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FHS 3102: PAUL AND PAULINE TRADITION

Handout for Lecture 1 Prof Jenn Strawbridge

Week 1, Michaelmas 2020

The Life of Paul and the Pauline Corpus 1. Housekeeping

A few key details Please take 20 minutes to engage with this week’s set texts on Perusall (instructions on Canvas in the Paul and Pauline Tradition ‘Container’)

Greek Reading Classes are Mondays at 1pm 2 Revision Lectures (essays/gobbets) will be offered in Trinity Term for Finalists Handouts and Reading lists will be available at NTatOxford.com 2. Who is Paul and what is our evidence?

Sources for Paul’s life Paul’s letters Acts of the Apostles Both leave large parts of Paul’s life open to speculation

Paul’s Dates Edict of Claudius, most likely 49 CE (Acts 18.2) Gallio, in Corinth from 51-52 CE (Acts 18.12-17) King Aretas, 9/8 BCE to 40/41 CE (2 Cor 11.32; Acts 9.23-4) Porcius Festus, died 62 CE (Acts 25-26)

Paul’s background Paul’s letters as a source

Jewish (Rom 11.1; 2 Cor 11.22; Phil 3.6) Tribe of Benjamin (Phil 3.5) Pharisee and zeal (Phil 3.6) Manual laborer (1 Thess 2.9) Persecutor of the ekklesia (Phil 3.6; Gal 1.13; 1 Cor 15.9) Eye problems? (2 Cor 12.7-9; Gal 4.13-16; 6.11) Other sources for physical description: 2 Cor 10.10 and Acts of Paul and Thecla

Acts as a source From Tarsus in Cilicia (21.39; 22.3) Citizen of Tarsus (21.39) and Rome (22.25-28) Studied under Gamaliel in Jerusalem (22.3) Given name was Saul (7.58; 9.4) Persecutor of the ekklesia (7.58; 8.1; 9.1-2, 5, 13-14; 22.4-5; 26.9-11) Speaks Hebrew (some translations: Aramaic) (22.2) Tent-maker (18.3)

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3. Acts and Paul’s Letters

Three case studies Paul and Barnabas: Galatians 2 vs Acts 15 Paul’s missionary approach: 1 Thessalonians 1 vs Acts 17 Paul’s ‘conversion’: Galatians 1.15-17 vs Acts 9.3-9

4. Paul the letter-writer

Some challenges genuine letters missing letters (e.g. Col 4.16; 1 Cor 5.9; 2 Cor 7.8) involvement of others (Timothy; Silvanus; a scribe/amanuensis) form of ancient letters constructing theology authenticity of the letters

5. Canonical Paul Manuscript evidence:

P32 (vss of Titus; c 200 CE) and P46 (all but 2 Thess, Pastorals, Philem; c 200 CE) Marcion and the Pauline canon (c mid-2nd century) Muratorian Canon (eccentric ordering) Amphilochius of Iconium (4th century: first explicit order

of Paul’s letters as in NT now)

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The Set Texts

Romans 5-11 5.1-21: God’s reconciling love (1-11); Adam and Christ (12-21) 6.1-7.25: Sin and the law 8.1-8.39: The Spirit 9.1-9.29: God’s grace and Israel’s election and rejection 9.30-10.21: The purpose of the law and explanation of Israel’s failure 11.1-36: God’s plan for Israel 1 Corinthians 1-7, 15 1.1-1.9: Introduction and Thanksgiving 1.10-4.21: Appeal for Unity and Paul’s Apostolic Authority 5.1-7.40: Sexual and Related Issues 5: Expulsion of an Immoral Member of the Corinthian church 6: Absurdity of using Corinthian courts; Significance of the body 7: Celibacy and Marriage 15.1-58: The Resurrection of Christ and the Resurrection Body Ephesians 1-6

