Ed Parish SandersFBA (April 18, 1937 – November 21, 2022) was an AmericanNew Testamentscholar andProtestant theologian, regarded as the main proponent of the "New Perspective on Paul".^[5] He was a major scholar in the scholarship on thehistorical Jesus and contributed to the view that Jesus was part of a renewal movement within Judaism.^[6] He was Arts and Sciences Professor of Religion atDuke University,North Carolina from 1990 until his retirement in 2005.

Sanders was aFellow of theBritish Academy. In 1966, he received aDoctor of Theology degree fromUnion Theological Seminary in New York City. In 1990, he received aDoctor of Letters degree from theUniversity of Oxford and a Doctor of Theology degree from theUniversity of Helsinki. He authored, co-authored, or edited 13 books and numerous articles. He received a number of prizes, including the 1990University of Louisville andLouisville Presbyterian Theological SeminaryGrawemeyer Award for the best book on religion,Jesus and Judaism^[7] (Fortress Press, 1985).

Sanders was born on April 18, 1937, inGrand Prairie, Texas. He attended Texas Wesleyan College (nowTexas Wesleyan University) (1955–1959) and Perkins School of Theology atSouthern Methodist University (1959–1962). He spent a year (1962–1963) studying at Göttingen, the University of Oxford, and in Jerusalem.

Between September 1963 and May 1966, Sanders studied atUnion Theological Seminary, New York City, for hisDoctor of Theology degree. His thesis was titledThe Tendencies of the Synoptic Tradition (published in 1969 byCambridge University Press; reprinted byWipf & Stock in 2000), which usedform criticism to examine whether theGospel tradition changed in consistent ways. The thesis was supervised byW. D. Davies.

Sanders taught atMcMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario) from 1966 to 1984. In 1968 he won a fellowship from the Canada Council and spent a year in Israel, studyingRabbinic Judaism. In 1984, he becameDean Ireland's Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture at theUniversity of Oxford and a Fellow ofQueen's College, positions he kept until his move toDuke University in 1990. He also held visiting professorships and lectureships atTrinity College, Dublin, and theUniversity of Cambridge. Sanders died on November 21, 2022, at the age of 85.^[8]

As abiblical scholar, Sanders was known for his extensive research on theNew Testament.^[9] His field of special interest was Judaism and Christianity in the Greco-Roman world. He was one of the leading scholars in contemporaryhistorical Jesus research, the so-called "Third Quest," which places Jesus firmly in the context of Judaism.^[6] In contemporary scholarship, Jesus is seen as the founder of a "renewal movement within Judaism", to use Sanders' phrase.^[6] He promoted the view that Jesus was an apocalyptic prophet.^[6]

Sanders argued that the traditional Christian interpretation thatPaul the Apostle was condemningRabbiniclegalism was a misunderstanding of both Judaism and Paul's thought, especially since it assumed a level of individualism in these doctrines that was not present, and disregarded notions of group benefit or collective privilege. Rather, Sanders argued, the key difference between pre-Christian Judaism and Pauline teaching was to be found in ideas of how a person becomes one of thePeople of God. Sanders termed the Jewish belief "covenantal nomism": one was a member of the people by virtue of God's covenant withAbraham, and one stayed in it by keeping theLaw of Moses.

Sanders claimed that Paul's belief was one ofparticipationisteschatology: the only way to become one of the People of God was throughfaith in Christ ("dying with Christ") and theOld Covenant was no longer sufficient. But, once inside, appropriate behavior was required of the Christian, behavior based on the Jewish scriptures, but not embracing all aspects of it. Both patterns required the grace of God for election (admission), and the behavior of the individual, supported by God's grace. The dividing line, therefore, was Paul's insistence on faith in Christ as the only way to election. However, Sanders stressed that Paul also "loved good deeds"^[10] and that when his words are taken in context, it emerges that Paul advocates good works in addition to faith in Christ.^[10]

Sanders' next major book wasJesus and Judaism, published in 1985.^[9] In this work he argued that Jesus began as a follower ofJohn the Baptist and was aprophet of the restoration of Israel. Sanders saw Jesus as creating aJewish eschatological movement through his appointment of theTwelve apostles and through his preaching and actions. After his execution (the trigger for which wasJesus overthrowing the tables in the temple court ofHerod's Temple, thereby antagonizing the political authorities) his followers continued the movement, expectinghis return to restore Israel. One consequence of this return would involveGentiles worshiping the God of Israel. Sanders could find no substantial points of opposition between Jesus and the Pharisees, and he viewed Jesus as abiding by Jewish law and the disciples as continuing to keep it (cf. e.g., Acts 3:1; 21:23–26, for their worship in the Temple). Sanders also argued that Jesus' sayings did not entirely determineEarly Christian behavior and attitudes, as is shown by Paul's discussion of divorce (1 Cor. 7:10–16) where the latter quotes Jesus' sayings and thengives his own independent ruling. In one interview, Sanders stated that Paul felt that "he was the model to his churches."^[10]

Judaism: Practice and Belief was published in 1992 and tested Sanders' thesis in the light of concrete Jewish practices. Sanders argued that there was a "Common Judaism", that is, beliefs and practices common to all Jews, regardless of which religious party they belonged to. After the reign ofSalome Alexandra, thePharisees were a small but very respected party which had a varying amount of influence within Judaism. The main source of power, however, was with the rulers and especially the aristocratic priesthood, theSadducees. Sanders argued that the evidence indicates that the Pharisees did not dictate policy to any of these groups or individuals.

