The Pastoral Epistles and the New Perspective on Paul

by Daniel Wayne Roberts

Publisher:

Wipf and Stock

, 2021

Overview

The so-called "New Perspective on Paul" has become a provocative way of understanding Judaism as a pattern of religion characterized by "covenantal nomism," which stands in contrast to the traditional, Lutheran position that argues that the Judaism against which Paul responded was "legalistic." This "new perspective" of first-century Judaism has remarkably changed the landscape of Pauline studies, but it has done so in relative isolation from the Pastoral Epistles, which are considered by most critical scholarship to be pseudonymous. Because of this lack of interaction with the Pastoral Epistles this study seeks to test the hermeneutic of the New Perspective on Paul from a canonical perspective. This study is not a polemic against the New Perspective on Paul, but an attempt to test its hermeneutic within the Pastoral Epistles. Four basic tenets of the New Perspective on Paul, taken from the writings of E. P. Sanders, N. T. Wright, and James D. G. Dunn, are identified and utilized to choose the passages in the Pastoral Epistles to be studied to test the New Perspective's hermeneutic outside "undisputed" Paul. The four tenets are as follows: Justification/Salvation, Law and Works, Paul's View of Judaism, and the Opponents. Based on these tenets, the passages considered are 1 Tim 1:6-16; 2:3-7; 2 Tim 1:3, 8-12; and Titus 3:3-7.

Key Features

• Attempts to test a hermeneutic study within the Pastoral Epistles
• Seeks to test the hermeneutic of the New Perspective on Paul from a canonical perspective
• Contains the following areas of study: Justification/Salvation, Law and Works, Paul's View of Judaism, and the Opponents

Contents

• The New Perspective on Paul and the Pastoral Epistles: problem, Thesis, and Method
• History of Research: The New Perspective on Paul and the Pastoral Epistles
• Paul, the Law, and the “Chief of Sinners”: 1 Timothy 1:6-16; 2:3-7
• “Not According to Works”: 2 Timothy 1:3, 8-12
• Justified by Grace: Titus 3:3-7
• Some Conclusions Regarding the New Perspective on Paul and the Pastoral Epistles

Praise for The Pastoral Epistles and the New Perspective on Paul

While a few scholars have noted the silence of the Pastoral Epistles in the dialogue around the New Perspective on Paul and a few have ventured tentatively to fill the gap, no scholar has taken up the questions with the care and thoroughness of Daniel Roberts. The Pastoral Epistles and the New Perspective on Paul demonstrates that an account of Pauline theology that does not encounter the whole of the canonical Pauline corpus will always come up short, and this contribution to the debates around Pauline soteriology must not be overlooked.

—Garwood P. Anderson, Dean and Professor of New Testament, Nashotah House Theological Seminary

Product Details

• Title: The Pastoral Epistles and the New Perspective on Paul
• Author: Daniel Wayne Roberts
• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Print Publication Date: 2021
• Logos Release Date: 2025
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• Subjects: Paul, the Apostle; Pastoral Epistles
• ISBNs: 9781666714661, 9781666714678, 9781666714685, 1666714666, 1666714674, 1666714682
• Resource ID: LLS:PSTRLPSTLSPRSPL
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2025-06-13T20:39:57Z

About Daniel Wayne Roberts

Daniel Wayne Roberts earned his BA in ministry and MA in biblical studies from Faulkner University (Montgomery, Alabama) and his PhD in biblical studies with an emphasis in the New Testament from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (Wake Forest, North Carolina). He is currently the preaching minister for the Cameron Avenue Church of Christ in Colonial Heights, Virginia, where he lives with his wife, Leigh, and their three children, Adriana, Asher, and Levi.