New Perspectives on the Old Covenant: 2 Corinthians 3 and Paul within Judaism

Abstract:Pauline scholarship has gone through fundamental changes during the last decades. Old assumptions and premises have been questioned, debated and reformulated through the New Perspective on Paul. A more recent scholarly trend is known as the Paul Within Judaism Perspective (also labelled the Radical New Perspective on Paul). This article focuses on 2 Corinthians 3 in relation to this development and discusses whether it is possible to read the passage within the framework of Paul Within Judaism. The main dialogue partner is Paul Duff’s volume, Moses in Corinth: The Apologetic Context of 2 Corinthians 3 (2015). The conclusions of this article are that 2 Corinthians 3 has been neglected and not given its due space and influence in recent scholarship, that the passage is difficult to combine with the assumptions of Paul Within Judaism, and that it is highly relevant for the discussions of Paul and Judaism.