In general, Sanders stressed the importance of historical context for a proper understanding of first century religion. He attempted to approach Judaism on its own terms, not in the context of the Protestant–Catholic debates of the sixteenth century in order to redefine views on Judaism, Paul, and Christianity as a whole. As Sanders said, he read Paul in his context, which is "Palestine in the first century and especially first century Judaism."^[10] In this spirit, one of Sanders' articles is titled "Jesus in Historical Context".^[11] In a 2000 encyclopedia entry on Jesus, whom Sanders called an 'eschatological prophet', the subject avoids the word 'angel' although mention is made of the two men 'in dazzling clothes' at the empty tomb.^[12]

Sanders argued that more comparative studies are needed, with wider examinations conducted between New Testament texts and the other available historical sources of the period. Speaking at a conference organized in his honor, he described the attractiveness of these types of comparative studies: "They are not all that easy, but they are an awful lot of fun."^[13]

• Sanders, E. P. (1969).The Tendencies of the Synoptic Tradition (Ph.D.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN 0-521-07318-9.
• ——— (1977).Paul and Palestinian Judaism. London: SCM Press.ISBN 0-8006-1899-8.
• ———;Baumgarten, Albert I.;Mendelson, Alan;Meyer, Ben F., eds. (1980).Jewish and Christian Self-Definition, Volume 1: The Shaping of Christianity in the Second and Third Centuries. London: SCM Press.ISBN 978-0-3340-0818-7.
• ———;Baumgarten, Albert I.;Mendelson, Alan, eds. (1981).Jewish and Christian Self-Definition, Volume 2: Aspects of Judaism in the Graeco-Roman Period. London: SCM Press.ISBN 978-0-3340-0819-4.
• ———;Meyer, Ben F., eds. (1982).Jewish and Christian Self-Definition, Volume 3: Self-definition in the Graeco-Roman World. London: SCM Press.ISBN 978-0-3340-0822-4.
• ——— (1983).Paul, the Law, and the Jewish People. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress Publishers.ISBN 0-8006-1878-5.
• ——— (1985).Jesus and Judaism. London: SCM Press.ISBN 0-334-02091-3.
• ———;Davies, Margaret (1989).Studying the Synoptic Gospels. London: SCM Press.ISBN 0-334-02342-4.
• ——— (1990).The Question of Uniqueness in the Teaching of Jesus (The Ethel M. Wood Lecture, 15 February 1990). London: University of London.ISBN 0-718-70961-6.
• ——— (1990).Jewish Law from Jesus to the Mishnah. London: SCM Press.ISBN 0-334-02102-2.
• ——— (1991).Paul. Oxford: Oxford Paperbacks.ISBN 0-19-287679-1.
• ——— (1992).Judaism: Practice and Belief. London: SCM Press.ISBN 0-334-02470-6.
• ——— (1993).The Historical Figure of Jesus. London: Penguin Books.ISBN 0-14-014499-4.
• ——— (2001).Paul: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford Paperbacks.ISBN 0-19-285451-8.
• ——— (2015).Paul: The Apostle's Life, Letters, and Thought. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.ISBN 978-0-80-062956-4.

• ——— (1973). "Patterns of Religion in Paul and Rabbinic Judaism: A Holistic Method of Comparison".Harvard Theological Review.66 (4):455–478.doi:10.1017/S0017816000018125.S2CID 170911418.
• ——— (1993). "Jesus in Historical Context".Theology Today.50 (3):429–448.doi:10.1177/004057369305000309.S2CID 147203393.
• ——— (1996)."Jesus' Relation to Sepphoris". In Nagy, Rebecca Martin;Meyers, Eric M.;Meyers, Carol L.; et al. (eds.).Sepphoris in Galilee: Crosscurrents of Culture. Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art. pp. 75–79.ISBN 978-0-8825-9971-7.
• ——— (2001). "Jesus' Galilee". In Dunderberg, Ismo; et al. (eds.).Fair Play: Diversity and Conflicts in Early Christianity: Essays in Honor of Heikki Räisänen. Novum Testamentum Supplements. Vol. 103. Leiden: Brill. pp. 3–41.ISBN 978-9-0041-2359-5.
• ——— (2010). "Jesus of Nazareth". InCollins, John J.;Harlow, Daniel C. (eds.).The Eerdmans Dictionary of Early Judaism. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. pp. ?.ISBN 978-0-8028-2549-0.

• Udoh, Fabian E., ed. (2008).Redefining First-Century Jewish and Christian Identities: essays in honor of Ed Parish Sanders. Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity. Vol. 16. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.ISBN 978-0-268-04453-4.OCLC 227031660.

• Chancey, Mark A. (June 13, 2006)."Paul and the law: E. P. Sanders's retrieval of Judaism".The Christian Century. Chicago.
• Hengel, Martin; Deines, Roland (April 1995). "E. P. Sanders' 'Common Judaism', Jesus, and the Pharisees".The Journal of Theological Studies.46 (1). Oxford: Oxford University Press:1–70.doi:10.1093/jts/46.1.1.

• E. P. Sanders, "Intellectual Autobiography"
• E. P. Sanders, "Jesus in Historical Context"Archived 2006-02-08 at theWayback Machine
• E. P. Sanders, "The Question of Uniqueness in the Teaching of Jesus"Archived 2016-03-03 at theWayback Machine
• The New Perspective on Paul

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