The Apostle Paul in the Jewish Imagination is a pioneering multidisciplinary examination of Jewish perspectives on Paul of Tarsus. Here, the views of individual Jewish theologians, religious leaders, and biblical scholars of the last 150 years, together with artistic, literary, philosophical, and psychoanalytical approaches, are set alongside popular cultural attitudes. Few Jews, historically speaking, have engaged with the first-century Apostle to the Gentiles. The modern period has witnessed a burgeoning interest in this topic, however, with treatments reflecting profound concerns about the nature of Jewish authenticity and the developing intercourse between Jews and Christians. In exploring these issues, Jewish commentators have presented Paul in a number of apparently contradictory ways. The Apostle Paul in the Jewish Imagination represents an important contribution to Jewish cultural studies and to the study of Jewish-Christian relations.

This landmark work, which has shaped a generation of scholarship, compares the apostle Paul with contemporary Judaism, both understood on their own terms. E. P. Sanders proposes a methodology for comparing similar but distinct religious patterns, demolishes a flawed view of rabbinic Judaism still prevalent in much New Testament scholarship, and argues for a distinct understanding of the apostle and of the consequences of his conversion. A new foreword by Mark A. Chancey outlines Sanders‘s achievement, reviews the principal criticisms raised against it, and describes the legacy he leaves future interpreters.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1900 edition. Excerpt: ...present a striking parallel to 1 C. 15. 36, 37. occur in the Ascension of Isaiah, which is, as we saw, a combination of Jewish and Christian materials made not later than the second century. We there read, 4. 16, 'Sancti autem cum domino venient cum vestibus suis quae supra repositae sunt in septimo coelo'; 11. 40, 'vestes vestras in septimo coelo repositas, ' etc. It is possible that this idea of a pre-existent heavenly body prepared for the righteous was present to the mind of St. Paul when he spoke of' God giving to the seed a body as he willed, ' though no stress can be laid on this point. In the earlier part of this fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians (verses 20-28) occurs the one passage in St. Paul which may be thought to approxi Christe Sd0the mate to the belief in a millennium, and Messianic which at anv rate appears to stand in a reign. rr close relation to current Jewish ideas as to the end. The passage is a very vexed one, and the difficulties attaching to its interpretation are hardly less than those which are met with in the section dealing with the heavenly and the earthly man in this same chapter. It is necessary to form a clear idea as to the order of events, which is slightly inverted in St. Paul's description of them. In the first place, a universal resurrection appears to be spoken of. 'As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive' (verse 22). The 7ron-e? in the first clause is certainly meant to have a universal application; and there seems to be no sufficient reason for limiting its meaning, as many commentators do, in the second clause to those who are Christ's. It is true that the Apostle is not here specially concerned with the resurrection of unbelievers. Then, there are various stages in the.

Acts is the sequel to Luke's gospel and tells the story of Jesus's followers during the 30 years after his death. It describes how the 12 apostles, formerly Jesus's disciples, spread the message of Christianity throughout the Mediterranean against a background of persecution. With an introduction by P.D. James

Ranks the Apostle Paul as "one of the most powerful and seminal minds of the first or any century," and argues that we can now sketch with confidence a new and more nuanced picture of Paul and the radical way in which his encounter with Jesus redefined his life, his mission and his expectations for a world made new in Christ. Reprint.