1.1-23: Introduction, Blessing, and Paul’s Prayer 2.1-22: Reminder of what God has done in them in Christ 3.1-13: Paul as steward of the great mystery, continued prayer 4.1-32: The Church’s unity, purpose; how to live in the world as the body of Christ 5.1-20: Ethical exhortations between old and new life modelled on Christ 5.21-6.9: Household code 6.10-20: The armour of God 6.21-24: Closing and blessing/benediction

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LETTERS ATTRIBUTED TO PAUL

Authentic/Hauptbriefe

1 Thessalonians: 50-51 in Corinth Galatians: 53-57 in Ephesus (or 49-50 if South Galatia hypothesis holds) 1 Corinthians: 53-57 in Ephesus 2 Corinthians: 55-57 in Macedonia Romans: 56-57 in Corinth Philippians: from prison either 53-56 (Ephesus); 58-60 (Caesarea); or 60-62 (Rome) Philemon: from prison, likely in Rome 59-61

Disputed

2 Thessalonians: end of 1st century; or shortly after first epistle in early 50s Colossians: as late as 80; or from prison in Rome (60-62) Ephesians: 70-80; or from prison in Rome (60-62)

Even more disputed/Pastoral Epistles, many scholars place these letters around 100

1 Timothy 2 Timothy Titus

Not by Paul

Hebrews

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PAULINE TEXTS ENGAGED in the LECTURE 2 Peter 3.15-16: “So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him, speaking of this as he does in all his letters (ἐπιστολαῖς). There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures (γραφὰς).” Philippians 3:4-6: “If anyone has a reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.” Galatians 1.13: “You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism. I was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it.” 1 Corinthians 15.9: “For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” Acts 21.39: “I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of an important city.” Acts 17.1-4: “After Paul and Silas had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days argued with them from the scriptures….and some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks, and not a few leading women.” 1 Thessalonians 1.8-9: “…in every place your faith in God has become known…For the people of those regions – here he’s speaking of Macedonia and Achaia – report about us what kind of welcome we had among you and how you turned from idols to serve a living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven…” Galatians 1.15-17: “But when God, who had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles, I did not confer with any human being, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were already apostles before me, but I went away at once into Arabia, and afterwards I returned to Damascus." Acts 19-21; 26-27: “For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus, and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, ‘He is the Son of God.’ All who heard him were amazed and said, ‘Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem among those who invoked this name?...When he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples; and they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him, brought him to the apostles, and described for them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had spoken boldly in the name of Jesus.” Colossians 4.16: “And when this letter has been read among you, have it read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you read also the letter from Laodicea.” 1 Corinthians 5.9: “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral persons...” 2 Corinthians 7.8: “For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it (though I did regret it, for I see that I grieved you with that letter, though only briefly).”

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Select Bibliography Aymer, Margaret, Cynthia Briggs Kittredge, David A. Sánchez, eds. 2016. The Letters and Legacy of Paul.

Minneapolis: Fortress Press.

Bird, Michael. 2012. Four Views on the Apostle Paul. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Campbell, Douglas. 2014. Framing Paul: An Epistolary Biography. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Childs, Brevard S. 2008. The Church’s Guide for Reading Paul: The Canonical Shaping of the Pauline Corpus. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Dunn, James D. G., ed. 2003. The Cambridge Companion to St Paul. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.

Gager, John G. 2015. Who Made Early Christianity? The Jewish Lives of the Apostle Paul. New York: Columbia UP.

Gombis, Timothy G. 2010. Paul: A Guide for the Perplexed. London: T&T Clark.

Gorman, Michael J. 2004. Apostle of the Crucified Lord: A Theological Introduction to Paul and his Letters. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Harrill, James A. 2012. Paul the Apostle: His life and legacy in their Roman context. New York: Cambridge UP.

Hicks-Keeton, Jill. 2019. ‘Putting Paul in his Place: Diverse Diasporas and Sideways Spaces in Hellenistic Judaism’ JJMJS 6, 1-21.

Hooker, Morna D. 2003. Paul: A Short Introduction. Oxford: One World Publications.

Horrell, David G. 20062 An Introduction to the Study of St Paul. London: Continuum.

