A. Chadwick Thornhill - The Chosen People: Election, Paul and Second Temple Judaism

InterVarsity Press
P.O. Box 1400,
Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426
ivpress.com

2015 by A. Chadwick Thornhill

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from InterVarsity Press.

InterVarsity Pressis the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, a movement of students and faculty active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, visit intervarsity.org .

All Scripture translations, unless otherwise indicated, are the authors own.

Cover design: Cindy Kiple
Images: Byzantine plaque of St. Paul: Werner Forman Archive / British Museum, London. Location: 12 / Glow Images biblical temple: Model of the city of Jerusalem. Israel. / Photo Tarker / Bridgeman Images

ISBN 978-0-8308-9915-9 (digital)
ISBN 978-0-8308-4083-0 (print)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Thornhill, A. Chadwick, 1983
The chosen people : election, Paul, and Second Temple Judaism / A. Chadwick Thornhill.
1 online resource.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.
ISBN 978-0-8308-9915-9 (eBook) -- ISBN 978-0-8308-4083-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Election (Theology) 2. Jews--Election, Doctrine of. 3. Bible. Epistles of Paul--Theology. 4. Judaism--Influence. 5. Judaism--History--Post-exilic period, 586 B.C.-210 A.D. I. Title.
BS2655.J4
231.76--dc23
2015028877

For Caroline, my dearest friend,

and Josiah and Adelyn, my energetic sources of joy.

H alfway through my seminary studies, I was sitting in a class titled Patristics and Ancient Heresies (my wife always joked about the odd titles of the courses I took) when a shift began for me. A substitute professor, who would later be my doctoral mentor, was introducing us to Greek philosophy and Jewish sectarianism. He made the suggestion, perhaps even implicitly, that understanding these ancient belief systems could actually aid us in understanding the New Testament and Christian theology. Though others had likely offered that suggestion to me before, something clicked that day. I began a series of conversations with this professor that eventually led to a course of study on the Apocrypha.

I had prior to that class only heard the term Apocrypha used as a mild expletive in reference to those books filled with heresies and thus shunned by good Christians. (Im only half kidding.) The journey accelerated in that course because of a very simple task. I actually read the Apocrypha. I began to see connections. I started to understand the value. I realized that there actually is quite a lot to glean from reading those books. From that beginning with the Apocrypha, I set out on a trajectory through the remainder of my seminary program and through my PhD to explore in more detail the intertestamental writings, which most now refer to as Second Temple or early Jewish texts. What began with the Apocrypha continued with the Pseudepigrapha, Dead Sea Scrolls and rabbinic writings. Through the journey, I was able to get a better sense of what Jews were thinking during and around the time of the New Testament.