After Paul’s turn to Christ, what was his relationship to Torah? The traditional and almost undisputed answer is that he renounced Torah-observance for disciples of Christ—except to imitate Jewish behavior to evangelize among Jews. Yet to me it seems more logical that a Jew, such as Paul claims to be (2 Cor 11:22; Phil 3:5-6), who is seeking to convince fellow Jews as well as Gentiles to turn to Jesus as the one representing the ideals and promises of Torah, would uphold the quintessential basis of that message, that is, he would observe Torah (cf. Rom 1:1-5; 3; 9:32—11:36; 15:8-9; 1 Cor 15:1-28; Gal 3:19; 5:14).
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Mark D. Nanos (University of Kansas), is a Jewish scholar who specializes on reading the Apostle Paul from within Judaism, an approach that offers new ways to conceptualize Paul’s teaching and communities as well as the potential for more promising Christian-Jewish relations. Many papers and reviews are available at his web site: www.marknanos.com.
