Overview

Some of the most heated contests around the apostle Paul today concern the effort to understand him wholly ""within Judaism,"" and the effort to interpret him over against the culture and ideology of the early Roman Empire. In this collection of essays, Neil Elliott shows that these two conversations belong together and must be resolved together, by understanding Paul as a Jew living out Israel's ancient hopes under the pressures of Roman imperial power.

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9781666752670

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""Neither life nor scholarship occurs in a political vacuum. True for Paul, Elliott insists, and true no less for his modern interpreters. In these intellectually impassioned and morally lucid essays, Elliott summons his reader to approach Paul's letters with critical historical imagination; to place Paul in his Roman no less than in his Jewish context; to think historically when thinking theologically. Paul the Jew under Roman Rule is an exciting exploration of the ethics of New Testament interpretation."" --Paula Fredriksen, author of Paul: The Pagans' Apostle ""It is of immense benefit to scholarship to have these innovative, carefully reasoned essays, the fruit of Neil Elliott's groundbreaking research here in one volume. Convincingly, Elliott demonstrates from various angles that Paul's Jewish identity and the fact that he lived and worked under Roman rule are so intertwined that one cannot be separated from the other. Insights otherwise hidden unsettle any and every perspective and challenge us to consider with methodical and hermeneutical rigor approaches old and new to Paul and his legacy. This is an indispensable contribution and relevant for today."" --William S. Campbell, research fellow, Faculty of Theology, University of Basel ""The intersection of Jewish concerns and practices in antiquity with the rise of Roman imperialism and 'empire' is a major interest in ancient world studies. This crucial intersection is too often separated in Pauline studies: numerous scholars either situate Paul in his 'Jewish' context or within the wider 'Roman world.' However, the interlocutions between the two are insufficiently investigated. Neil Elliott's masterful volume of essays is a scintillating scholarly and exegetical contribution to the field."" --James R. Harrison, professor of biblical studies, Sydney College of Divinity ""Neil Elliott is known as one of the most prominent interpreters of the apostle Paul, and his research has been of extraordinary importance for the emergence and development of the so-called Paul-within-Judaism perspective. This collection of state-of-the-art articles and essays is an excellent example of this. This is a must-read for pastors, students, and fellow scholars."" --Magnus Zetterholm, associate professor of New Testament studies, Lund University

Author Information

Neil Elliott is an Episcopal priest and a New Testament scholar (PhD Princeton Theological Seminary) with particular interests in the political interpretation of scripture. He has taught biblical studies, early Christian history, and American civil religion at the College of St. Catherine and Metropolitan State University, and served as priest at the University Episcopal Center and St. Paul's on the Hill in the Twin Cities. His publications include The Rhetoric of Romans: Argumentative Constraint and Strategy and Paul's Dialogue with Judaism (1990), Liberating Paul: The Justice of God and the Politics of the Apostle (1994), The Arrogance of Nations: Reading Romans in the Shadow of Empire (2008), and, with Mark Reasoner, Documents and Images for the Study of Paul (2010).

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