E.P. Sanders, in 1977, published the most influential book of the last fifty years: Paul and Palestinian Judaism. There has been all kinds of scuttlebutt about what a decade later Jimmy Dunn began to call the “new perspective.” And now Tom Wright has added another major voice and there you have it: the new perspective. But I have another operative principle in my life because of E.P. Sanders, and it has nothing to do with the interface of emerging Christianity and Judaism in the first century.
So, I showed up (early, as is my custom). We ate and I asked and he answered and it was a delightful time. It gave me a new perspective on Sanders and it helped me make connections I had never made.
But, this is what I learned. When the bill came, I asked to pay and he said this very clearly and directly. He looked me in the eyes and said, “I make more money than you do, and so I want to pay for you. When you are older in your profession, you can do the same.”
And I have. Many times. It is my EP Sanders Principle of equity. It comes from 2 Cor 8:13-14. So that there might be “equity.”