Matthew Novenson: Paul and “Justification from Works of the Law”

Matthew V. Novenson, Paul and Judaism at the End of History (Cambridge University Press, 2024), 56.

Rather embarrassingly for Paul’s modern interpreters, the first person in antiquity expressly to attest the motif of “justification from works of the law” turns out to be. . . Paul himself. Its earliest appearance is in Paul’s own rhetoric, not anywhere “in the wild” in Jewish sources prior to Paul. And what is more, the elusive claim for which we are searching – that a person is justified from works of the law – is precisely as well attested in post-Pauline Jewish texts as it is in prePauline Jewish texts, which is to say, almost not at all. Philo does not claim it, nor does Josephus, nor R. Yohanan ben Zakkai, nor R. Akiba, nor R. Judah the Patriarch. We do not find it in the Mishnah, Tosefta, Talmud Yerushalmi, Talmud Bavli, or any of the classical midrashim. Nor, again, in any of the targumim. This is striking (not to say damning) if, ex hypothesi, justification from works of the law is supposed to be a defining characteristic of ancient Jewish piety.

4 thoughts on “Matthew Novenson: Paul and “Justification from Works of the Law”

  1. jiuberto monteiro's avatar
    jiuberto monteiro 19 Mar 2026 — 7:34 am

    Hi Ben! I have a couple of questions.

    First, regarding Deuteronomy 22:28: do you think this passage is referring to rape, or do you interpret it differently? I’d also like to know whether there is any well-established scholarly consensus on this issue.

    Second, I’m curious about your view on Larry Hurtado. Are there any points where you disagree with his work, especially in Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity?

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  2. jiuberto monteiro's avatar
    jiuberto monteiro 22 Mar 2026 — 5:36 am

    Do you think the Marcionite priority hypothesis has any merit, or do you find the traditional view more convincing?

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    1. The Amateur Exegete's avatar

      I haven’t investigated the idea fully, but my gut reaction is that it probably isn’t right. For example, I think Mark’s Gospel makes sense as one written either during or in the immediate aftermath of the Jewish War in the 60s and 70s CE, well before Marcion’s activity. And while we have to take anti-Marcionite polemic with a grain of salt, the consensus among them seems to have been that Luke’s Gospel preceded Marcion’s redaction of it.

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      1. jiuberto monteiro's avatar
        jiuberto monteiro 24 Mar 2026 — 8:47 am

        I’m not convinced either; I came across this perspective on the C. J. Cornthwaite channel.

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