Paul within Judaism: Restoring the First-Century Context to the Apostle

As important a development in New Testament studies as "the new perspective on Paul" and "Paul and Empire," the more recently defined perspective of "Paul Within Judaism" has finally, with this invaluable collection of essays, been articulated in an accessible way for a more broad audience. The Jewish and Christian scholars represented in these pages present compelling and persuasive arguments that even scholars working from the (now not so new) new perspective haven't yet fully worked through the implications that Paul, as a second-Temple Jew, did not see himself as creating a new religion. Their case for a stronger continuity between Paul and Judaism merits serious consideration.

I had to read it slowly... have come to appreciate that the Hebrew roots of Paul is not yet fully understood by our Church culture and we have gone off tangent... coming into the last hour... this subject helps in my personal alignment...

This book of essays opened my eyes to a new understanding of Paul within his own historical context of Second Temple Judaism in the Diaspora instead of from anachronistic interpretations from later centuries. Mark Nanos has convinced me that Paul never left Judaism but was seeking a way to incorporate non-Jewish believers in Christ into the people of God, as non-Jews. I recommend this book for all who are in ministry, or graduate biblical studies.

Not being a scholar my opinions are mitigated: I felt the book was written with a professional spirit, did a great job of explaining the "new Paul perspective," but I felt that the depiction of Paul's personal attitude towards the law was not harmonized with Romans 6 & 7 to sufficiently convince me personally. I learned a surprising amount and enjoyed reading this book, being exposed to much I had never considered before.

This is a great book and every serious student of the Bible needs to read this book!

It is Ok, but not what I expected!

A very good handling of the subject. somewhat scholarly

This book gives the context that many a bible teacher had always suspected, yet hardly found the resources to backup. This is cutting edge scholarship that gets at the truth of the time in which Paul lived.