Cultural Translation and Receptions of Paul in the First Four Centuries - by Frantisek Ábel (Hardcover)

About the Book

The book addresses not only the early reception of Paul's message in a variety of styles and insights, .

Book Synopsis

There are two overlapping themes which serve as the focus of Cultural Translation and Receptions of Paul in the First Four Centuries: (a) "reception" of the apostle Paul in subsequent Christian traditions, and (b) the hypothesis that while Paul himself continued to think as a Jew, he was subsequently re-interpreted by non-Jews in non-Jewish and anti-Jewish ways: the so-called "Paul within Judaism" school.
The distinctive focus of this volume is on the dynamic of "cultural translation," meaning, for example, the translation from the cultural world of Diaspora Judaism and its Septuagint to Greek philosophical and Greek Christian categories. The contributions to the book are diverse, ranging from younger to more senior scholars from both North America and Europe.

Review Quotes

"Once again, Frantisek Abel has brought together an international assemblage of first-rate scholars to address and assess Paul's place not only within his own contemporary Jewishness, but also within the post-Pauline world of later Christian commentators. The volume, invigorating and thought-provoking, embodies fresh applications of the "Paul within Judaism" perspective while tracing the arc of cultural transmutations of the protean apostle. Cultural Translation and Receptions of Paul marks an important milestone in the field of Pauline Studies." --Paula Fredriksen, Aurelio Professor of Scripture emerita, Boston University, USA; Distinguished Visiting Professor, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

"Readers will find much to ponder in this wide-ranging collection of essays bringing together familiar and newer voices in international Pauline scholarship. Building on the insights of the 'Paul within Judaism' perspective they trace the contextualization and re-contextualization of the Paul of history and of reception in changing cultural, historical, and intellectual frameworks, reaching into the formation of the New Testament canon and to patristic interpretation. The conference where these papers originated evidently generated rich and dynamic conversations, and it is a delight that we can now be invited into those conversations." --Judith M. Lieu, University of Cambridge, UK

About the Author

Frantisek Ábel is professor of New Testament at the Evangelical Lutheran Theological Faculty of Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia