Among the major distinctives of Ephesians within the Pauline letter collection, there are two that make the most immediate impression. In terms of content, the concentrated attention it gives to the phenomenon of the church stands out, so that it is not at all surprising that this letter has been a key resource for theological reflection on the corporate nature of Christian existence. In terms of form, it is noticeable that discussion of the church appears in both halves of a document that does not have the usual Pauline letter body. Instead, between its letter opening (1:1, 2) and closing (6:21-4), Ephesians is divided into two lengthy parts – an expansion of the usual thanksgiving section that runs from 1:3 to 3:21, and an extended paraenesis or section of ethical exhortation that stretches from 4:1 to 6:20. In the former the letter's recipients are reminded of the privileges they enjoy as believers in Christ and members of the church and of their significant role in God's plan for the cosmos. In the latter they are summoned, in the light of their privileged status, to conduct their lives in an appropriate fashion in the church and in the world.

Ephesians is also distinctive as the most general of the Pauline letters. Since the usual strategy for interpreting Paul’s letters builds on the recognition that he carries out the pastoral application of his gospel in interaction with the particular circumstances and needs of his readers, Ephesians proves initially frustrating. It gives us extremely little information about its recipients or their specific circumstances.

Victorian leaders in church and state are typically memorialized in rarely read volumes of Life and Letters. Paul too is known today from an account of his life and a collection of his letters, but the book in which both are preserved will continue to be read for as long as Christianity endures. Paul's impact on this religion and the cultures it has largely shaped began with his mission and the thought it stimulated but has been mediated by the records of both and magnified by their location in the New Testament. Elijah's cruse offers an image of scripture steadily nourishing faith communities without exhausting its deposit of oil; the financial metaphor of a legacy providing not only a regular income but varying dividends that sometimes exceed the original investment hints at Paul's revolutionary potential.

Religions depend on and live from their traditions, some especially from their scriptural traditions. Contemporary Christianity is heir to what Paul achieved historically and owes much to the example of his life, the teaching and inspiration of his letters, and their impact on other influential figures in Christian history.

COLOSSIANS: GENERAL SITUATION

Author and readers

Colossians purports to be written as a letter by the apostle Paul, along with Timothy (1:1), through the services of a scribe (4:18). This letter is addressed to the Christians in Colossae, a city in Phrygia located inland from Ephesus on the south side of the river Lycus in western Asia Minor. Paul himself did not found the Colossian church (2:1); the letter suggests that his link to the Christians there may have developed through Epaphras, who had worked among them (1:7-8) and from whom he sends them greetings (4:12). According to the text, Paul composed the letter while in prison (4:3, 18; see 4:10; 1:24).

Date

If the letter was composed or endorsed by Paul, then it was written during one of Paul’s imprisonments, that is, either in Ephesus (during the mid 50s CE) or in Rome (which would imply a date around 60 CE, just prior to the earthquake which struck the Lycus region in 60–1 CE).

Throughout his career Paul was confronted with a number of complex moral and practical problems in the fledgling Christian communities which threatened their very survival. The early church regularly struggled with questions concerning Jews and Gentiles, male and female roles, sex and marriage, rich and poor, church order and worship, politics and slavery. To put it simply, the study of Paul's ethics considers his responses to these issues. These can in the main be found in the form of three types of paraenesis or moral exhortation scattered throughout his letters: traditional paraenesis, involving general moral themes such as holiness and love (e.g. Rom. 12:1-13:14); situational paraenesis, consisting of advice and exhortation on specific matters of pressing concern (e.g. 1 Cor. 5:1-11:1); and ecclesiastical paraenesis, directed to the institutional needs of the church and the ministry (e.g. 1 Cor. 11:2-14:40).

Paul’s moral teaching, however, cannot be isolated from the rest of his instruction. Doctrine and ethics are intimately related in Paul’s letters. It is commonly observed that some of the letters exhibit a basically two-fold structure (e.g. Romans, Galatians, Colossians, Ephesians), the first predominantly pertaining to matters of belief, the second primarily to Christian conduct. However, this is an oversimplification, for application is not postponed until the second half of Romans, for instance, being implicit in the exposition in chs. 1–2 and explicit in chs. 6 and 8.

The term 'Pastoral Epistles' applies to a group of three letters within the New Testament, namely, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus. Already in the thirteenth century Thomas Aquinas (1225-74) referred to 1 Timothy as 'a pastoral rule, which the apostle [Paul] committed to Timothy'. The designation of all three letters as the 'Pastoral Epistles', however, came much later. That is usually attributed to the German scholar Paul Anton (1661-1730), who used the term collectively in lectures and writings in the eighteenth century. The term is descriptive of the aim and contents of the three letters. Among other things, they provide instructions for pastoral oversight of congregations, and they speak of the qualities and duties of church leaders.

