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E. P. Sanders is Arts and Sciences Professor of Religion at Duke University. He was formerly Dean Ireland's Professor of Exegesis in the University of Oxford and Fellow of The Queen's College. His books include Paul and Palestinian Judaism (1977), Paul, the Law, and the Jewish People (1983), and Jesus and Judaism (1985). I have read and studies these books in detail and Mr. Sanders's thoughts on the non-Jew and his relationship to the Covenants of God and Israel can be very insightful to the contemporary Christian which lacks such knowledge and understanding which Sanders's books make available.
In the Jewish Scriptures the term "righteous" usually designates an obedient Israelite. But that is not always the case as we shall quickly come to see.
In the Jewish Scriptures the Rabbis who read and studied these texts saw that God had laid out a "PATTERN" of salvation and worship. The Rabbis call this by a fancy term today; namely "soteriology" and this term simply means the study of salvation. Included in these Jewish Scriptures and the Bible Jesus both knew and used is a "pattern" of salvation for both the Jew and the non-Jew. There are many things in common between them but also many things that are not. The reason for this is simple. Each has a different Covenant with God. Regardless of Jew or non-Jew all salvation given by God is dependent upon membership in God's Covenant. This covenantal soteriology [salvation] covers both native-born Israelites, proselytes [Gentiles converted to Judaism], as well as non-Jewish believers [Godfearers]: accepting the covenant and receiving salvation both requires and is evidenced by obeying the specific commandments within each's particular Covenant.
Proselytes [Gentile converts to Judaism] accept the covenant and bring sacrifices (for example) just as do native-born Israelites (Sifra Nedabah parasha 2.3) It is the acceptance of the covenant which establishes one in Israel, the community of those who will have a share in the world to come, while denial of the commandments indicates denial of the covenant and implies eternal punishment or destruction.
Answer for yourself: It is presumed that you have read the previous articles on covenants before answering this next question. What could be the terrible outcome then of those who grow up in Gentile Christianity under the mistaken understanding that they are "not under these laws" as Paul would have us believe? The reality of such is too scary to even comment upon!
Thus the definition of a proper proselyte is that he is a ger tsaddiq, a "righteous proselyte"; that is, like a righteous (native-born) Israelite he obeys the Torah. Remember a proselyte is a Gentile which converts to Judaism; thereby becoming for all purposes a "Jew." A man who does not intend to accept and obey all the Torah cannot be a true proselyte (T. Demai 2.5).
Precisely what the ritual was by which a man indicated his acceptance of the covenant and thus his conversion to Judaism, and the history of the development of the ritual, cannot be precisely recovered but we have a pretty good idea from various records left to us today. It is to be assumed that males were circumcised. There are reports of questions which were put to would-be Proselytes [Gentile converts to Judaism] to test their sincerity, and at some time the custom was developed of giving Proselytes [Gentile converts to Judaism] a ritual bath (immersion called a mikvah which is also called in Jewish vernacular "being born again").
Answer for yourself: Before this phrase was stolen by the Gentile Church where it's meaning was changed then did this term refer originally to non-Jews becoming Jews through circumcision, immersion, and the presentation of a sacrifice whereby they were no longer aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world? It sure did! Amazing how concepts change when nations lose wars and winners reinterpret the loser's culture and religion!
If you grasp what I just said then you now realize the whole concept of "being born again" as taught in Gentile Christianity is WRONG!
What is important for the present inquiry, however, is that the formal definition of a true proselyte and a faithful native-born Israelite is the same: a man is properly in the Israel of God:
The native-born Israelite, to be sure, accepts the covenant with the impetus given by the understanding that he, his forebears and his descendants were especially called and set aside by God. Native-born Israelites are generally considered by the Rabbis to be "in" unless they give evidence of being apostate (they "break off the yoke", etc.). The proselyte, on the other hand, must bear the burden of proof to show that he accepts the covenant and intends to keep the commandments; but the formal relationship of accepting and keeping is the same.
