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2 - Who Was Paul?

from Part I - Paul, Letters and Communities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 June 2020

By
Paula Fredriksen
Edited by
Bruce W. Longenecker
Bruce W. Longenecker
Affiliation:
Baylor University, Texas
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Summary

Who was Paul? This essay places the apostle within his Diaspora social context of synagogue communities, gentile Judaizers, Roman authorities, hostile pagans and pagan gods, to reconstruct his mission and message. By turning the nations from their gods to his god, Paul was confirmed in his conviction that Christ was about to return to defeat cosmic powers; to accomplish that signature eschatological miracle, the resurrection of the dead; and to gather the twelve tribes of Israel and the seventy gentile nations under the universal sovereignty of God the father.

Keywords

Paulpersecutionethnicityadoptioneschatology
Type
Chapter
Information
The New Cambridge Companion to St. Paul , pp. 23 - 47
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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References

Further Reading

Bohak, Gideon. “The Ibis and the Jewish Question: Ancient ‘Anti-Semitism’ in Historical Context.” In Jews and Gentiles in the Holy Land in the Days of the Second Temple, the Mishnah and the Talmud: A Collection of Articles, 27–43. Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Fredriksen, Paula. “How Jewish Is God? Divine Ethnicity in Paul’s Theology.” Journal of Biblical Literature 137 (2018): 193–212.Google Scholar
Fredriksen, Paula. When Christians Were Jews: The First Generation. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2018.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fredriksen, Paula. Paul: The Pagans’ Apostle. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2017.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fredriksen, Paula. “‘Circumcision is Nothing and Foreskin is Nothing’: A Non-Reformation Reading of Paul’s Letters.” In Protestant Bible Scholarship: Antisemitism, Philosemitism and Anti-Judaism, edited Bakker, Arjen, Bloch, René, Fisch, Yael, Fredriksen, Paula and Najman, Hindy. Leiden: Brill, forthcoming.Google Scholar
Harrill, J. Albert. Paul the Apostle: His Life and Legacy in Their Roman Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hurtado, Larry. Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2003.Google Scholar
Isaac, Benjamin H. The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levinskaya, Irina. The Book of Acts in Its Diaspora Setting. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1996.Google Scholar
Novenson, Matthew V. Christ among the Messiahs: Christ Language in Paul and Messiah Language in Ancient Judaism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.Google Scholar
Novenson, Matthew V. “The Self-Styled Jew of Romans 2 and the Actual Jews of Romans 9–11.” In The So-Called Jew in Paul’s Letter to the Romans, edited by Rodriguez, Rafael and Thiessen, Matthew, 133–162. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2016.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanders, E. P. Paul, the Law, and the Jewish People. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983.Google Scholar
Stendahl, Krister. “The Apostle Paul and the Introspective Conscience of the West.” In Paul among Jews and Gentiles, 78–96. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1976. Originally published in Harvard Theological Review 56 (1963): 199–215.Google Scholar
Thiessen, Matthew. Paul and the Gentile Problem. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.Google Scholar
Wagner, J. Ross. Heralds of the Good News: Isaiah and Paul “In Concert” in the Letter to the Romans. Leiden: Brill, 2002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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