When Wright is Wrong. Phillip D. R. Griffiths. Читать онлайн. Newlib. NEWLIB.NET

Автор: Phillip D. R. Griffiths
Издательство: Ingram
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Жанр произведения: Религия: прочее
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isbn: 9781532649219
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both works and grace, where the people are by grace placed in the land, but the continuance of land possession is based on their works. Grace plus works is at the very heart of Roman Catholic soteriology, it should, therefore, be borne in mind that the Reformers were far from wrong when comparing Second Temple Judaism and Roman Catholicism.

      Whereas the Reformers placed justification in the context of soteriology, Sanders considered it more in terms of ecclesiology. It had to do not with whether one was saved, but with whether one was included amongst God’s people; with whether one was in the covenant. Essentially, then, it was about the identification of the church. Justification is not, as the old perspective would have us believe, concerned with the imputation of righteousness, but rather, with who is “in” the new covenant community. The Jews were using “the works of the law,” to maintain their exclusivism, namely, laws about food, circumcision etc., to prevent Gentiles from becoming members of the new covenant or being justified.

      It is worth pausing here to ask whether Sanders’ take on Second Temple Judaism is correct. Wright fully accepts what Sanders said about the type of Judaism that existed at the time of Christ. If one can, however, show that Sanders was wrong in his deductions about Second Temple Judaism the foundation of the new perspective will be shown to have been built upon sinking sand. The question is: Did some within Second Temple Judaism believe in a works righteousness? Were the Reformers more right, than wrong? There is, in fact, a lot of evidence to show that works righteousness was present. We see this in the Apocrypha in, for example, 2 Esdras, which includes 4 Ezra in chapters 3-14. In Ezra we find a number of references to a works-based righteousness:

      For you have a treasury of works laid up with the Most High. (4 Ezra 7:77)

      The Day of Judgment is decisive and displays to all the seal of truth . . . For then everyone shall bear his own righteousness or unrighteousness. (4 Ezra 8:77)

      For the righteous, who have many works, laid up with you, shall receive their reward in consequence of their own deeds. (4 Ezra 8:77)

      Another work within Second Temple Judaism is the Testament of Abraham. Again, we find references to works righteousness:

      The two angels on the right and on the left recorded. The one on the right recorded righteous deeds, while the one on the left recorded sins. The one who was in front of the table, who was holding the balance, weighed the souls (T. Ab. A 12:12-13).

      The Commander-in-Chief said, “Hear, righteous Abraham: Since the judge found its sins and its righteous deeds to be equal, then he handed over neither to judgment nor to be saved, until the judge of all shall come . . . If [one] could acquire one righteous deed more than one’s sins, one would enter in to be saved. (T. Ab. A 14:2–4).

      In the Psalms of Solomon we are told that:

      The Lord is faithful to those who truly love him, to those who endure his discipline, to those who live in the righteousness of his commandments, in the Law, which he has commanded for our life. The Lord’s devout shall live by it forever. (Psa. Sol. 14: 1–3).

      Our works are in the choosing and power of our souls, to do right and wrong in the works of our hands, and in your righteousness you oversee human beings. The one who does what is right saves up life for himself with the Lord, and the one who does what is wrong causes his own life to be destroyed. (Psa. Sol. 9: 4-5)

      Sanders’s confidence that his ideas about covenantal nomism clearly represents what was consistently believed in Second Temple Judaism is far from watertight, and his conclusions are ambiguous. Imagine one 2000 years into the future doing research into Christianity in the 21st century, only to conclude that the majority of Christians espoused the beliefs of Roman Catholicism, and then interpreted all the evidence accordingly, this is essentially what Sanders has done to the Judaism of Jesus’ day. One can only endorse the words of D. A. Carson:

      D. G. Dunn