from the United States
Chris Albert Wells
2.0 out of 5 stars An appealing title. A disappointing study
Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2011
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Professor of New Testament and Early Judaism in the University of Tubingen, the author is keen on cohering Paul's own declarations with the accounts given in Acts. He necessarily brushes aside contemporary scholarship that sees more literature than history in Luke's Acts. By doing so, his presupposition leads him to anchor Paul's training in Jerusalem. He also considers that the earliest Christian community was a hellenistic one, rivalling in the Jerusalem synagogues, explaining that their foremost member, Stephan, angered the Jews who stoned him. Paul carries on the pogrom in Jerusalem and then in Damascus before his revelation of Christ who abrogates the Law. Not surprisingly, Hengel holds that Augustine and Luther were the only ones to fully understand Paul. The book is a short apologetic essay full of twists to level the difficulties.
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Z. Sulc
5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 3, 2018
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A gold mine of information about the formative influences on Paul's life and thinking. Given that Paul immediately was able to preach Christ on his conversion it is valuable to know how he was prepared beforehand. Hengel was a conservative scholar but some of his attitudes to scripture are tainted by the liberal world at Tubigen - don't be intimidated by his reputation, eat the very good fish but remove the bones which catch the throat..
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