David B. Capes - Rediscovering Paul: An Introduction to His World, Letters and Theology

We are grateful for the warm reception that the first edition enjoyed with both instructors and students. In the intervening ten years much helpful research has appeared on Paul, and we felt the need to reflect this, as well as to expand some sections and add more So What? and Whats More sections.

We want to also express our deep appreciation to Dan Reid, associate publisher and editorial director for IVP Academic, who has been our friend and editor through nearly a dozen projects. We remember well our first meetings with Dan as individual authors: we were each young and inexperienced, but he believed in us. When we approached him about the first edition of Rediscovering Paul, he was apprehensive about a collaborative project: They often dont work well. But, again, he believed in us, gave insightful feedback, and made it a better book. In fact, thats what he has done with every project: made each one much better. His last two actions on our behalf are this second edition of Rediscovering Paul and encouraging our newest project, an innovative approach to introducing the New Testament to college and seminary students, Rediscovering the New Testament (forthcoming).

Lastly, we thank Kevin Boyle, a promising young scholar, for preparing the indexes. Our hope and prayer is that this book can help a new generation of Bible students rediscover Paul.

I (Randolph Richards) had a nice, modern Paul, properly trained from centuries in Europe. I liked him. More importantly, I felt comfortable with him. He thought the way I thought. He felt passionately about the same things I did. We shared the same hopes, beliefs, and convictions. I was at ease with my Paul. He was a well-domesticated, Western, conservative Paulone who did not mind that black and white Christians met in separate churches or that I owned a smartphone and video-gaming system while others lacked basic school supplies. Such inequities should not cause me to lose sleep, my Paul assured me. His commands about wealthier Christians helping to meet the needs of poorer Christians did not apply to my situation: after all thats the governments job. His attempts to get Jews and Gentiles to worship together had no application to the racial problems of today. I was glad that my Paul did not overly challenge me. Some things Paul said did not fit well, but we were able to work it out. Usually I just ignored those statements. My own denomination helped by publishing devotional books and Bible study materials that avoided difficult verses that mention topics we dont want to talk about.

But then I moved to Borneo and discovered they had a different Paul. I learned this one day when some church elders came to seek my advice about a difficult church issue. A couple wanted to join the church. They had committed a grievous sin. Afterward they had moved to this village and had been living wonderful, godly lives ever since. Ten years later they asked to join the local church. Should the church accept them? Well, I diplomatically asked, how serious was the sin?

The elders looked pained to have to repeat it, but they told me, The couple married on the run.

In America we call this an elopement. I said, Whats the sin?

They looked at me in shock. Had I never read Paul? I thought I had. They reminded me, Paul clearly states, Children, obey your parents in the Lord (Eph 6:1). Of course, children do not always obey their parents, the elders conceded, but surely in what is probably the most important decision of their lives, they should obey. As Christians, they argued, should we allow other Christians just to flout the Word of God?

My Indonesian church elders were taking Pauls words very seriously. As an American who believes that individual rights are guaranteed somewhere in the Bible, I had watered Pauls command down to mean that children should obey their parents while they are minors, or when it was not important, or when they wanted to do it anyway. When my Paul said, Children, obey your parents, he did not mean to the point of denying oneself, and he certainly did not mean giving up my individual right to choose a spouse. I began to wonder if my Paul was the real Paul.

When college students first watched Mel Gibsons The Passion of the Christ, most were stunned because of how Jesus just took it when he was abused. They commented, Sylvester Stallone wouldnt have done that. My American heroes defeat the bad guys and ride off into the sunset. Yet Paul argued that Christians should stay put, raise families, build communities, lead quiet lives, and take whatever persecution comes their way (1 Thess 2:14; 4:11). I began to question if my Western, domesticated, middle-class perception of Paul was the real Paul. Had my culture superimposed its values over the biblical Paul? Yet dont other cultures do the same? How do we rediscover the Paul of the New Testament?

Perhaps you are reading this book or taking a class in the hope of finding a better understanding of Paul. How will reading another book help us rediscover Paul? There are already plenty of books on Paul out there, and more are published every year. Many of the books are very good. Why another one? As authors, we do not believe that this book offers some new paradigm for understanding Paul, although we do hope to contribute a little to the ongoing discussion. Rather, we see a different problem. Most upper-level college or introductory seminary courses on Paul try to handle this very broad topic in a single semester or quarter. Most instructors hope to cover a little on the background of Paul, an overview of his life and ministry, a little on Greco-Roman letter writing, perhaps a little exegesis of some select sections of his letters and a survey of Pauls theology. For sources, the instructor has a lot of optionssome of them incredibly detailed. For instance, Martin Hengel has an entire book just on the life of Paul before his conversion. Then there is Rainer Riesners comprehensive book on the first years of Pauls ministry. Ben Witherington, David Horrell, Stanley Porter, Jerome Murphy-OConnor, J. Christiaan Beker, Thomas Schreiner, and Michael Gorman each have a useful presentation on the person of Paul, most of them arguing for a particular way of reading his letters. Should an instructor require a student to read several of these to provide a balanced view? To cover Pauls theology, a student could read James D. G. Dunns single-volume