Die Identität Israels bei Paulus

Paul’s concept of Israel has been read as shifting, or as metaphorically extended to gentile believers. Wibke Winkler argues the opposite: Paul uses the term consistently for the one people of God, constituted by descent and calling alike.

Wibke Winkler examines the identity of Israel in Paul’s letters and develops a coherent understanding of the concept of Israel within the tension between divine election and present distance from Christ. She focuses on the chapters on Israel in the Epistle to the Romans (Rom 9-11) in connection with relevant passages from the Apostle’s other letters to the churches in Corinth, Galatia, and Philippi. Winkler shows that for Paul, Israel is dually constituted: at once a community of descent and a community of calling. Both aspects are inextricably intertwined and form the basis for the continuity of the people across generations. Bodily descent grounds a real kinship and genealogical belonging; divine calling and election give this people its theological depth. In this interlocking, Israel is the people of God, its identity rooted both in its origin and in God’s enduring turning towards it. In response to views that claim a conceptual division of the term “Israel” in Paul’s letters or assume a metaphorical extension to believers in Christ from the nations, the author argues that Paul consistently uses the “Israel” terminology to refer to the members of the people defined by genealogy and calling. Paul does not subsume the Christ-believing community of Gentile and Jewish persons under the category of “Israel” nor does a “remnant” chosen from within Israel denote a second concept of Israel, but rather signifies a differentiation within the same people in the context of salvation history. Paul’s concept of Israel thus emerges as semantically stable.

Einleitung: Der Israel-Begriff im paulinischen Schrifttum
I. Aspekte des Israel-Begriffs in den "Gelegenheitsschreiben" des Apostels Paulus
1. Die Rede von Israel in den Briefen an die Gemeinde in Korinth
2. Die Rede von Israel im Brief an die Gemeinde in Philippi: "Am achten Tag beschnitten, aus dem Volk Israel..." - Exegese von Phil 3,4b-6
3. Die Rede von Israel im Brief an die galatischen Gemeinden: "... und Erbarmen auf Gottes Israel!" - Exegese von Gal 6,15f.
4. Zwischenfazit: Der Israel-Begriff in den "Gelegenheitsschreiben" des Apostels
II. Der Israel-Begriff im Brief an die Gemeinde in Rom
1. Der Brief an die Gemeinde in Rom als Kontext der Rede von Israel in Röm 9-11
2. Die Vorstellung der Israeliten im exordium (Röm 9,1-5)
3. Die Verwendung des Israel-Begriffs im argumentativen Hauptteil von Röm 9-11
4. Die Verwendung des Israel-Begriffs im paränetischen Hauptteil von Röm 9-11
5. Zur Vorstellung der Errettung Israels in der peroratio: Exegese von 11,25-36
6. Der Israel-Begriff im Brief an die Gemeinde in Rom
Fazit: Die Identität Israels in den Briefen des Apostels Paulus
1. Die grundlegenden Aspekte der Identität Israels
2. Israel als Gottesvolk
3. Die Israeliten und das Christusgeschehen

• By (author) Wibke Winkler