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Nathan MacDonald, Paul, Monotheism and the People of God: The Significance of Abraham Traditions for Early Judaism and Christianity. By Nancy Calvert-Koyzis. (JSNT Supplement Series, 273.) London: T&T Clark International, 2004., The Journal of Theological Studies, Volume 57, Issue 2, October 2006, Pages 660–662, https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/flj101
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Extract
This book is a revised version of a Ph.D. thesis supervised by Philip Davies and Andrew Lincoln and submitted to the University of Sheffield in 1993. It investigates the role of Abraham in early Jewish and Pauline texts. Just over half the book is devoted to Abraham as he appears in Jubilees, the works of Philo, Pseudo-Philo's Biblical Antiquities, Josephus’ Antiquities of the Jews, and the Apocalypse of Abraham (pp. 6–84). The remainder of the book is given to an examination of Galatians 3–5 and Romans 3 : 7–4 : 25 (pp. 85–139), with a brief summary concluding the volume (pp. 140–4).
Calvert-Koyzis's argument is that two features characterize Abraham in early Jewish texts: ‘he rejected idolatry for faith in the one God and … he was obedient to God especially through observance of the law’ (p. 4). Such beliefs and practices are what characterize the people of God and distinguish them from their gentile neighbours. Jubilees presents Abraham as one who rejected idolatry and followed the law. In the context of the persecution of the Maccabean period Abraham's monotheistic faithfulness provides an important model for Judaism. For Philo Abraham is the prototypical proselyte, turning from astrology to the true God for philosophical reasons. For the author of Biblical Antiquities Abraham refuses assimilation to the beliefs of his gentile neighbours. Abraham is a model for Jews in the face of the self-aggrandizement of the Romans. In Josephus’ apologetic work Abraham is the archetypal Hellenistic philosopher who proves the existence of one God by philosophical reasoning. The patriarch's life is presented as thoroughly virtuous. The Apocalypse of Abraham is the only early Jewish text that Calvert-Koysiz examines that does not belong to the tradition of the ‘rewritten Bible’. Here, Abraham rejects idolatry and is the antithesis of the unfaithful and idolatrous in Israel.
