Judaism
Judaism
In reaction against the tendency to interpret Paul against the Greek or Hellenistic world, many scholars have insisted that Paul’s world was a Jewish one and that Judaism must have exerted the most influence on his teaching. C. G. Montefiore suggests that the Hellenistic Judaism of Paul’s childhood in Tarsus was a key factor. 32(Even if Paul was not raised in Tarsus, he spent most of his adult life in the Diaspora.) Albert Schweitzer thinks that apocalyptic Judaism is the key to Paul’s teaching, 33while W. D. Davies stresses rabbinic Judaism and Pharisaism. 34 Contemporary scholars are less willing than before to make clear-cut distinctions between, say, Palestinian Judaism and Hellenistic Judaism, or between apocalyptic Judaism and Pharisaic Judaism. Without justifying such distinctions when they are made absolute, we may say that it is now generally agreed that Paul’s own thought world was decisively formed by his Jewish upbringing. Paul’s own claim to be a "Hebrew of the Hebrews” and a Pharisee must be allowed decisive weight on this matter. Paul’s basic concepts are drawn, as we have seen, from the Old Testament, and Paul had learned the Old Testament in the context of the Judaism of his day. Paul’s conversion, however, forced upon him a thoroughgoing reappraisal of his beliefs; the debt his teaching undoubtedly has to Judaism is the result of a deliberate choice and not of an unconscious carrying over of his Judaism into his new faith.