F. F. Bruce - Paul: Apostle of the Heart Set Free

T his work is designed to give a continuouspresentation of material which has been delivered in lectures orpublished piecemeal in written articles over many years.

When I entered on my presentappointment in the University of Manchester in 1959, one of the lecture-coursesalready prescribed in the syllabus for the Honours School of Biblical Studieswas entitled The Missionary Career of Paul in its Historical Setting. Mylectures for this specially congenial course have provided the nucleus of thefollowing chapters. I had not previously been a stranger to Pauls life andthought, but in the past eighteen years I have devoted more time and attentionto this field of study than to any other. I have not attempted to expoundPauls teaching systematically but rather to treat its main themes in theirhistorical context, as Paul himself had occasion to develop them in hisletters.

Year by year since I came to Manchester I have given apublic lecture in the John Rylands Library (since 1972 the John RylandsUniversity Library of Manchester). Most of these have dealt with some aspect ofPauline studies. They have subsequently been published in the Librarys Bulletin.The substance of eight of them is reproduced in the following pages: St. Paulin Rome, 1, , March 1964 (Chapters 4, 31 and32), St. Paul in Rome, 2, Autumn 1965 (Chapter 34), St. Paul in Rome, 3,Spring 1966 (Chapter 35), St. Paul in Rome, 4, Spring 1967 (Chapter 36), St.Paul in Rome, 5, Spring 1968 (Chapter 37), Paul and the Historical Jesus,Spring 1974 (Chapter 11), Paul and the Law of Moses, Spring 1975 (Chapter18), Christ and Spirit in Paul, Spring 1977 (Chapter 12). For permission toreproduce these in revised or adapted form I am indebted to Dr. F. W. Ratcliffe(University Librarian and Director) and Dr. Frank Taylor (Principal Keeper andEditor of the Bulletin).

Acknowledgment is also made to theEditor of The Expository Times for permission to reproduce in Chapter 22an expanded version of my paper Paul and the Athenians which appeared in thatjournal for October 1976.

A specially grateful expression ofindebtedness must be made to my secretary, Miss Margaret Hogg, who with hercustomary diligence and cheerfulness has typed the whole work and givenvaluable help with proof-reading and with the compilation of the index. Herbeautiful and accurate typescript has made the printers task incomparablyeasier than it would have been if he had been faced with the problem ofdeciphering my manuscripta problem which she has tackled with confidence andsuccess.