Answer for yourself: The question then arises, what of the Gentiles who did not become Proselytes [Gentile converts to Judaism]?
Answer for yourself: Is the Jewish Covenant like Noah's ark, outside which there is no salvation, or can Gentiles also be saved?
It is here that we see clearly that Rabbinic Judaism had a soteriology in only a limited sense. Although there is no systematic position with regard to the fate of the Gentiles, and thus no systematic soteriology, the Rabbinic literature, although mainly addressed to members of the covenant (the Jewish people), yet we can from this Rabbinic literature deduce a soteriology as applied to the non-Jewish believer in God who does not convert. Interestingly enough this "Gentile non-convert salvation" appears to have been universally held!
Answer for yourself: Do you know what this "Gentile non-convert salvation" required of the non-Jew by God in the Jewish Scriptures and Rabbinic literature?
According to the Jewish Scriptures and Rabbinic literature for the non-Jews who were in Covenant with God maintained their right-standing and acceptance by God by:
Answer for yourself: Did you notice anything that was similar between how Jews, Proselytes, and Non-Jews obtained "salvation"?
They all did the same things! The same things were required of all of them...the only difference was the different Covenants which they respectively had and what these various Covenants required of them! God has forever had only one salvation for mankind...and it revolves around obedience to our various Covenants with Him! God honors his part and He asks us to do the same toward Him!
The non-Jew who did not wish to covert to Judaism has had since the beginning of time his own unique Covenant with God and he has since the beginning of time maintained his right-standing and acceptance with God through obeying the commandments within his Covenant as best he can and by atoning for his transgression of his Covenant when he errs and sins. In such a way the non-Jewish believer in God preserves his status and relationship with God which is given in his covenant. This will never change because God's Word is ETERNAL! The Gentiles are dealt with only sporadically, however, and different Rabbis had different opinions about their destiny.
We should first of all note that Gentiles as well as Israelites could be called "righteous": "Which he shall do" (Lev. 18.5). - R. Jeremiah used to say: You reason thus: Whence do we know that even a foreigner who does the Torah is like a high priest" Scripture teaches: "Which a man (referring to a non-Jew) shall do and live by them." And further: it does not say, "And this is the Torah of the Priests and Levites and Israelites," but "And this is the Torah of man; O Lord God" (II Sam. 7.19).
2 Sam 7:19 19 And this was yet a small thing in thy sight, O Lord GOD; but thou hast spoken also of thy servant's house for a great while to come. And is this the manner of man, O Lord GOD? (KJV)
Answer for yourself: Where does it say "torah" as you stated above Pastor Craig?
Well the word translated "manner" in the KJV is "Torah"?
In Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon we find the Strong's number #8452 towrah- custom, manner, mode, law (of man)
Answer for yourself: Do you understand that God gave mankind (Gentiles) a Torah and a Law? We find it in his Covenant....the Covenant of Noah and the Laws of Noah?
Answer for yourself: Is it an accident that the word "Torah" is translated as Law and Commandments all through the Bible but yet here when referring to non-Jews the word is masked and translated differently in hopes you never catch on? Roman theology and replacement religion marches on though the corruption of the Jewish Scriptures as it always has for the last 1700 years! Not only did they corrupt the Jewish Old Testament Scriptures but wrote their successive Catholic Church councils and doctrines in the New Testament and put in the mouth of the Apostles and Jesus no less their theological decisions! Out come the Roman "golden calf" and we call it the New Testament today!
And further: it does not say, "Open the gates, that the Priests, Levites and Israelites may come in," but "that the righteous Gentile (goi tsaddiq) who keeps faith may come in" (Isa. 26.2).
Isa 26:2 2 Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. (KJV)
Let us notice the Strong's number for the word "nation" as used by Isaiah above:
1471 gowy (go'-ee); rarely (shortened) goy (go'-ee); apparently from the same root as 1465 (in the sense of massing); a foreign nation; hence, a Gentile; also (figuratively) a troop of animals, or a flight of locusts: KJV-- Gentile, heathen, nation, people.