THE PASTORALS IN THE EARLY CHURCH

Each of the Pastorals begins by identifying Paul the apostle as its author. Each one goes on to represent itself as a communication from Paul to either Timothy or Titus, persons entrusted with obligations to teach and provide leadership within churches committed to their care. The letters provide further instructions in carrying out those obligations in the present and on into the future.

Paul's beliefs about Jesus were at the centre of his religious commitment, and any attempt to understand Paul's religious thought (or 'theology') has to make central what he believed about Jesus Christ. If considered apart from his religious life, however, these christological beliefs can come across as lifeless intellectual categories or even historical curiosities. In a proper portrayal, his christology should be seen in the context of his religious life, within which a passionate devotion to Christ is central.

One cannot read passages such as Phil. 3:7–11, for example, without sensing the depth of religious feeling towards Christ that seems to have characterized Paul’s Christian life. In this passage, Paul compares unfavourably all of his pre-conversion religious efforts and gains over against ‘the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord’. He then posits as his aims to ‘gain Christ’ and ‘to know Christ’, amplified here in terms of intense aspirations to know ‘the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death’.

METHODOLOGICAL PRESUPPOSITIONS

Despite the objections of a small but vocal minority, it seems certain that Paul was not only Jewish but also a Pharisee, just as he himself claims:

Paul tells us himself that he was a Pharisee and that in his previous, pre-Christian life being a Pharisee was a prestigious attainment, which gave him the respect of his brothers in faith. He also says that he was a zealous Pharisee, pursuing or even persecuting the early Christian church, and that while he was a Pharisee, he felt himself to be blameless and righteous.

A ‘TROUBLER OF ISRAEL’

Paul has always been an uncomfortable and controversial figure in the history of Christianity. The accusation against the prophet Elijah by Israel's King Ahab, 'you troubler of Israel' (1 Ks. 18:17), could be levelled against Paul more fittingly than any other of the first Christians. He first appears on the public stage of first-century history as a Jewish 'zealot' (Acts 22:3), one who measured his 'zeal' by his attempt to violently 'destroy' (Gal. 1:13; Phil. 3:6) the embryonic movement within Second Temple Judaism, then best characterized as 'the sect of the Nazarenes' (Acts 24:5, 14; 28:22), two generations later as 'Christianity'. Following his conversion, when he turned round and joined those whom he had persecuted (Acts 9; Gal. 1:13-16), and when he then embarked on a highly personal mission to win Gentiles to the gospel of Christ (Rom. 11:13; 15:18-20), he displayed the same sort of passionate commitment, even 'zeal' (2 Cor. 11:2) on behalf of his converts and churches.

Such out-and-out commitment to his cause created tremendous resentment among his fellow Jews, including, not least, those Jews who, like him, had also come to believe in Jesus as Israel’s Messiah. One of the chief reasons why we still have so many of his letters is that his teaching was quickly challenged by varying opponents from both within and without the churches he established; it was characteristic of Paul that he did not hesitate to respond vigorously to such challenges.

Paul's choice of Corinth as his first missionary base reveals much about his character and temperament. A city which took pride in the slogan, 'Not for everyone is the journey to Corinth' (Horace, Epistles 1.17.36; cf. Strabo, Geography 8.6.20) was above all a challenge. A challenge that Paul was prepared to accept because if he won he would have planted the gospel in the most difficult of all environments, a fiercely competitive commercial centre where material gain was the one true god. To be able to say that Corinthians believed in Jesus would be irrefutable proof of the power of the gospel.

Corinth, moreover, offered Paul superb communications. Its position on the isthmus linking the Peloponnese to mainland Greece gave it command over the north–south trade route as well as over the east–west sea traffic. The taxes it levied made it ‘wealthy Corinth’ (Homer, Iliad 2.570). (For more background on the city see my St. Paul’s Corinth.)

Arriving in Corinth from Athens in the spring of AD 50, Paul found lodging and work with Prisca and Aquila, Jewish Christians who had fled from Rome as the result of reprisals taken by the Emperor Claudius against a turbulent synagogue in AD 41 (many continue to prefer the less probable date of AD 49). Corinth was an ideal city for all three to ply their trade of tentmaking.

The longest and most influential of Paul's letters has a complex textual history, with fourteen families of texts featuring varied arrangements of the final chapters. While many earlier scholars tended to view chapter 16 as not originally intended for Rome, recent studies have demonstrated that the original version of the letter contained the material of all sixteen chapters. It is likely, but far from generally accepted, that 16:17-20 and 16:25-57 are interpolations reflecting later interpretations of the letter.

