Avoiding Scylla and Charybdis --Orthodox Responses to the Jewish People

Readers of Paul, seeking a unified response to the Jewish people, are frequently stymied by the apparent contradiction of two well-worked passages: “The Jews …killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, …. displease God, and oppose all humankind … so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them at last!” (1 Thess 2:15-16) “All Israel will be saved…. They are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” (Romans 11:20, 28-29) Unfortunately, the ongoing traditions of Orthodoxy (and Christian communities in general) mostly ceased to struggle with Paul’s complex stance regarding his fellow “Jews” or “Israel” (terms used interchangeably in the New Testament, but with various nuances). Instead, it was simpler to read the letters as supporting a two-way soteriology, a rigid supersessionism, or a speculative dispensationalism, depending on the theological disposition of the exegete. Historically, Orthodox have tended towards final view, a perspective that persists and has become all-too-clear in social media during the most recent tensions in the middle East. This paper will attempt to sketch a way of integrating what the New Testament says about the Old Covenant people of God, concentrating on these passages in Romans and 1 Thessalonians, with the help of select fathers. Through such a reading, Orthodox may avoid both a Charybdis that mars the generous phronema of Orthodoxy, and a Scylla that adopts a shallow or confused inclusivity destructive of Orthodox ecclesiology. Though this third approach may not please everyone in contemporary discussion, it seeks to take seriously the subtlety of Pauline thought, and to block off approaches that have historically prevented frank and friendly discussion with those outside of Orthodox circles.