Answer for yourself: Since verse one of Isaiah 26 refers to Judah and the "Salvation of God" then I ask you is it possible that the Jews were given the "truth" for the nations or are they all blinded as Romans 9-11 says [let us not forget that these 3 chapters in Romans were written after 180 A.D. by Irenaeus and put into the Roman New Testament under the name of Paul]? Maybe the Jews are not blinded at all like we suppose...is that possible? That statement alone should wake the dead and the spiritually asleep at the wheel in the Christian church.
Answer for yourself: What else was altered in the New Testament and changed regarding non-Jews and their relationship with God after Rome took control of the faith once given to the saints? The "truth" is out there Mulder! But you get my drift!
The same point is made using Ps. 118.20 ("This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it"); 33.! ("Rejoice in the Lord, 0 you righteous!"); and 125.4 ("Do good, 0 Lord, to those who are good").]
Thus even a foreigner (non-Jew) who does the Torah (observes the Laws in his Covenant with God) is like a high priest (Sifra Ahare pereq 13.13)
Now we need to say something very important here! Here a Gentile who does the Torah is presumably a "God-fearer" rather than a proselyte (Sifre Deut. 311 (352; to 32.8), where it is said that some Gentiles "fear sin" and are "worthy" (kesherim). There is some debate on whether such Gentiles (Godfearers) should be called "semi-Proselytes [Gentile converts to Judaism]" (Lieberman, Greek in Jewish Palestine, p. 75; Moore, Judaism I, pp. 326-331). In any case, we see that R. Jeremiah would call a Gentile who does the Torah "righteous". A similar broad view towards the Gentiles is probably reflected in this passage: "And He Is Become My Salvation. Thou art the salvation of all those who come into the world, but of me especially" (Mek. Shirata 3 (126; II, 24; to 15.2).
It is such passages as these which have led Goldin to remark that the Tannaim felt "that God's special love for Israel co-exists with His love for all men without inconsistency" (Goldin, The Song at the Sea, p. 60). He refers also to R. Akiba's saying in Aboth 3.14(15): "Beloved is man (both Jew and non-Jew) for he was created in the image [of God]; still greater was the love in that it was made known to him that he was created in the image of God . . ."
According to the Rabbis the children of wicked Gentiles have no share in the world to come, however, the righteous among the Gentiles do have a share in the world to come. Determining what "righteous" for a non-Jew did not always bring agreement among the Rabbis. Many Rabbis taught that righteous Gentiles would have a place in the world to come and it was understood by most that one who keeps the seven Noachian commandments, is probably not too far off the mark. These are listed in an anonymous baraita in Sanhedrin 56a-b, with some additions by individual Rabbis. (T. Abodah Zarah 8(9).4, where seven are mentioned but only six named. On the Noachian commandments, one need see K. Hruby, "Le concept de Révélation", n. 17 on pp. 25-29). There seems to be no clear early statement to the effect that Gentiles who obey the Noachian commandments will be saved, but in one passage the Gentiles are criticized for not keeping even those commandments when God offered them the law (Sifre Deut. 343 (396; to 33.2). This seems to indicate what was expected of Gentiles. It was surely never contemplated that any Gentile would observe the Jewish law. The Rabbis considered that Israel had special obligations which did not fall on Gentiles. Thus Sifra Ahare parasha 6.i (to 57.2): "The Sons of Israel" are obligated [to keep the commandment] about slaughtering and offering outside (the Temple). But foreigners are not obligated [to keep it]. And not only this, but foreigners are permitted to make a high place in any place and to make offerings there to Heaven." (Apparently offerings are meant which are not to idols, but to God.) So also Sifre Deut. 345 (402; to 33.4): "This commanding (of the Torah [613 Commandments], which is mentioned in the text) is only for us and for our sake".