Longenecker, Bruce and Todd D. Still. 2014. Thinking through Paul: A Survey of his life, letters and theology. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Longenecker, Bruce. 2020. The New Cambridge Companion to St Paul. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.

Marchal, Joseph A. ed. 2012. Studying Paul’s Letters: Contemporary Perspectives and Methods. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.

Novenson, Matthew V. and Barry Matlock, eds. 2014. The Oxford Handbook of Pauline Studies. Oxford: Oxford UP.

Ruden, Sarah. 2010. Paul Among the People: The Apostle reinterpreted and reimagined in his own time. New York: Pantheon.

Schnelle, Udo. 2005. Apostle Paul: His life and theology. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic.

Tatum, Gregory. 2006. New Chapters in the Life of Paul: The Relative Chronology of his Career. Washington D.C.: Catholic Biblical Association.

Thiselton, Anthony C. 2009. The Living Paul: An Introduction to the Apostle and his Thought. London: SPCK.

Westerholm, Stephen, ed. 2011. The Blackwell Companion to Paul. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell.

White, Benjamin L. 2014. Remembering Paul: Ancient and Modern Contests over the Image of the Apostle. Oxford: Oxford UP.

Wischmeyer, Oda, ed. 2012. Paul: Life, Setting, Work, Letters. London: T&T Clark.

Wolter, Michael. 2015. Paul: An Outline of his Theology. Waco: Baylor UP.

Wright, N.T. 2013. Paul and the Faithfulness of God. 2 vols. London: SPCK.

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Dipping into other ways of reading Paul Baur, F. C. Paul: The Apostle of Jesus Christ (2 vols., London: Williams & Norgate, 1873 (vol. 1)).

The first application of philosophical frameworks to Paul’s letters and what kicked off the Tübingen School and History of Religions school

Dunn, James D. G. The New Perspective on Paul: Revised Edition (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007). Contains all of Dunn’s essays on the new perspective from the 1980s up to 2004.

Ehrensperger, Kathy. That we Might be Mutually Encouraged: Feminism and the New Perspective in Pauline Studies (T&T Clark, 2004). A consideration of the new perspective for feminist approaches to theology

Fredriksen, Paula. Paul: The Pagan’s Apostle (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2017).

Gooder, Paula. Phoebe (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2018).

Heim, Erin M. Adoption in Galatians and Romans (Leiden: Brill, 2017). A study of Paul’s use of metaphor, especially that of adoption.

Sanders, E.P. Paul and Palestinian Judaism (London: SCM, 1977). The book that many believe started it all a la new perspective

Welborn, L. L. Paul’s Summons to Messianic Life: Political theology and the coming awakening (New York: Columbia UP, 2015). A look at Taubes, Badiou, Agamben, Žižek, Reinhard and Paul’s writings as a paradigm for politics

Westfall, Cynthia Long. Paul and Gender: Reclaiming the Apostle’s Vision for Men and Women in Christ (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2016).

A look at the Pauline passages concerning gender and the canon of Paul’s writings as a whole

Wright, Tom. Paul: A Biography (London: SPCK, 2018).

Yinger, Kent L. The New Perspective on Paul: An Introduction (Eugene: Cascade Books, 2011).

Zetterholm, Magnus. Approaches to Paul: A student’s guide to recent scholarship (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2009). An excellent introduction to Paul’s letters, their interpretation, with a focus on big questions and what he calls the traditional view, new perspective, and radical new perspective

Paul and Canon Epp, Eldon Jay. “The Papyrus Manuscripts of the New Testament” in The Text of the New

Testament in Contemporary Research: Essays on the Status Quaestionis. ed. Bart D. Ehrman and Michael W. Holmes (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), p3-21.

Bruce, F.F. The Canon of Scripture (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 2018).

Jongkind, Dirk. “The Text of the Pauline Corpus” in The Blackwell Companion to Paul, ed. Stephen Westerholm (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014). p216-231.

Parker, David C. An Introduction to the New Testament Manuscripts and their Texts (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008).

Trobisch, David. The First Edition of the New Testament (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).