The formation of gentile Christ-believing identity vis-à-vis Israel in Ephesians and Barnabas

Ephesians is frequently located at a mid-point on a trajectory in early Christianity between Paul’s earlier struggles to forge unity between Jewish and gentile Christ-believers and later replacement theologies. The author of the present article tests this trajectory through a comparative analysis of Ephesians and Barnabas, investigating the way in which the two epistles respectively shape a collective memory for their recipients with respect to Israel, its Scriptures and its symbols. Examining the two epistles from this perspective highlights their differences strikingly, calling into question the posited trajectory. In this respect, Ephesians is generally consonant with the undisputed Pauline epistles.Kształtowanie się nieżydowskiej tożsamości wierzących w Chrystusa wobec Izraela w Liście do Efezjan i Liście BarnabyList do Efezjan jest często umieszczany w punkcie środkowym trajektorii wczesnego chrześcijaństwa, między wcześniejszymi zmaganiami Pawła o wypracowanie jedności między żydowskimi i nieżydowskimi chrześcijanami a późniejszymi teologiami zastąpienia. Autor niniejszego artykułu bada tę trajektorię poprzez analizę porównawczą Listu do Efezjan i Listu Barnaby, analizując sposób, w jaki te dwa teksty kształtują pamięć zbiorową swoich odbiorców w odniesieniu do Izraela, jego Pism i symboli. Analiza tych dwóch listów z tej perspektywy podkreśla uderzające różnice, podważając przyjętą trajektorię. Pod tym względem List do Efezjan jest ogólnie rzecz ujmując zgodny z niekwestionowanymi listami Pawłowymi

Israel and the Apostolic Mission: A Post-Supersessionist Reading of Ephesians and Colossians

Interpretation of Ephesians and Colossians has often proceeded on the basis that the stance of the original authors and recipients towards Israel is supersessionist, i.e., that the church has entirely replaced or superseded Israel as the locus of divine scriptural promises. By contrast, this article presents a post-supersessionist reading of Ephesians and Colossians. The reading strategy seeks to read the letters as situated within the dynamics of the apostolic mission to proclaim the gospel of Jesus as the Jewish christos/messiah to the nations. This mission is envisaged in Acts as a priestly dynamic in which the blessings of salvation in the christos/messiah began within a distinctly Israelite original community and proceeded to the nations without necessarily negating Jewish distinctiveness. The reading highlights key instances of this Israel-centered missionary dynamic in Ephesians and Colossians. It also seeks to demonstrate how this dynamic helps to provide satisfactory answers to key exegetical questions in the letters. Furthermore, it offers alternative non-supersessionist readings of critical passages concerning circumcision, law, and Jewish identity in the two letters. The article is a distillation and summary of research in the author’s previously published book Reading Ephesians and Colossians After Supersessionism: Christ’s Mission through Israel to the Nations