Description
Book SynopsisPaul the apostle and the historian Flavius Josephus spent considerable parts of their careers away from Jerusalem. They cultivated Roman audiences under very different circumstances: Paul, with his Letter to the Romans; and Josephus, with the writings he produced in Rome after the Jewish War. Curiously, Paul’s last visit to Jerusalem coincided with Josephus’s entry into public life, a period about which Josephus is deliberately silent. In this book, F. B. A. Asiedu selects themes from Josephus’s life to explore Paul’s letters and his biography that contribute to his uniqueness in Jewish history. He highlights, for example, the need to read Romans 9–11 as aporetic discourse to appreciate Paul as an existential thinker. Asiedu considers, among other things, the authenticity of Paul’s letters and offers an alternative to the prevailing scholarly consensus. He maintains, as well, that the Pauline collection in the New Testament first took shape in Corinth in the house of Gaius, where Paul composed Romans. Asiedu also suggests that the traditional view that Luke the Physician wrote the Acts of the Apostles is probably a mistake. He argues that Titus the Greek, the co-worker and friend of Barnabas and Paul, was the most likely person to have authored Acts.
Table of ContentsPart One: Paul the Former Pharisee: Aspects of His Biography 1. Fragments of Paul’s Biography: In the Days of John the Baptizer and James the Brother of Jesus 2. Paul and the First-Century Synagogue: Between Jesus and the Words of the Prophets Part Two: Reading Paul with Ben Sira and Josephus 3. Paul and the Wisdom of Jesus Ben Sira 4. Paul and the Ancestors: Abraham, Isaiah, and the Prophets 5. To the Romans and to Epaphroditus: Josephus, Paul, and the Antiquities of the Jews Part Three. Paul’s Letters: Before and After Josephus 6. Paul’s Letters and the Matter of Style: Three Propositions and A Contradiction 7. Collecting and Authenticating Paul’s Letters: Gaius’s Library, Pauline Pseudepigraphy, and the Relevance of Josephus’s Writings Appendix: Titus the Greek: Co-Worker and Friend of Barnabas and Paul, Author of Acts