Romans is carefully organized, with an introduction in 1:1–15, a thesis statement in 1:16–17, four proofs (1:18–4:25; 5:1–8:39; 9:1–11:36; and 12:1–15:13), and an elaborate conclusion in 15:14–16:24. From the perspective of classical rhetoric, Romans is an ‘ambassadorial’ message in the demonstrative genre that seeks to encourage a particular ethos in the audience so they will support a project that Paul has in mind. The introduction and conclusion indicate that the primary purpose of the original letter was to elicit support for Paul’s mission to Spain, mentioned in 15:24, 28. Since there was no significant Jewish population in Spain at this time, which eliminated the possibility of starting a mission in the usual manner in a Jewish synagogue, advance preparations were required.

STARTING POINT: APOSTLE TO THE GENTILES

The foundation of Paul's thought and practice as a missionary and pastor was a life-changing experience of revelation experienced as grace and call. He gives his most direct account in Gal. 1:11-16:

This first-person testimony is extremely important. It shows us, first, that for Paul the starting point of his Christian self-understanding was a divine gift in the form of a revelation to/in him of Jesus Christ risen from the dead and exalted in glory at God’s right hand as his Son (cf. Rom. 1:4; 2 Cor. 3:16–18). Second, Jesus Christ as God’s Son risen from the dead is represented by Paul as the ‘gospel’ (euaggelion), and intrinsic to the gospel is that it is a message to be preached (euaggelizesthai).

Opinions of Paul have always been divided. He had been a man of conflict before his sudden conversion on the road to Damascus, bitterly opposed to the Jesus movement. He remained a subject of controversy after that event not only among his conservative Jewish countrymen but also within the early church. In modern times generations of scholars have hailed or blamed him as the true founder of Christianity, granting that Jesus himself had not crossed the borders of ancient Judaism. Obviously the apostle of the Gentiles was and is a challenge that leaves little room for indifference. Nevertheless sound scholarship must aim at balanced views that have a chance of convincing a majority of those who are ready and able to dig deeper and listen to the sources rather than to the praise or disdain of modern friends or foes. Positive or negative judgments on Paul are usually based upon some well-known doctrinal statements of his, isolated from the argument of their context and quoted without regard to the circumstances of his life and times. Instead of such more or less arbitrary opinions, to do justice to the person and work of the apostle demands a careful consideration of the character of our sources and an interpretation of his teaching as conditioned by his social and religious background and as part of his ministry of founding and fostering young churches in the Mediterranean world outside Judaea.

Paul's letter to the Galatian Christians teems with impassioned fervour unequalled in any other Pauline letter. It reveals an embattled Paul in a fierce struggle to preserve his own apostolic credentials, the gospel that he preached, and of course the spiritual health of Galatian communities that he had founded a few years earlier. It contains some of Paul's most bold and impetuous theological reasoning, reasoning that he seems to have adjusted somewhat in content and tone in his later letter to the Roman Christians. In Galatians, we get a glimpse of Paul in a mode of impulsive reflex, assembling theological arguments to influence the corporate and personal life of the Galatian Christians in a situation that deeply disturbed him.

The Christians to whom Paul wrote were Gentiles (4:8) living in churches spread over some distance in the area of Asia Minor known to us today as Turkey. (Scholars continue to dispute the precise location of these churches, whether to the north towards the Black Sea or to the south closer to the Mediterranean.) They had affectionately received Paul and his message at an earlier date (3:1; 4:13–15), sometime in the late 40s. As a consequence of Paul’s ministry among them, the Galatian Christians had profound experiences of the Spirit (3:2–5) that instilled in them a hardy sense of Christian identity that continued for some time (5:7a).

Fresh winds are blowing through the corridors of Pauline studies, and in many ways it is an exciting time to be studying the apostle to the Gentiles' correspondence. In this chapter we will be exploring four areas where new perspectives and methodologies have led to further light being shed on the Pauline corpus. The areas of our discussion will include: (1) Jewish perspectives on Paul; (2) feminist and liberationist perspectives on Paul; (3) rhetorical studies of Paul's letters; and (4) the examination of Paul's letters as scripture.

SAUL THE PHARISEE/PAUL THE CHRISTIAN IN JEWISH PERSPECTIVE

The study of Saul of Tarsus’ life andworks by Jewish scholars is certainly not an entirely new phenomenon. A generation ago, H. J. Schoeps wrote a lively account of the apostle’s life and work, and there were always a few treatments, like that of S. Sandmel, which suggested that the subject deserved closer scrutiny by Jewish scholars. But in recent years some of the most influential studies on Paul have been offered by Jewish scholars such as A. Segal, D. Boyarin, or M. Nanos.