Please click on the attachment to view Anthony Chadwick Thornhill, “To the Jew First: A Socio-Historical and Biblical-Theological Analysis of the Pauline Teaching of ‘Election’ in Light of Second Temple Jewish Patterns of Thought.”
This is the author’s 2013 doctoral dissertation, completed at Liberty University, and is being published by IVP in a revised form as The Chosen People: Election, Paul and Second Temple Judaism. It is an important work that is basically the first scholarly work that analyzes Second Temple Judaism (i.e., the main background for the NT) in detail as to its doctrine of election with respect to corporate/individual and conditional vs. unconditional concerns. It is the research that was crying out to be done with respect to corporate election. It adds the backing of extensive, detailed research to claims of scholars who have asserted that not only the Old Testament, but also Second Temple Judaism, held corporate election. Thornhill also analyzes Paul’s doctrine of election, exegeting the main texts in Paul related to election and finds it to be coprorate and conditional. Here is the author’s dissertation abstract:
Paul’s “doctrine” of election has remained a controversial and enigmatic topic for centuries. Few studies, however, have approached Paul’s doctrine through the context of Second Temple Judaism. This study examines Paul’s view of election through the lens of Second Temple Jewish texts written prior to 70 CE. In doing so, it is argued that the best framework through which to view Paul’s discussion of election is through a primarily corporate model of election. While such a model is rooted in Judaism, Paul departs from his Jewish contemporaries in arguing that the locus of election is in God’s Messiah, Jesus.
