Faith in Jesus and Paul: A Comparison with Special Reference to 'faith that Can Remove Mountains' and 'your Faith Has Healed/saved You'For the hundred years since W. Wrede ( Paulus, 1904) made the provocative claim that Paul should rightly be regarded as 'the second founder of Christianity', scholars have debated vigorously on the relationship between Jesus and Paul. Past studies on the Jesus-Paul debate have largely been confined to either the literary or the theological level. This study looks at the issue afresh by combining the historical and the theological approaches. The discussion focuses on the issue of faith, paying special attention to two groups of Jesus' sayings ('Faith that can remove mountains' and 'Your Faith has healed/saved you') and Paul's use of Gen. 15:6 and Hab. 2:4. The distinctive methodology of this study is to compare Jesus and Paul against the backdrops of the Jewish biblical tradition and Hellenistic parallels. The picture of the Jesus-Paul relationship that emerges is a most complex one. To a great extent the similarity between Jesus and Paul is due to their common Jewish heritage. The early Church plays a part in influencing Paul's concept of faith and Paul himself reinterprets the Jewish Scriptures in an innovative manner. At the same time, Paul is found to be greatly indebted to Jesus for his concept of faith. The method of placing Jesus and Paul against the Jewish and Hellenistic backgrounds permits a fuller appreciation of the historical and theological continuities between Jesus and Paul than has hitherto been possible. |
Contents
The Problem | 15 |
The Interpretation of MountainRemoving Faith | 21 |
The Nature of MountainRemoving Faith | 38 |
Summary | 49 |
34 | 53 |
The Authenticity of Jesus Healing Miracles | 56 |
3223 | 59 |
Summary | 63 |
New Testament | 167 |
4652 par Mt 202934 Lk 183543 | 179 |
1119 | 189 |
Pauls Use of Habakkuk 24 | 196 |
Pauls Indebtedness to Jesus | 212 |
Summary | 224 |
6 in Jewish Tradition | 232 |
6 | 264 |
Differences between Asclepius and Jesus | 92 |
The Jewish Healing Tradition as Background | 98 |
The Jewish SalvationFaith Tradition as Background | 132 |
Qumran Literature | 141 |
Sirach | 154 |
Wisdom of Solomon | 161 |
Summary | 282 |
Faith in Jesus and Paul | 293 |
Bibliography | 299 |
323 | |
338 | |
Common terms and phrases
4QMMT Abraham Abraham's faith Aramaic Asclepius authenticity Bartimaeus Bultmann Chapter Christian Christological Commentary context covenant covenantal nomism Dead Sea Scrolls deliverance Dunn early Church Epistle eschatological faith in Jesus Genesis 15 Genesis 22 Gentiles Gnilka God's promise Gospel Greek Habakkuk Hanina healer healing miracles Hebrew Hebrew Bible Hellenistic historical Jesus historicity of Jesus interpretation Israel Jerusalem Jesus and Paul Jesus Christ Jesus-Paul Jewish biblical tradition Jewish healing tradition Jewish tradition Jews Josephus Judaism Lord Luke Maccabees Marcan meaning Messiah miracle faith Moses mountain mountain-removing faith obedience Old Testament Palestine parallel Paul's Paulus Peshitta Philo physical healing prophet Qumran rabbis refer righteous Romans salvation saved saviour saviour-healer sayings of Jesus scholars Second Temple Second Temple Judaism Section Sirach story Synoptic Targum texts Theissen theme theocentric Theology Translated trust understanding Volume woman worship ἡ πίστις καὶ πίστις σου σέσωκέν