The Absence of an Atoning Sacrifice in Paul's Soteriology

Abstract

It need scarcely be said that Christ's death constitutes the theological centre of gravity for Paul's entire soteriology (e.g., 1 Thess 5.10; 1 Cor 2.1–2; 1.23; Rom 5.6, 8;passim). One aspect of this is the atonement for humanity's sin. In the past, the presupposition of many scholars has been that the concept of Christ's expiatory death (e.g., Gal 3.13; 2 Cor 5.21; Rom 3.24–5; 8.3) is first and foremost a Jewish sacrificial idea, as defined in the Pentateuch.

The Polymorphous Pesah

“…Of course, the idea that Jesus's death and specifically his blood affected atonement in a ḥattat-like manner is not unique to the Gospel of John, and arguably already appears in the letters of Paul. 116 However, whereas other New Testament texts develop the notion of Jesus's atoning function mainly through the thematics of the Day of Atonement, 117 John associates this atoning function with the "lamb of God," thus tying it to the pesaḥ /Akedah trope: here, Jesus atones in his capacity as a paschal lamb. 118 While scholars claimed that the author of John is conflating Passover and the Day of Atonement together to serve his theological agenda, 119 we propose that this author, like Paul but much more forcefully and noticeably, makes use of the ambiguity regarding the pesaḥ that is already present in the biblical text itself.…”