parts of the book.

The second chapter will be of interest to a greater number of readers. In it, Kim argues that it is possible to find "Justification by Grace and through Faith in 1 Thessalonians." Kim's persuasive exegetical argument raises questions for those who hold that Paul developed his understanding of justification in connection with a late-dated Galatian controversy.

In "Isaiah 42 and Paul's Call," Kim argues that, in addition to other texts, Isaiah 42 shaped Paul's understanding of his apostolic call. Kim finds numerous allusions to Isaiah 42 in Gal 1:15-16, including the possibility that Paul's early mission to Arabia (Gal 1:17) was prompted by Isa 42:11. More significant is the evidence that Paul understood his apostolic call in relation to the endowment of the Spirit (Isa 42:1). This both sheds light on the central role played by the Spirit in Paul's ministry, as well as on the way in which Paul saw the relationship between his ministry and that of Christ, the Anointed Servant of the Lord.

Many readers may find "Paul, the Spirit, and the Law" to be the most useful. In it, Kim surveys recent challenges to the traditional understanding of Paul's teaching on the law. Finding these lacking, Kim briefly discusses some recent literature on first-century Judaism that has questioned the New Perspective's portrayal of first-century Judaism. From both Paul's understanding of the meaning of Christ's crucifixion and his experience of the Spirit in his conversion, Kim believes that Paul came to understand the antitheses flesh/Spirit and law/Spirit through reflection on such texts as Ezekiel 36-37 and Jer 31:31-34. Taking Dunn's challenge to examine Gal 3:10-14 as a test case, Kim finds that this text in fact supports the traditional understanding of Paul's teaching on the law and provides evidence for a works-righteousness understanding in first-century Judaism.

"Christ, the Image of God and the Last Adam," repeats the argument of Kirn's dissertation, that from the Damascus road Christophany, Paul recognized Jesus as the eikon of God. Here Kim develops this position with two new insights: utilizing the work of others he highlights the importance of the chariot throne, theophany of Ezekiel 1 for Paul and also offers his own argument that Paul knew and used Jesus' "Son of Man" sayings in developing his Christology. Kim believes he can discern here a theological method in which Paul joined his experience, the traditions about Jesus, and the Hebrew Scriptures to develop his theological insights.

The final three chapters have previously appeared elsewhere. In "2 Corinthians 5:11-21 and the Origin of Paul's Concept of Reconciliation" (NovT 39 [1997] 360-84), Kim argues that Paul developed his understanding of salvation as reconciliation from his own experience of reconciliation to God on the Damascus road. Here again Kim suggests a model for theologizing that interprets and substantiates the experience of Christ in light of the Scriptures and the traditions concerning the historical Jesus.

In his dissertation, Kim argued that Paul's understanding of the "mystery" of Romans 11 derived from reflection on key scriptural texts in the light of his commission as an apostle on the Damascus road. "The 'Mystery' of Romans 11:25-26 Once More" (NTS 43 11997] 412-29) attempts to refute objections to this view and to strengthen the argument.