A justiça de Deus em perspectiva: (des)construções na teologia paulina, na comunidade de Qumran e na tradição judaica

Abstract

This dissertation proposes a focus on the justice of God based on the new view of Paul, emerging in recent times, having as reference the Jewish tradition mainly the Qumran manuscripts. Overcoming the traditional view of Judaism understood as a legalistic tradition, it presents a new meaning to the justification by faith in opposition to the works of the Law. The first chapter deals with the various experiences of God lived out by the people of Israel, based on the fundamental element of the divine grace. The divine initiative, to choose and liberate Israel, revealing to them the face of the merciful and compassionate God, full of love and kindness, true to his promises in spite of the sins of the people, was the founding and fundamental base on which the people of Israel constructed their history. The Law, understood in its broad sense, as the Torah, was the way to keep the Covenant alive, guiding toward a living experience of the will of God as the chosen people by Grace. The various political-religious expressions and organizations in primitive Judaism were attempts of responding to the new challenges that emerged, mainly, faced with foreign domination after the exile. The second chapter presents a study of the pericope of Rom 3:21-31, describing some steps of the biblical exegesis, focusing mainly on the concept of justice, both in the biblical sense as well as in the extra-biblical sense, with the goal of understanding the justice of God presented by the Apostle Paul. The last chapter deals with a perspective of Paul as a defender of grace for Jews and gentiles, extrapolating the Jewish parameters of the Law. After briefly visualizing the modern and contemporary interpretations of Paul, it focuses on the new perspective rereading various elements present in the Pauline writings, traditionally understood as expressions of the Apostle breaking with his Jewish and Pharisaic past as well as with his tradition, especially the Law. The rereading of Paul recovers the centrality of grace present in the Jewish tradition and in the Qumran manuscripts. The justification through faith and grace was not an unprecedented fact of Paul, but was already present in the Judeo-Christian tradition, understood in the light of the Old Testament. Recovering this base Paul defends the right of the gentiles, as participants in the promises carried out in Christ. Through some approximations between the Pauline thinking and the Qumran manuscripts, mainly, the sinner condition of the human being and the need for divine mercy, one perceives the justice of God as a fruit, essentially, of His grace.