The Relationship of Jewish and Gentile Believers to the Law Between A.D. 30 and 70 in the Scripture

INTRODUCTION Need for the Study When Paul stood before a group of theologians and desired to create an instant debate he brought up the topic of the resurrection of the dead . Today one can create the same sort of response by speaking of Paul and the Law. In the 19th century F . C . Bauer saw two Pauls: one who observed the Mosaic Law in the book of Acts and one who denounced the law in his epistles. Bauer's solution to the apparent conflict was to deny the historicity of Acts , seeing it rather as a Lukan attempt to mute the contrast between Paul and the Jews. 1 Others who hold to the inerrancy of Acts have resolved the conflict in a different way , by under– standing Paul's law observance as an exercise of "becoming all things to all men ." The common denominator in both approaches is giving priority to the allegedly "clearer sources ," namely Paul's epistles, which are understood to be anti-law, and then adjusting the interpreta– tion of Acts to fit. That Paul speaks against the law in his writings is clear, but the en e in which he speaks has not always been so evident. In the reformation Luther saw the an wer to hi own struggle with sin and conscience, in Romans and Galatian , nearly drawing an quation 'Goodenough comment on the conflict between the Paul of the pi ti and th Paul of Acts, " ne wonder if it wa omeone thinking like the author of ct fl m Paul had in mind when he wrote to the Galatian : ' ven if we, or an ang l fr m h a n, h uld pr a h t you a go pel contrary to that which w pr ached to u, l t him b a ur d ' ( I. 1: ). r no one in th alatian or orinthian hur he would h r gniz d in th p f t th Paul they h d heard preach r had rad in hi lett r ." r in R. d nu h, 'Th P r p t1 e A t :• in tudie in Luke-A t , d . , and r K k nd J . L ui M rt n (Phil lph1 f<ortr Pr , 1 ), 58 . 1