Ed Parish Sanders FBA (April 18, 1937 – November 21, 2022) was a liberal and secularized New Testament scholar and a principal proponent of the "New Perspective on Paul".
In any case, he was cognizant of Albert Schweitzer's indictment of liberal theology's attempt to make Jesus in its own image, and sought to keep his religious convictions out of his scholarship.
[6] In contemporary, secular scholarship, Jesus is seen as the founder of a "renewal movement within Judaism," to use Sanders' phrase.
Rather, Sanders argued, the key difference between pre-Christian Judaism and Pauline teaching was to be found in ideas of how a person becomes one of the People of God.
Sanders termed the Jewish belief "covenantal nomism": one was a member of the people by virtue of God's covenant with Abraham, and one stayed in it by keeping the Law.
[8] In this work he argued that Jesus began as a follower of John the Baptist and was a prophet of the restoration of Israel.
Sanders also argued that Jesus' sayings did not entirely determine Early Christian behavior and attitudes, as is shown by Paul's discussion of divorce (1 Cor.
After the reign of Salome Alexandra, the Pharisees were a small but very respected party which had a varying amount of influence within Judaism.
In general, Sanders stressed the importance of historical context for a proper understanding of first century religion.
[10] In a 2000 encyclopedia entry on Jesus, whom Sanders called an 'eschatological prophet', the subject avoids the word 'angel' although mention is made of the two men 'in dazzling clothes' at the empty tomb.
[11] Sanders argued that more comparative studies are needed, with wider examinations conducted between New Testament texts and the other available historical sources of the period.
Speaking at a conference organized in his honor, he described the attractiveness of these types of comparative studies: "They are not all that easy, but they are an awful lot of fun.