Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Paul's Life and Letters for further reading. By Bart D. Ehrman, Read by John Paul Middlesworth. Now that I have provided nutshell summaries of Paul's life, letters, and significance, I can provide some suggestions for further reading. Here is an annotated list of some of the books you may find useful. These are taken from my textbook the New A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, Oxford University Press, in which I devote six chapters to Paul. Another resource not listed in the textbook would be the different six chapters I devote to discussing Paul's biography in my book. Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene. Harper 1.
[00:00:42] David Ohn, The New Testament in its Literary Environment, Westminster, 1987. Includes a superb discussion of the practices of letter writing in Greco Roman antiquity as the social context for Paul's epistles.
[00:00:56] J. Christian Becker, Paul the Apostle the Triumph of God in Life and thought, Fortress, Philadelphia, 1980. A sophisticated and astute discussion of the apocalyptic character of Paul's theology and its various forms of expression in different situations that the apostle confronted for advanced students.
[00:01:17] F.F. bruce, Apostle of the Heart Set Free. Grand Rapids, Michigan. Aardmans, 1977. A full study of Paul's life and teachings by a major evangelical Christian scholar.
[00:01:29] James D. Dunn, the Theology of Paul the apostle. Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1998. A clear and full overview of the major theological views of Paul by a leading British New Testament scholar.
[00:01:42] Bart Ehrman. Forged Writing in the Name of God why the Bible's Authors Are not who We Think They Are. San Francisco, Harper, 1, 2011. A study of the use of literary forgery in early Christianity. That, among other things, shows why scholars do not think that Paul wrote the Pastoral and Deutero Pauline epistles.
[00:02:04] Neil Elliot and Mark Reasoner, Documents and Images for the Study of Paul. Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 2011.
[00:02:13] An extremely useful collection of ancient Greek, Roman, and Jewish sources and photographs of material remains, for example, archaeological discoveries that illuminate the teachings of Paul. Albert Harrell, Paul the Apostle His Life and Legacy in Their Roman Context. Cambridge University Press, 2012.
[00:02:33] One of the most informed studies of Paul in recent times, this highly informative biography situates the apostle carefully in his own social world.
[00:02:43] Gerald Hawthorne and Ralph Martin, Dictionary of Paul and his Letters, Downers Grove, Illinois. Inner Varsity, 1993. A Bible dictionary that contains over 200 articles on various topics relating to the life and writings of Paul, written by prominent evangelical scholars whom on several major issues take a different perspective from the one presented here, for example, the authorship of the Deutero, Pauline, and Pastoral epistles.
[00:03:10] More Morna Dorothy Hooker, Paul A Short Introduction. Oxford, One World, 2003. A very useful introduction to the life and letters of Paul. A good place for students to begin.
[00:03:24] Hans Joseph Clauck, Ancient Letters and the New Testament. Waco, Texas, Baylor University Press, 2006. An authoritative account of how letters were composed in the Greco Roman world in general, with numerous examples, and in the New Testament in particular.
[00:03:42] Wayne Meeks, the First Urban the Social World of the Apostle Paul, second edition. New Haven, Connecticut, Yale University Press, 2003. An impressive and highly influential study that explores the Pauline epistles from a socio historical rather than theological perspective for more advanced students.
[00:04:03] Wayne Meeks and John Fitzgerald, The Writings of St. Paul Annotated Texts, Reception, and Criticism, 2nd edition. New York, Norton, 2007. And a collection of important and classic essays written by a range of scholars and intellectuals, from philosophers to playwrights to historians, on the historical and religious significance of Paul.
[00:04:27] Calvin Rutzel, the Letters of conversations in context, 6th edition. Louisville, Kentucky. Westminster, John Knox, 2015.
[00:04:37] Perhaps the best introductory discussion of each of The Pauline Epistles.
[00:04:42] E. P. Sanders, Paul and Palestinian Judaism. Philadelphia Fortress, 1977. An enormously influential and erudite study that situates Paul in the context of early Judaism for advanced students.
[00:04:57] Alan Siegel, Paul the Convert, the Apostolate, and Apostasy of Saul the Pharisee. Yale University Press, 1990. A very interesting study by a Jewish scholar who examines the importance of Paul's conversion for his theology and practice.
[00:05:15] N.T. wright, Paul in Fresh Perspective, Fortress Press, 2005. An accessible introduction to Paul from a historical and especially theological perspective by a leading British scholar of the New Testament.
