Book Review: Paul the Apostle: His Life and Legacy in Their Roman Context

Abstract

the Apostle: His Life and Legacy in Their Context. By J. Albert Harrill. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012. xv + 207 pp. $83.00 (cloth); $25.99 (paper).In the introduction to this monograph, J. Albert Harrill presents his two main contributions to Pauline studies. first is the methodology which he attempts to bring to bear on Pauls life and works-an antibiography- which not only intentionally does not cohere to the established genre of biography, but also presents not a Paul, but multiple Pauls (pp. 1 and 163). second is his proposal that ought to be seen fundamentally as a figure, comparable to other such figures (Alexander the Great, Cleopatra, Augustus, and so on; p. 1). In both of these contributions to the field of Pauline studies, Harrill consciously opposes what he refers to as popular presentations of and his writings in Western culture (p. xii). Part of these contributions, as Harrill sees them, is his use of the primary sources, such that all works are excluded except those that scholars today regard as unquestionably penned by the apostle (pp. 13-20). I will suggest that Harrill is only partly successful in the fulfilling of these claims.Harrills book is laid out in two sections. first, entitled 'The Life, is Harrills historical Paul reconstructed through what most scholars do consider the authentic writings of (pp. 13-20). In many ways, the three chapters in this section correct not just popular misconceptions of Paul, but also some scholarly ones. In contrast to much contemporary scholarship that deals with Judaism, Harrills Roman Paul is a welcome corrective. At the same time, he incorporates recent scholarly insights into conversion (pp. 32-38), his (possible) pharisaic view with respect to Gentiles (pp. 28-32), and the social psychology of early Christianity communities (pp. 51-53). However, where Harrills insights are the most impressive are in his chapter Paul's Life in Its Context, in which he truly does rely solely on authentic epistles, showing just how discourse is (pp. 80-88). Here he engages with research that sees to be subversive and anti-Rome in his rhetoric (pp. 91-93). To be sure, Harrill admits that is neither straightforwardly pro- nor anti- empire (p. 94); instead, he intentionally corrects the mass of publications coming out on anti-empire rhetoric (see pp. xi-xii).The second section, entitled The Legend, focuses on various constructed lives of throughout history, especially in Late Antiquity. …