Wisscnschaftlichc U nrcrsuchungcn zum Ncucn Testament 29 H eikki Raisanen Paul and the Law •Am·one who ha~ studll•d I'Jul knows that prohJbly the IIIO>t C<l111f>kx prol> lcrn he develops 1s hts \'lcwotthc law 2nd tr. pnrpos~ The beJ Ut)' oflt::ils~­ ncn'> work is thJt he rccugniz<-< and rc.sprrn rh is complcxit)' without himsd f becommg too dense tu undcr5tantl. R(aisincnJiinds thu l'aul's udie2hzc.t, ncg;livc ailicism oft he law is Jl"Culiar to him. unplnUdcd m the Nf ~nd wuh outpreccdentinjcwtshthought W1th careful, puiem cx•minauon oi\ "..llous contexts. R(Siuncn JlcJ ds his readers to see rhar P JUI hls an oscillJnng, C\'Cil inconsistent \'ICW ol the hw • This book IS wdl-wrm.:n in clear, readable Enghsh.lt IS an impomnr book. rccornrncndcd 10 Jll} scr~ous srudem ofPml. Its 'lrcngth i~ in R(la~­ nen J's willingn<'SS to abJndon precon ceptions ofw hJt l'lul's view on the bw should be Jccorthng to some con•istcnt plan and in allowmg P:tulto >pc.lk fnr himself • MARY ANN G£fl"l' 111 Tht C.ttl11•1ir Bib/i(fl/ Qrwruly, 1111!5, Nu 47 Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament Begrundet vonJoachimJeremias und Otto Michel Herausgegeben von Martin Hengel und Otfried Hofius 29 Paul and the Law by Heikki Raisanen 2nd Edition, revised and enlarged J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck) Tiibingen CIP-Kurztitelaufoahme der Deutschen Bibliothek Riiisiinen, Heikki: Paul and the Law / by Heikki Riiisiinen. - (2. ed.) -Tiibingen: Mohr, 1987. (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament; 29) ISBN 3-16-145198-8 ISSN 0512-1604 NE:GT 1st Edition 1983 © 1987 by J. c. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), P. o. Box 2040, D-7400 Tiibingen. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that permitted by copyright law) without the publisher's written permission. This applies particularly to reproductions, translations, microfllms and storage and processing in electronic systems. Printed by Gulde-Druck GmbH in Tiibingen; bound by Heinrich Koch KG in Tiibingen. Printed in Germany. For Leena Preface Whatever faults the present work may have (and I know it has many), I wish to state in advance that one predictable objection to it is wrong: it is not based on a preconceived notion of what Paul's thought on the law may have been like. On the contrary, I long held a rather standard Lutheran view of the matter. In 1974, the reading of Hans-Joachim Schoeps's Paulus unexpectedly opened up a quite new angle of vision to me, exposing a whole set of problems I had been happily unaware of. The reader will see that I more often than not disagree with Schoeps's solutions, but the problems inherent in Paul's dealing with the law which his discussion of the topic pointed up have not given me rest ever since, the less so as most Christian replies to Schoeps are clearly beside the point. I soon came to discover that there are even more problems. I cannot, of course, preclude the possibility that some working hypotheses which developed relatively early during my research may have harpened too quickly in my mind and prevented me from giving due weight to eventual contrary evidence; that must be left for others to decide. But the solution was not there in advance. Another major reading experience during my struggling with Paul was E.P. Sanders's magisterial Paul and Palestinian Judaism. Sanders argues cogently and with great expertise for a view of Palestinian Judaism rather different from that still prevalent in much New Testament scholarship. I had been groping in the same direction for quite some time without knowing too wed just where I was or what the goal might be; the publication of Sanders's illuminating work was like a gift from heaven for my own quest. Since then I have had the privilege of a fruitful correspondence with Pro fessor Sanders in person. He read a draft of what is now chs. I-V in the present work, and I am very grateful for his critical comments and encourage ment. Professor Sanders also made available to me his paper on Paul and the Law, presented to the SNTS meeting in Toronto in 1980, as well as the manu script of the book Paul, the Law and the Jewish People which grew out of that paper. I regret that it was too late for me to take that latter manuscript into account as fully as I would have Wished, although I have often referred to it in the footnotes. Above all, I was not able to give full consideration to Sanders's very suggestive account of the movement of Paul's thought, when Paul tried again and again new answers to the burning problem of the purpose of the law. I am also indebted to others who have read one version or other of the VI Preface manuscript and commented on it; my thanks go in particular to Thomas F. Best, Lars Aejmelaeus, Jarmo Kiilunen and Steve Motyer who also took the trouble to correct my English. The research for this book has been carried out in three different places, It is my pleasant duty to thank the Finnish Academy and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for grants which enabled me to spend the year 1978 in Cambridge and a period of a year and a half in 1980-1982 in Tiibingen. Some inconvenience arose from the fact that I used in Cambridge some Ger man works also in English translations which were not available in Helsinki or in Tiibingen later on. This has resulted in some technical inconsistencies which I hope the reader will forgive me; for instance it happens that I cite a work now according to the original (occasionally in my own translation), now according to the extant English translation. As for the notes, the mere name of an author refers to a Biblical commen tary. In all other cases a catchword from the title of the work in question is used along with the author's name; if the choice is not obvious, the catch· word is mentioned in the bibliography. I have not been able to take account of works which appeared or became available after Apri11982. Last but not least, I wish to express my sincere thanks to my generous Tiibingen host Professor Martin Hengel who also volunteered to include this study in the WUNT, though personally not too happy with some of its conclusions. My thanks are also due to the co-editor Professor Otfried Hofius, to the publisher and, once more, to the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation which contributed a substantial printing grant. Helsinki, June 1982 H.R.