The Antithesis of the Ages

Davis seeks to recast the traditional perception of Paul's polarization of the Torah and Christ in terms of an inherent antithesis of history ("this age") and eschatology ("the age to come"). In the early chapters he investigates the role of Wisdom and Torah in biblical and in Second-Temple literature in order to construct a context for interpreting Paul's view of the Torah. In the balance, he applies his conclusions to three Pauline texts understood to express this antithesis. By concentrating on the link he perceives between Paul's rejection of "eternal Torah theology" and its replacement with Christ-thereby allowing Paul to reconfigure the place of the Torah apart from those elements-Davis wants to offer a new way to construe the "Paul-and-Torah riddle."