Between Two Worlds

In his review of Simon Gathercole's Where Is Boasting?, Craig Blomberg writes:

This book forms an important companion to such other recent volumes as Carson, O'Brien and Seifrid's Justification and Variegated Nomism and Mark Elliott's The Survivors of Israel. For theological students and pastors who haven't yet heard of the Sanders-Dunn-Wright trajectory in Pauline studies, this trio forms a required starting point . . .

According to Blomberg, then, there are three essential books to understand first-century Judaism: (1) Mark Elliot's Survivors of Israel: A Reconsideration of the Theology of Pre-Christian Judaism; (2) Carson/O'Brien/Seifrid's Justification and Variegated Nomism, vol. 1: The Complexities of Second Temple Judaism; and (3) Simon Gathercole's Where Is Boasting? Early Jewish Soteriology and Paul's Response in Romans 1-5.

For those who want to see summaries, you can read: (1) Gathercole's review of Survivors of Israel; (2) Gathercole's review of JVN, vol. 1, and (3) Blomberg's review of Gathercole.

I'm currently reading some of the chapters in the new Carson/O'Brien/Seifrid book, Justification and Variegated Nomism, vol. 2: The Paradoxes of Paul, an examination of the New Perspectives on Paul and the New Testament. What I have read thus far is sane, careful, and quite helpful.

For those desiring both history of the debates and a judicious handling of the texts, one can hardly improve upon Stephen Westerholm's masterful Perspectives Old and New on Paul: The "Lutheran" Paul and His Critics.


Update: Oops--I meant to also link to Blomberg's review of Elliot's Survivors of Israel.