Our Debt to E. P. Sanders
Wright’s book, What Saint Paul Really Said points out the debt that we owe to E. P. Sanders. The central point of Sanders was that “Judaism in Paul’s day was not, as has regularly been supposed, a religion of legalistic works-righteousness.” (pp 18-19).
This is the key point in properly reading the writings of the Apostle Paul. As Wright points out, Paul has been read incorrectly at least since the time of Luther. Wright correctly expands on the themes started by Sanders and in doing so it is important to acknowledge the debt to Sanders. Wright correctly does this in his book.
Why this change? Now, we have a lot more information about first century Judaism than was available at the time of the Reformation. Discoveries such as the Dead Sea Scrolls have shed additional light on the beliefs of the first century. In this book, Wright puts Paul into his historical context as best as can be done from this distance.
What this means is that nearly all of the commentators on the book of Romans are completely wrong in their central core points about the book. If Paul is not reacting to a works-righteousness religion of his day, then what is he reacting to?
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