Paul in the Greco-Roman World (2 vols.)

by J. Paul Sampley

Publisher:

Bloomsbury

, 2016

Overview

This landmark handbook, written by distinguished Pauline scholars, and first published in 2003, remains the first and only work to offer lucid and insightful examinations of Paul and his world in such depth. Together the two volumes that constitute the handbook in its much revised form provide a comprehensive reference resource for New Testament scholars looking to understand the classical world in which Paul lived and work.

Each chapter provides an overview of a particular social convention, literary or rhetorical topos, social practice, or cultural mores of the world in which Paul and his audiences were at home. In addition, the sections use carefully chosen examples to demonstrate how particularly features of Greco-Roman culture shed light on Paul’s letters and on his readers’ possible perception of them.

For the new edition all the contributions have been fully revised to take into account the last ten years of methodological change and the helpful chapter bibliographies fully updated. Wholly new chapters cover such issues as Paul and Memory, Paul’s Economics, honor and shame in Paul’s writings and the Greek novel.

Key Features

• Features brand new chapters written for the updated second edition
• Collects a variety of perspectives from scholars on Paul in context of the time period

Praise for the Print Edition

I warmly welcome a revised and enlarged edition of Paul in the Greco-Roman World! Professor J. Paul Sampley, his accomplished colleagues, and Bloomsbury T&T Clark are to be highly commended for producing a collection of informative, interesting, and, in not a few instances, important essays. These insightful contributions—now twenty-nine in number—enable Pauline interpreters to understand better the Jewish Apostle to the Gentiles as well as his ‘weighty. forceful’ letters bequeathed to us.

—Todd D. Stilll, George W. Truett Theological Seminary, USA

This volume, edited by Paul Sampley with contributions by the core experts in the field has become a classic which has established itself as a must in students’ and scholars’ libraries over the past one and half decades. This editions includes eight additional contributions on themes which has become the focus in the field since the publication of the first edition, ie on associations, circumcision, family life, Greek novels, literacy, marriage and divorce, memory, performance, social memory, and a concluding comprehensive epilogue by Paul Sampley himself which relates to the individual contributions within his proposed taxonomy. The volume is a masterpiece of knowledge and critical analysis of the Greco-Roman context of the Jewish apostle’s letters and will continue to be an essential tool for Pauline scholars.

—Kathy Ehrensperger, University of Wales, Trinity Saint David, UK

Sampley has captured the historical value of the recent surge of interest in the Greco-Roman setting of the Pauline letters. His method is novel. Twenty-one themes had been allocated to individual specialists, each working to a pattern that focussed an ancient socio-cultural phenomenon on some specific passage(s) in the letters. From ‘Adaptability’ to ‘Virtue and Vice’ they are taken in alphabetical order. But already our understanding of historical culture was moving on. Seventeen of the studies have been updated by their original authors. Four now have even radically different treatments by new authors and there are eight wholly new perspectives.

—E.A. Judge, Macquarie University, USA

Paul’s complex, often paradoxical engagement with his social and cultural world is the key to understanding his writings and his unique role in the formation of what we call Christianity. In these two volumes we have summaries of cutting-edge scholarship in that field, present in clear and lively language.

—Wayne A. Meeks, Yale University, USA

Product Details

• Title: Paul in the Greco-Roman World
• Editor: J. Paul Sampley
• Edition: 2nd
• Publisher: T&T Clark
• Publication Date: 2016
• Volumes: 2
• Pages: 832
• Resource Type: Monographs
• Topic: Graeco-Roman World; Pauline Studies

About J. Paul Sampley

J. Paul Sampley is professor emeritus of New Testament and Christian origins at Boston University. He is the coeditor of Pauline Parallels (1984) and “1 Corinthians” and “2 Corinthians” in the New Interpreter’s Bible, and Walking in Love (2016).