Tertium genusor dyadic unity?: investigating sociopolitical salvation in Ephesians
Ephesians 2:11–22 is often thought to promote a tertium genus (“third race”) ecclesiology that entails the belief that the torah has been abolished. If the torah is abolished, this leads to the view that torah observance is rendered problematic for baptized Jews. I argue, however, that the assembly,...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Print Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
Published: |
2021
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In: |
Biblical research
Year: 2021, Volume: 66, Pages: 31-51 |
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Bible. Epheserbrief 2,11-22
/ Torah
/ Early Judaism
/ Church
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IxTheo Classification: | HC New Testament HD Early Judaism KAB Church history 30-500; early Christianity |
Summary: | Ephesians 2:11–22 is often thought to promote a tertium genus (“third race”) ecclesiology that entails the belief that the torah has been abolished. If the torah is abolished, this leads to the view that torah observance is rendered problematic for baptized Jews. I argue, however, that the assembly, the locus of participation in the Messiah’s salvation, should be understood as a dyadic unity (a nonhomogenous sociopolitical reality). Ephesians 2:11–22 renders the dissolution of torah-observant Jews within the assembly (church) soteriologically problematic. If baptized Jews are discouraged from remaining torah-observant (and therefore become functionally gentile), this leaves gentile believers in an ecclessial reality in which there is no genuine ongoing association with the torah-observant “circumcision,” thereby leaving them in the ironic state of being “estranged from the commonwealth of Israel” (2:12) yet again—the very condition the text claims Jesus overcomes by his blood (2:13). |
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ISSN: | 0067-6535 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Biblical research
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