One who was kind and charitable and who did not transgress any of the principal prohibitions of Judaism (idolatry, robbery, eating meat cut from a living animal and the like) would presumably qualify.
Answer for yourself: Did you happen to notice that the above admonitions come directly from the Covenant of Noah?
We thus see that the Rabbis did not actually have a general and comprehensive soteriology. If they had been animated by the question "who can be saved "one must presume that they would have dealt with it in their characteristically thorough and systematic fashion and that the state of the Gentiles would have been defined, distinctions among various Gentiles made, what God expected of Gentiles specified, and the like. Such discussions are notably absent from Tannaitic literature. The question which did animate the Rabbis was "How can ye obey the God who redeemed us and to whom we are committed"? Notice please that the Jews never taught "obey the Law because we are saved, but rather because we have been given God's mercy and grace whereby we are saved then we are obligated to live out our Covenant of salvation before Him. Not greater lie can Christianity teach that the Jews were saved by keeping the Law. It is simply an anti-Semitic lie!
We can see the Rabbis wrestling with this problem on almost every page of their literature when concerning the non-Jew. Their discussions are almost exclusively carried out within the context of the covenant (H. Loewe, "Pharisaism", Judaism and Christianity I, p. 154: "What we have on the Rabbinic side tells us how the Pharisees spoke to men who had faith already"). They concern themselves relatively little with how one who is not born in the covenant(a Gentile referring to the Covenant of Noah) enters it, although on this point the Rabbinic position is unambiguous:
entrance into the Covenant by a non-Jew is no different than a Jew who is born into his Covenant with God: it requires accepting ("confirming") the covenant and committing oneself to obeying the commandments contained within the Covenant
The sad irony of this is that most Gentile Christians don't even know which Covenant they are in due to the 1700 years false tradition and false teachings concerning the perversion of Jeremiah 31 by the Gentile Church which sought to give validity to their movement by appropriating the "new as in renewed" Covenant of Jeremiah 31. The harsh reality in this is that these Gentile "Christians" of the first and second Century created their own Covenant and denied the Covenant made with them by God. The even harder reality remains today that 99.9% of Gentile Christian believers fall into this same trap and although they don't know it they end up due to Christian teaching opposing the Covenant given to them by God and relish in one of man's creation which found it's impetus in anti-Semitism over 1800 years ago. Don't forget Rome won the war with Israel and winners not only rewrite but reinterpret not only history but religion. So the real question facing today's Gentile Christian is this:
Are you really a true follower of Jesus and the faith of Jesus which provided within it a place for you next to the Jew?
On the question of God's attitude towards those who remain outside the covenant, there were varying opinions. It is thus not strictly accurate to speak of "Pharisaic soteriology", as if there were one theory which covered all cases. Salvation is principally thought of as promised to those who are in the covenant and who retain their status in it through obedience and adherence unto their Covenant stipulations and Laws and repent and return to them when broken, but at least some Rabbis explicitly allowed for the salvation of "righteous Gentiles". You need to understand that bigotry of Jews toward Gentiles did not involve all the Rabbis. Rabbi Hillel is a good example as well as Rabbi Yeshua whol himself taught on Gentile salvation. I bet that came as news to you.
I you truly desire to be a follower of Jesus/Yeshua as well as find your right-standing in your Covenant with God then sadly I must say much study is necessary on your part for Rome has been quite successful these last 1800 years in lying about the faith of Jesus and presenting to the Gentile world a counterfeit. The task before you is to learn to recognize these lies in these various religious documents we inherited as "Christians" and return to the truth and THE FAITH ONCE GIVEN TO THE SAINT:
Eph 4:5 5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism, (KJV)
With over 2000 different Christian denominations with all their conflicting theological doctrines and by laws I would think that fact alone would make you at least wonder what happened to the above ONE FAITH AND ONE MIKVAH (IMMERSION).
You see the Gentile and the Jew were given this same "one faith" but each had different Covenant requirements....it is time you returned to the faith of Jesus out of love for him and his Father.
Shalom.
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