{"product_id":"the-paul-quest-the-renewed-search-for-the-jew-of-tarsus-9780830826605","title":"The Paul Quest: The Renewed Search for the Jew of Tarsus","description":"\u003cul\u003e\u003cli\u003eA \u003ci\u003eChristianity Today\u003c\/i\u003e 1999 Book of the Year\u003c\/li\u003e\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003eWho was the real Paul?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSome of Paul's contemporaries seem to have asked the same question. For some he was Paul the tentmaker. For others he was Paul the heretic, Paul the peripatetic philosopher, Paul the would-be apostle, Paul the prophet, or Paul the founder of Christian communities and missionary hero. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor more than a decade there has been a renewed quest for the real Paul behind the Acts of the Apostles and the collection of Pauline letters. Although this quest has not gained the visibility of the renewed quest of the historical Jesus, it is a thriving enterprise joined by Protestant, Catholic and Jewish scholars as well as those interested in Paul as a figure of the first-century Greco-Roman world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOne of the great gains of this quest for the historical Paul has been a fresh encounter with Paul the Jew. The flood of new insight into Judaism of the first century has illuminated features of Paul that were previously obscured. A scholarly reacquaintance with the classical Roman world has filled in even more details.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this book, Ben Witherington III examines and evaluates the various profiles of Paul that have been newly discovered or recently refurbished. We encounter Paul as an ancient Mediterranean personality and watch him operate in a social environment where honor, shame, patronage and corporate identity are daily considerations. We discover new dimensions of Paul's epistles as we observe him dictating letters and gauging his rhetoric. We enter into the field of controversy where Paul the apostle and prophet meets his opponents. We reconsider the nature of the human body and Christian community as we meet Paul the anthropologist and champion of woman and slave. Paul, the man of the big idea, shows himself to be in truth a storyteller and interpreter of Israel's holy history.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn and through all of these complexities, we discover Paul to be a consistent and coherent theologian and ethicist whose thinking reaches out across nearly two thousand years to engage men and women today. With \u003ci\u003eThe Paul Quest\u003c\/i\u003e Witherington leads an exploratory tour and reappraisal of the historical Paul, a sweeping survey of the contemporary rediscovery of the Jew from Tarsus.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eBen Witherington III (PhD, University of Durham) is Jean R. Amos Professor of New Testament for Doctoral Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary. A prominent evangelical scholar, he is also on the doctoral faculty at St. Andrews University in Scotland. Witherington has written over forty books, including \u003ci\u003eThe Jesus Quest\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Paul Quest, \u003c\/i\u003e both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by \u003ci\u003eChristianity Today.\u003c\/i\u003e His other works include \u003ci\u003eThe Indelible Image\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eWomen and the Genesis of Christianity\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Gospel Code\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eA Week in the Life of Corinth\u003c\/i\u003e and commentaries on the entire New Testament. He also writes for many church and scholarly publications and is a frequent contributor to \u003ci\u003ePatheos\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eBeliefnet\u003c\/i\u003e. Witherington is an elected member of the prestigious Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. He is a John Wesley Fellow for Life, a research fellow at Cambridge University and a member of numerous professional organizations, including the Society of Biblical Literature, Society for the Study of the New Testament and the Institute for Biblical Research. He previously taught at institutions like Ashland Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. An ordained pastor in the United Methodist Church and a popular lecturer, Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings around the world. He has led numerous study tours through the lands of the Bible and is known for bringing the text to life through incisive historical and cultural analysis. Along with many interviews on radio and television networks across the country, Witherington has been seen in programs such as \u003ci\u003e60 Minutes\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003e20\/20\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eDateline\u003c\/i\u003e and the Peter Jennings ABC special \u003ci\u003eJesus and Paul--The Word and the Witness\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"IVP Academic","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50329985745170,"sku":"9780830826605","price":31.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_b5c11f6a-03e1-4608-bfd5-2c524049d944.jpg?v=1727788211","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-paul-quest-the-renewed-search-for-the-jew-of-tarsus-9780830826605","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}