Sanders takes to task those influential scholars, among them Bousset, Schurer, Bultmann, Conzelmann and their heirs, who have received uncritically and passed on to their students and readers a view of Judaism which sees it "as a religion of legalistic works-righteousness". This is followed by an examination of the Tannaitic literature, the Dead Sea Scrolls and certain Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphical writings which provide an understanding of Judaism in terms of what Sanders calls "covenantal nomism." The second section of the book is devoted to a study of Paul and an examination of where and why his view and that of Judaism differed.
Jewish-Christian Relations