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Article: Thinking of Christianity as `a Judaism'.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
- Article date:
- June 8, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Bill Tammeus
A few weeks ago, I wrote a story reporting that recent scholarship has begun to show the Apostle Paul was quite different from the way Christianity has long understood him.
This research suggests that what Christians have taken to be Paul's criticism of Judaism was not about or aimed at Jews at all. Nor, these Pauline scholars say, did Paul mean to be critical of Jews who follow the rules known collectively as "the law." Paul, they say, always understood himself to be part of Judaism _ the part that believed the long-awaited Jewish Messiah had come in the person of Jesus.
This new work prompts what may seem like a foolish ...