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Crux of Election: Paul's Critique of the Jewish Confidence in the Election of Israel, The

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Dec 2006 by Yinger, Kent L

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The Crux of Election: Paul's Critique of the Jewish Confidence in the Election of Israel. By Sigurd Grindheim. WUNT 2/202. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005. xi + 282 pp., $69.00 paper.

The Crux of Election represents the revised and expanded version of Sigurd Grindheim's Ph.D. dissertation (Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 2002; advisor D. A. Carson). The book is a helpful contribution to the ongoing interaction of NT scholars with E. P. Sanders's Paul and Palestinian Judaism (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1977) and with the new perspective on Paul (NP) and joins a chorus of evangelical critics of the same. According to the author, when one compares Paul's view of Jewish election with Jewish views, the discontinuity must loom larger than Sanders's "similar patterns of religion" would suggest.

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Although interaction with the NP appears to form the impetus for the study and results in a brief concluding chapter on implications, the bulk of the book carefully examines selected aspects of Jewish and Pauline understanding of election rather than conducting a polemical argument with the NP. For Paul, election is expressed as conformity to the cross of Christ. God's elect are now characterized by weakness and by a reversal of values in which they do not appear outwardly to possess the visible markers of divine favor. Jewish confidence in election, on the other hand, is "directed towards a visible religious status, rather than toward Christ and his cross" (p. 200). Paul's view amplifies the view of election already present in the OT, while the Jewish view represents a departure witnessed in writings of the second Temple period.

The study makes no claims to methodological advance but utilizes standard exegetical and historical tools with limited reference to socio-rhetorical approaches. The bulk of the book's argument is laid out simply and is almost entirely free of editorial errors. Interaction with recent scholarship is found largely in the footnotes and is generally thorough. As with most contributions to the WUNT series, the book will be of interest mainly to scholars and serious students of the NT.

Chapter 1 reviews briefly "Election in the Scriptures of Israel." Attention is drawn to a unified (canonical) concept of election. The elements chosen for focus are of obvious value as precursors to Paul's own thought-reversal of values (Deuteronomy 7), remnant, etc.-and lead nicely into the suggestion that Paul's view is a faithful continuation of the OT perspective. No attempt is made to trace diachronic development or diversity. Numerous other central elements of the OT election tradition, which would fit less easily into Grindheim's thesis, are not analyzed (e.g. circumcision and adherence to Torah). A study, for instance, of the OT's language of "worthy" behavior by the elect might suggest that Paul (cf. 1 Thess 2:12; Phil 1:27; Eph 4:1 ["worthy of the calling"]; Col 1:10; 2 Thess 1:5, 11) and Judaism were not quite so different as Grindheim theorizes.

Chapter 2 treats "Election in Second Temple Judaism" by examining selected writings of the OT apocrypha and pseudepigrapha, Qumran literature, and Philo. Unlike the OT, a diversity of views is expected in this body of literature (against Sanders's supposed common pattern of religion). Election is increasingly associated with wisdom/Torah, with the result that "the elect can be characterized by their obedience to the law" and "righteousness is understood as the logical cause of election" rather than grace alone (p. 75). While the gracious election of Israel as a whole is generally unquestioned, a tension develops where the elect are marked by adherence to the sect's particular Torah obedience or by acceptance of divine discipline upon sinful Israel. Thus, election is increasingly "related to one's visible religious status" and represents a departure from Israel's Scripture and a contrast to Paul's view. It will be this Second Temple view of election that Paul critiques. Grindheim's views in this chapter echo those of his doctoral advisor (cf. D. A. Carson, Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility [Atlanta: John Knox, 1981]). He applauds Sanders for overturning a caricature of legalistic Judaism, but his consistent resurrection of self-righteous Judaism will be viewed by most as a return to the same. Even in Rabbinic Judaism "the great majority of the Rabbis . . . attribute the election to a mere act of grace (or love) on the part of God" (S. Schechter, Aspects of Rabbinic Theology [2d ed.; New York: Schocken, 1961] 61).

Chapters 3, 4, and 5 constitute the heart of the book, focusing on passages in the undisputed Paulines. Relevant critical issues are treated as necessary (e.g. theories as to literary integrity and opponents) but do not interfere with the main focus on detailed exegesis of the passages themselves. Rather than novel interpretations, these chapters provide convincing evidence for the centrality of cruciformity in Paul's soteriology (see also M. Gorman, Cruciformity: Paul's Narrative Spirituality of the Cross [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001]). In 2 Cor 11:16-12:10 (chap. 3) Paul opposes Jewish-Christian false apostles who put confidence in their election via visible markers of blessing and power. Their "boasting in the flesh" equates to "confidence in an election-based privilege rather than the ultimate expression of a reliance on grace" (p. 106). Paul's status as God's elect servant, on the other hand, is demonstrated in his weakness.

Crux of Election: Paul's Critique of the Jewish Confidence in the Election of Israel, The

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Dec 2006 by Yinger, Kent L

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