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

156 Christ. 38 Thus, Paul's objection to "works of the law" is not to the law per se, but to an understanding of the law which excludes Gentiles from participation in Israel's blessings, "as a Jewish prerogative and national monopoly. " 39 Dunn then says that the "curse of the law" (3:13) falls on all who restrict the grace and promise of God in nationalistic terms, who treat the law as a boundary to mark the people of God off from the Gentiles, who give a false priority to ritual markers. The curse of the law here has to do primarily with that attitude which confines the covenantal promise to Jews as Jews: it falls on those who live within the law in such a way as to exclude the Gentile as Gentile from the prom– ise. 40 Dunn's elucidation and application of "covenantal nomism" is helpful and his emphasis upon the sociological function of the law as a divider between Israel and the nations is surely accurate. Recognizing that the law had this effect is useful in understanding the meaning of Peter's withdrawal from Gentiles in Galatians 2. His assertion that Paul 's problem with the law is more chronological than ontological also rings true. But Dunn's understanding strains the meaning of Deuteronomy 27:26. How could a curse upon "an attitude of Jewish exclusivism toward Gentiles after the coming of the Messiah" have been either discerned from Deuteronomy or relevant to the wilderness generation of Moses time? Once again, urely Christ's redemption was from a problem much more significant than a wrong attitude, which could have been corrected with better teaching . At this point Rai anen' critici m i both familiar and correct when he ay , "Dunn thu pre ent a new ver ion of an old the i hat Paul attack i not the law as such or as a whole , but ju t the law a iewed in m 38 lbid ., 111-13 . 0 unn " ' fi ing a particular umption o di in f tt nd the ur i 1 id ntit , n ur n f f m mb r hip p rti ul r th L nd th f th th L "