Martinus C. deBoer
Cascade Books, 274 pages
The gospel according to Paul is “apocalyptic” — not because it relies on apocalyptic symbols, images and literary tropes but because it is God’s revelation (apocalypsis) in Jesus Christ, whose death and resurrection have changed the world. This event has put the old order of sin and death on notice and ushered in a new age of life and the Spirit. Paul’s apocalyptic eschatology is not focused on a scenario of events to occur at Christ’s parousia or “Second Coming”; the apocalyptic event is experienced now in the life of those in whom faith (a word Paul uses almost as a verb) has been activated, and it will be seen in the life of the world to come.
In “Paul, Theologian of God’s Apocalypse,” New Testament professor and scholar Martinus deBoer argues that the gospel Paul articulates is not so much about a forensic forgiveness of sins as it is about God’s drastic and dramatic reordering of the cosmos and God’s redemptive invasion of the world. DeBoer presents Paul’s Christ-focused apocalyptic eschatology through exegetical works, most previously published, of key passages in Galatians and Romans.
The two most provocative essays have to do with the place of the Old Testament and the Mosaic Law in Paul’s understanding of the gospel. DeBoer highlights the radical nature of the Letter to the Galatians, arguing that Paul has a thoroughly negative assessment of the law – indeed, on a careful reading of Galatians, deBoer finds no evidence that Paul attributes the origins of the law to God. It is clear that Paul sees the law as held captive to sin. It is, therefore, powerless against it. The law, in this reading, was never God’s remedy for sin — sin and death always ran the show, and they found an opportunity to thrive through the law.
If deBoer’s reading is correct, at the very least it raises the question of what we are to make of Romans 9-11 and its presentation of a continuous covenant into which, through the grace of God, Gentiles have been “grafted.” DeBoer rejects the idea that we can even talk of “salvation history” when the law itself is seen as a vantage point for sin and sees in Paul’s theology a sharp discontinuity between the past of Israel and the present reality of Christ and his followers. DeBoer does state that Paul may have been advancing this entirely negative view of the law in Galatians to further his rhetorical agenda against the “teachers” who were advising the Galatians to accept circumcision and adhere to the Jewish dietary laws.
It is important to note that deBoer draws his conclusions on the basis of his reading of Galatians and selected texts from Romans (primarily chapters 4 and 5). It is hard to square this wholly negative assessment with references to the law as “holy,” “just” and “good” (Rom 7:12) and with Paul’s attribution of the law to God in other places (Rom 7:22, 9:4).
DeBoer describes his concluding chapter, “Apocalyptic as God’s Eschatological Activity in Paul’s Theology,” as a “retrospective defense” of his work on Paul as an apocalyptic theologian. The reader may find it helpful to read this chapter first, as it provides a clear summary of the themes explicated throughout the book.
This is a book for the serious reader of Paul who has a good working knowledge of Pauline theology and is interested in following scholarly debates on exegetical points. Such a reader will be rewarded with a thorough and thoughtful consideration of some of the most vexed questions in Pauline theology.
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Lisa D. Kenkeremath is a Teaching Elder in National Capital Presbytery who lives in Virginia.
