Negotiating Jewishness: Paul's Ethnicity Between Continuity and Discontinuity

by Ruben A. Bühner

Overview

The assertion that Paul remained a Jew throughout his life requires little further justification. However, questions remain, including, How can his relationship with Judaism be positively articulated? and How was that relationship influenced by Paul’s belief in Jesus as the Messiah? A particular difficulty arises here: reconciling the sometimes contradictory statements in Paul’s epistles concerning his connection to the Jewish people and their beliefs and behavior. A lively discussion surrounding the Jewishness of Paul in the last fifteen years has yielded the "radical new perspective on Paul," or "Paul Within Judaism" perspective. Dismissing older conceptions that contrast the Christ-believing Paul with a monolithic and negatively characterized ancient Judaism, new approaches focus on the extent to which we should depict Paul as "within Judaism" or still torah observant.

With Negotiating Jewishness, Ruben Bühner addresses these issues and offers a different, more balanced approach by considering three key aspects: ancient ethnicity, neglected sources, and scholarly debates. Drawing from studies in cultural science and ethnology, Bühner shows that ancient Jewish identity can be characterized as "mesomorphic" as it integrated diverse—even divergent—parameters in ethnic construction. With a focus on passages from the Pauline Epistles crucial for understanding Paul’s Jewishness, alongside a thorough excavation of the realities of Jewish life in the Greco-Roman diaspora, the book aims to bridge the gap between English-speaking and continental European scholarship, with a particular emphasis on underrepresented German perspectives.

Paul navigated his Jewish identity within the myriad cultural landscapes of the first-century Mediterranean world and in constant dialogue with his missional calling and interactions with other Jews. Traces of this process emerge from his writings amidst their diverse historical, social, and rhetorical contexts. Negotiating Jewishness probes these scattered glimpses into Paul’s self-understanding to demonstrate that Paul’s relationship to Judaism can be best understood as a reflection of ancient Jewish ethnic negotiation. Bühner contributes to the scholarly conversation with a new definition of what it means to read Paul (or any New Testament text) "within Judaism."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781481323789
Publisher:	Baylor University Press
Publication date:	10/01/2025
Pages:	283
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Ruben A. Bühner is a postdoctoral researcher for New Testament Studies at the University of Zurich and the University of Tübingen.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Part 1 Being Jewish in the Diaspora: The Spectrum of Ancient Ethnic Negotiation
1 Jewish Identity and Ethnic Reasoning in Antiquity
2 The Dynamics of Diaspora Jewishness—and Paul
Part 2 Paul and Other Jews: Contested Claims of Jewishness
3 Negotiating Jewishness in Paul’s Biography I: Galatians 1-2
4 Negotiating Jewishness in Paul’s Biography II: Philippians 3:1-11
5 Negotiating Pharisaic Affiliation
6 Negotiating Jewishness Through Persecution
7 Negotiating Jewish Halakah: 1 Corinthians 8 and 10
8 Negotiating Conflicting Norms: 1 Corinthians 9:19-23
Part 3 Paul’s Jewishness in Retrospect: Within, Without, and What It Means
9 Negotiating Paul’s Jewishness in Acts
10 Continuity and Discontinuity "Within Judaism"
Conclusion

What People are Saying About This

Markus Öhler

A particular strength of Bühner's book is the integration of research from German-speaking countries, thereby making it more accessible to the Anglophone world. The nuanced portrayal of the fluid Jewish identity of the apostle, developed through dialogue with research positions from both sides of the Atlantic, avoids one-sided classifications and thus paves the way for a differentiated discussion of Jewish identity in antiquity in general.

Matthew V. Novenson

In this excellent book, not only does Ruben Bühner argue for his own subtle solution to the classic problem of 'Paul and Judaism,' rejecting the within/without binary in favor of a model of negotiating ethnicity, he also mediates skillfully—as very few critics have been able to do—between German-language and English-language New Testament research, providing us all with a model of truly broad-minded scholarship.

Paula Fredriksen

In this exciting new book, Ruben Bühner provides both a panoramic view of the varieties of Late Second Temple Judaism and a methodologically sophisticated argument about Paul’s place within it. Negotiating Jewishness offers keen insights into the issues of identity and ethnicity, challenging aspects of the 'Paul within Judaism' school while advancing its arguments. Bühner’s discerning contribution represents a new phase in current Pauline research.