The aim of this study is to evaluate the New Perspective on Paul. One of
the most important new contributions of the New Perspective, that is a
new interpretation of Paulâs view of justification by faith, is the main
focus of this study. Especially, two New Perspective arguments that give
rise to most of the objections voiced by the followers of the Old
Perspective are noted: 1) Paul developed the notion of justification by
faith only at a later stage 2) to defend his gentile mission.
In Part 1 an overview of the history of the New Perspective is
presented, and the problems of the New Perspective are pointed out.
In Part 2 the origin of Paulâs Christ-Torah antithesis is investigated
to find out when Paulâs notion of justification by faith originated. As a
result, the view of the New Perspective that Paul developed the notion of
justification by faith at a later stage is rejected.
In Part 3, independent theological exegesis is done to evaluate the
argument of the New Perspective that justification by faith must be
understood not in general terms of how human beings can be saved, but
in the context of Paulâs gentile mission . The exegesis concentrates on
the c oncepts âthe works of the lawâ and âthe curse of the lawâ in
Galatians. Romans 3, 4, and 7 are also investigated to confirm the
exegetical results of Galatians. As a result, it is shown that the New
Perspective is quite correct in that it reads the notion of justification by faith in the context of Paulâs gentile mission. However, it is al so pointed
out that the New Perspective fails in properly evaluating Paulâs gentile
mission itself, because it marginalises both the gentile mission and
justification by faith in Paulâs theology.
In Part 4, by means of the independent theological exegesis of the
word eujaggevlion in Galatians in the redemptive historical context of the
Abrahamic covenant, it is proved that for the unique apostle to the
gentiles, Paul, his gentile mission was the climax of his gospel. In fact, it
must rather be regarded as his gospel itself. This means that, e ven
though the interpretation of justification by faith by scholars from the
New Perspective has a better exegetical foundation and leads to valid
exegetical results, these results are interpreted wrongly by them.
In Part 5, finally, it is concluded that when the interpretation of the
Pauline notion of justification by faith by scholars from the New
Perspective is reread in the light of the new understanding that Paulâs
gentile mission is his gospel, the true meaning of justification by faith is
revealed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-02282007-091846 |
| Date | 28 February 2007 |
| Creators | Song, Jae Young |
| Contributors | Prof DF Tolmie |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-02282007-091846/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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