The Reformation
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 60, No. 1 – Fall 2017
Managing Editor: W. Madison Grace II
Paul and the Gift. By John M.G. Barclay. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2015. 656 pages. Paperback, $66.50.
John Barclay is Lightfoot Professor of Divinity at Durham University, a leading voice in the social-scientific study of the New Testament. In Paul and the Gift, Barclay reconsiders Paul’s idea of grace in light of anthropological discussions of gifts and first century models of gift giving. Given the enormity of the task undertaken in this volume, it is best to quote Barclay’s words when he says that the book is a reassessment “of ‘grace’ within the anthropology and history of gift, a study of Jewish construals of divine beneficence in the Second Temple period, and, within that context, a new appraisal of Paul’s theology of the Christ-event as gift, as it comes to expression in Galatians and Romans” (4). Barclay attempts to move the discussion of Paul’s place vis-à-vis early Judaism beyond E.P. Sanders, who conceived of all early Judaism (except 4 Ezra) as a religion of grace (Paul and Palestinian Judaism [London: SCM, 1977]). Barclay rightly notes both that Sanders’s idea is helpful in reframing the issue of early Jewish religion, and that it lacks sufficient nuance to be of heuristic value for discerning the various ways in which grace was conceptualized. In this vein, Barclay also attempts to push the discussion of Paul beyond the current stalemate between the Old and New Perspectives.
Barclay accomplishes his thesis in four parts, the first of which is a discussion of anthropological understandings of gift and first century conceptions of the same, setting the stage for the rest of the book. In this section, Barclay lays out six ways in which authors of the first century could “perfect” grace. In saying this, Barclay means that he has found that grace consists of (at least) six different aspects, which he calls perfections—superabundance (the scale of the gift), singularity (the degree to which the giver is characterized by only this), priority (which points toward the freedom of the giver to give), incongruity, efficacy (whereby the gift accomplishes its intended goal), and non-circularity (whereby a giver does not expect anything in return for a gift) (69). When any author discusses grace, he or she need not emphasize all aspects. Further, an author may deny one or more of these aspects or give any more or less value (e.g., an author may emphasize superabundance but deny non-circularity). In perfecting any aspect, an author maximizes that aspect’s potentiality. Throughout the rest of the book, Barclay uses the six perfections listed above as a lens through which to read various early texts and make comparisons between them.
In part two, Barclay analyzes five early Jewish texts and/or authors—The Wisdom of Solomon, Philo of Alexandria, the Qumran Hodayot, Pseudo-Philo’s Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum, and 4 Ezra. Using the six perfections of grace, Barclay shows that while grace is vitally important to each of these strands of early Judaism, they each conceptualize grace differently. For example, the Hodayot perfect the incongruity of grace, whereas 4 Ezra never does. Importantly, there are two major commonalities across these various corpora—all perfect the superabundance of God’s grace, and none of them perfects its non-circularity (314). Through such a detailed and nuanced study of these texts, Barclay notes that Sanders’s idea that these were products of a “religion of grace” is not illuminating (313).
The last two sections of Barclay’s work focus on understanding Paul within the framework of early Jewish and anthropological concepts of gift, with part four discussing Galatians and part five Romans. Barclay notes that the emphasis in Galatians is upon the incongruity of God’s grace. Paul presupposes the priority of that grace, but does not perfect its efficacy. Importantly, God’s grace is “unconditioned,” but not “non-circular or ‘unconditional’” (446). In Romans, the perfections of grace that Barclay sees are superabundance, priority, and efficacy (but no systematic discussion of the means of that efficacy) (557–58). Again, Paul does not even imply that grace is non-circular, or counter an idea of self-righteousness as a means to salvation. Key to moving beyond the Old and New Perspective debates is Barclay’s understanding of “works of the Law.” Barclay sees the works of the Law as “practices beholden to Torah, not ‘works’ or ‘law’ in a generalized sense”(444).Paul is not countering a soteriology whereby people do works of the law to receive salvation from God; instead, he is countering people practicing Torah in order to receive symbolic social capital for higher standing within the community. In other words, people were practicing the Torah so that others would think of them as righteous (an idea which is socially ascribed, see 377–84).
This book promises to be a watershed in the discussion of Paul on many fronts. It presents a much-awaited alternative to the Old/New Perspective divide, opening another avenue for thinking through Paul’s theology. It also helpfully moves the discussion beyond simplistic statements about early Judaism and its conception of grace. It shows that deep, careful engagement with both the ancient material and modern social-scientific models can yield fruitful dividends for exegesis. Because of its necessary selectivity of sources and models, Barclay’s book calls for more research into the early Jewish understandings of grace, and the way in which Paul’s understanding of grace is developed in other Pauline writings. All of this leaves the reader in eager anticipation of the second volume’s release.
