Those who have read my book, Paul and Jesus: How the Apostle Transformed Christianity might recall that in the Introduction I survey what I consider to be Paul’s “Six Major Ideas,” several of which are underemphasized, or even overlooked, in many standard treatments of Paul. One of those, which I explore in…
Paul never met Jesus. With those four words I began my book, Paul and Jesus (Simon & Schuster, 2013). Jesus was crucified in 30 CE, Paul had his visionary encounter with Jesus some years after that–seven years according to one early source (The Ascents of James). Accordingly, he is often called…
Jews, Christians, and Muslims all affirm the doctrine of “resurrection of the dead” as a central tenet of eschatology–that is, the understanding of the “last things” or how human history is to end. One common misunderstanding, especially among Christians, is that resurrection of the dead is equivalent to the idea…
And no man having drunk old wine desireth new; for he saith, The old is good –Jesus somewhere in Galilee around 28 CE I had a wonderful teacher at Chicago, the Late Great Robert M. Grant, who always said the best New Testament and Early Christian Literature scholarship was done…