Saint Paul the Pharisee: Jewish Apostle to All Nations
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
The centuries after the Protestant Reformation brought about a radical reinterpretation of the epistles of St. Paul, disconnected from any historical reality. But Paul operated, during his entire life, as a faithful Pharisee within the Roman Jewish world. In Saint Paul the Pharisee: Jewish Apostle to All Nations, Fr. Stephen De Young surveys Paul’s life and writings, interpreting them within the Holy Tradition of the Orthodox Church. This survey is followed by De Young’s interpretive translation of St. Paul’s epistles, which deliberately avoids overly familiar terminology. By using words and ideas grounded in first-century Judaism, De Young hopes to unsettle commonly held notions and help the reader reassess St. Paul in his historical context.
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- Surveys Paul’s life and writings, interpreting them within the Holy Tradition of the Orthodox Church
- Provides an interpretive translation of St. Paul’s epistles that avoids overly familiar terminology
- Helps the reader reassess St. Paul in his historical context
- Introduction: Saul of Tarsus
- 1. Tarsus and Early Life
- 2. Era of Zealotry
- 3. Road to Damascus
- 4. Jerusalem
- 5. Tarsus and Antioch
- 6. First Missionary Journey
- 7. Council of Jerusalem and Epistle to the Galatians
- 8. Second Missionary Journey
- 9. Epistles to the Thessalonians
- 10. Two Years in Corinth
- 11. Third Missionary Journey
- 12. Epistle to the Romans
- 13. First Epistle to the Corinthians
- 14. Imprisonment in Ephesus: Philippians, Colossians, Ephesians & Philemon
- 15. Second Epistle to the Corinthians
- 16. Epistle to the Hebrews
- 17. Return to Jerusalem
- 18. Fourth Missionary Journey
- 19. Roman Imprisonment: First Timothy, Second Timothy & Titus
- 20. Martyrdom
- Conclusion: St. Paul the Apostle
In Saint Paul the Pharisee, Fr. Stephen De Young adroitly leads us into the mind of the apostle to the nations. He sketches a compelling image of the saint, providing the reader with a spiritual biography that chronicles St. Paul’s theological development and situates him within his historical milieu. Through a careful examination of the biblical texts, he provides an alternative reading of the Pauline corpus that challenges the various systematic approaches that have come before. His new (yet ancient) assessment will be helpful to a wide range of biblical readers, from beginners to experts.
—Fr. Joseph Lucas, PhD., Adjunct Professor of Theology at St. Thomas University, Miami
Taking St. Paul from where Christians first meet him—Gamaliel’s Pharisee student hunting those subversive followers of Jesus of Nazareth but who is nonetheless dragged over the goads into seeing that his great fear was in fact the culmination of what Israel desired—Fr. Stephen De Young opens the apostle’s world, highlighting how his apostleship to the Gentiles informs the whole of his ministry, including how and why he wrote his epistles. With this necessary prolegomena in place, Fr. De Young gives his readers both a fresh and refreshing vision of St. Paul in his ministry to the nations as the disciple and servant of Jesus the Messiah. Thus defined, the prominence that St. Paul assumes within the pages of the New Testament casts him not as the subverter of the simple gospel of Jesus—a song sung by liberal scholars as well as Nietzsche, Comte, and emergent church posers—but the herald of the gospel in its widest implications, the great message declared to those who had not sought it.
—Gary W. Jenkins, PhD. Director, St. Basil Center for Orthodox Thought and Culture, Eastern University