A Harmony of the Life of St. Paul

by Frank J. Goodwin

Publisher:

Baker

, 1951

Overview

Designed as a handbook for students, ministers, Sunday school teachers, and all laypersons. This book is a particularly valuable addition for anyone desiring a detailed study of the life of Paul. In this book we have a volume which does for the life of Paul what a harmony of the Gospels does for the life of Christ.

Goodwin endeavors to blend Luke’s account of the Acts of the Apostles with selections from the Pauline Epistles. Thus, Paul’s letters are treated as parallel or supplementary to Luke’s account. In harmonizing these writings, the intent is to treat only the biography of Paul; the dogmatic and ethical portions of his writings are generally omitted. Scriptural passages are accompanied by brief but copious notes and comments. An appendix is included containing comments relating to Paul’s speeches, the occasion of writing each Epistle, his trials, imprisonments and other matters which give clear insight into his personal life and character.

Contents

Top Highlights

“But neither respecting his bearing nor his fate do we possess any particulars. If any timid, disheartened, secret Christian stood listening in the crowded court—if through the ruined areas which marked the sites of what had once been shops and palaces before the conflagration had swept like a raging storm through the narrow, ill-built streets—if from the poorest purlieus of the Trastevere or the gloomy haunts of the catacomb any converted slave or struggling Asiatic who believed in Jesus had ventured among the throng, no one has left a record, no one even told the story to his fellows so clearly as to leave behind him a floating tradition. We know nothing more. The last word has been spoken. The curtain has fallen on one of the noblest of human lives.’ II., pp. 576, 577.” (Pages 195–196)

“I safely may say that I have inserted in the text almost all of the historical and autobiographical allusions in the Epistles which conservative critics generally concede are necessary to fill out the incomplete record in the Acts.” (Page 3)

“but he was not a Hebrew also unless he spoke the Hebrew tongue and retained Hebrew customs” (Page 15)

“But Paul gave still another commission to Tychicus. ‘The apostle wrote at this time a circular letter to the Asiatic churches, which got its ultimate designation from the metropolitan city, and is consequently known to us as the Epistle to the Ephesians. It was the immediate object of Tychicus’ journey to deliver copies of this letter at all the principal centres of Christianity in the district, and at the same time to communicate by word of mouth the apostle’s special messages to each. (Ephes. 6:21, 22.) … Thus the three letters are closely related. Tychicus is the personal link of connection between the Epistles to the Ephesians and to the Colossians; Onesimus between those to the Colossians and to Philemon.” (Page 160)

Product Details

• Title: A Harmony of the Life of St. Paul: According to the Acts of the Apostles and the Pauline Epistles
• Author: Frank J. Goodwin
• Publisher: Baker Book House Company
• Publication Date: 1951
• Pages: 236

About Frank J. Goodwin

Frank J. Goodwin was a graduate of Polytechnic Institute, Brooklyn, in 1879 and later of Amherst College, in 1884. He received a B.D. from Union Theological Seminary before being called to the pastorate of the Congregational Church, Bloomfield, N.J.. There he served as their first pastor from 1888-1898. He was President of the Rhode Island Congregational Club from 1906-1908.