Reading Romans in Context: Paul and Second Temple Judaism 

Through a nontechnical collection of short essays in Reading Romans in Context: Paul and Second Temple Judaism the message of Paul in his epistle to the Romans is set against the background to texts of the Second Temple period. Each of the authors is an expert in the field he or she treats.

Each chapter pairs a major unit of Paul’s letter with one or more sections of a thematically related Jewish text. It introduces and explores the theological message of the comparative text and shows how the ideas unfolded in these texts illuminate our understanding of Paul’s major letter.

Again and again the difference between Paul and the comparative texts appears to be Paul’s insight that the law as such can not produce obedient people. The only source of real obedience is the gospel of Christ applied by the Holy Spirit. Actually the articles in this bundle refute the new perspective on Paul.

Ben C. Blackwell, John K. Goodrich and Jason Maston (ed.), Reading Romans in Context: Paul and Second Temple Judaism (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2015), paperback 192 pp., $19,99 (ISBN 9780310517955)