The Use of the Old Testament in the New Testament
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 64, No. 1 – Fall 2021
Editor: David S. Dockery
Edited by Nijay K. Gupta and John K. Goodrich. Eugene: Cascade, 2020, xv+178pp., $25.00
If you pick up a modern book on Paul, you will often see the author refer to the term “Sin/sins.” This language has become commonplace in the field, and it refers to the interplay between Sin as cosmic power and individual sins of disobedience. But, we must ask, do both of these ideas exist in Paul’s writings? If so, what is the relationship between the two? Sin and its Remedy in Paul seeks to answer these questions.
This book is the inaugural volume in the Contours of Pauline Theology series, edited by Nijay K. Gupta (professor of New Testament, Northern Seminary) and John K. Goodrich (professor of Bible at Moody Bible Institute). It brings together a diverse lineup of Pauline scholars and aims to explore “key texts and crucial topics pertaining to Paul’s theology and their explication in modern scholarship” (i). Six of the chapters are derived from papers that were presented at the Institute for Biblical Research in 2017 and 2018, and four additional chapters were subsequently added to round out the study.
In chapter one, Gupta provides an overview of sin (hamartia and its cognates) in Greco-Roman and Jewish Literature. He employs a responsible, descriptive methodology in his analysis, and his findings are illuminating. His survey of Greco-Roman usage of the sin word-group is broad, from Aristotle to Arrian, and he concludes that the harmartia word-group is not primarily religious language, but rather refers to any kind of error or mistake. When it comes to Jewish literature, rather than tackling the gargantuan project of a fresh analysis of Hebrew and Greek words for sin, Gupta builds on the work of Joseph Lam and Mark Boda in his analysis. While Gupta’s study does include a wide survey of the relevant texts, conspicuously absent from the mix is any interaction with the Dead Sea Scrolls, particularly the Community Rule. Nevertheless, the chapter still provides illuminating results, and it serves its purpose as an introduction to the rest of the book.
The next three chapters are all devoted to Paul’s letter to the Romans. The three authors (Martinus C. de Boer, Bruce W. Longenecker, and A. Andrew Das), though not in total agreement, generally trend away from an Augustinian sense of original sin and argue for the priority of Sin as a cosmic power over against a focus on individual sins of disobedience. Das’s chapter on Rom 5:12–21 felt uncharacteristically weak. Though his survey of various models for “relating sin as a power to human activity” was helpful, he did not provide a strong conclusion or model of his own. Additionally, some of his references need updating, most notably his interaction with Thomas Schreiner’s first edition of his Romans commentary, from which Schreiner has since changed his view on Romans 5. On the other hand, Longenecker’s chapter on sin and the sovereignty of God is itself worth the price of the book. It was refreshing to read his argument for the priority of “Sin” without the exclusion of the reference to “sins,” since so many other Pauline scholars argue from a mutually exclusive perspective. Whether or not you agree with all of his points, it represents seasoned scholarship and contains insightful analogies that will be helpful for teaching and preaching as well as contributing to the scholarly conversation.
The rest of the book covers 1 Corinthians (Alexandra R. Brown), 2 Corinthians (Dominika Kurek-Chomycz), Galatians (David A. deSilva), Colossians and Ephesians (John K. Goodrich), 1–2 Thessalonians (Andy Johnson), and 1 Timothy (George M. Wieland). DeSilva’s chapter on the human problem and divine solution in Galatians was especially insightful. He has a firm grasp on the contours of Galatians, and the discussion of the “elemental spirits” (stoicheion) in Gal 4:3, 9 brings clarity to a particularly difficult section of Galatians. Wieland provides a fascinating study of sin as “misalignment of the household of God” in 1 Timothy. He detects an echo to Num 15:22–31 in Paul’s reference to sinning in “ignorance” (1 Tim 1:13); nevertheless, he rightly concludes that ignorance does not mean innocence. On the downside, while Wieland celebrates the value of treating the so-called “pastoral epistles” individually (148), with the exception of a few footnotes (e.g., 150, n. 11) the book neglects coverage of sin in 2 Timothy and Titus, making the project feel incomplete.
Overall, the book succeeds in its purpose to provide an accessible yet rich treatment of hamartiology in the Pauline letters. This book would work well as a textbook for a Pauline theology class or perhaps even a systematic theology class. Pastors and lay leaders would also benefit from having this book as a resource on the shelf.
