Wednesday, 23 December 2015

Unity and Diversity in Christ: Interpreting Paul in Context: Collected Essays,
Willian S. Campbell, Cascade Books, 2013, page 77

Campbell picks up the righteous "remnant" concept, suggesting that Paul built through Romans 9 to 11, assuming that:

God always maintains by his grace a faithful minority, and moreover that he will never cease to do so. The implicit thinking behind this appears to be that it is in and through this remnant that God's long-term goals for Israel will be attained.

It is with and by interaction with this righeous remnant that gentiles et to share in Israel's inheritance.

The salvation of the gentiles assumes the prior realisation of the promise for Israel and therefore excludes the possibility of a salvation for gentiles alongside the complete failure of the promise to Israel; that is, even the concept of a gentile "new Israel" is ruled out by this.

Such a rejection of Israel would sever the connection between the gospel and the Hebrew Scriptures and reduce the G-d of Israel to the G-d of Marcion!

For Paul, the option of salvation "also for the Greek" presupposed that it is enjoyed by "the Jew first". For Paul, if not for his interpreters, it was meaningless to consider the election of gentiles apart from the election of Israel; it is this that constitutes the priority of Israel.