on paul

Aspects of His Life, Work and Influence in the Early Church

C. K. Barrett

Emeritus Professor of Divinity

Durham University

T&T Clark Ltd

A Continuum imprint

www.continuumbooks.com

Copyright © T&T Clark Ltd, 2003

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of T&T Clark Ltd.

First published 2003

ISBN 0-5670-8902-9

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Paul and Jerusalem

Foundations

1 Eidōlothyta once more

2 Christocentricity at Antioch

3 Paul: Missionary and Theologian

4 Paul: Councils and Controversies

5 I am not Ashamed of the Gospel

6 Paul at Athens and to Rome

Developments

7 Pauline Controversies in the Post-Pauline Period

8 Ethics in the Deutero-Pauline Literature

9 The Christology of Hebrews

10 Effective Forces in the Late First Century

11 Paul and the Introspective Conscience

Index of Modern Writers

Index of Ancient Persons and Places

Index of Ancient Writers

Preface

In preparing this book I have had in mind a project which I hope I may be able to carry out as a supplement to work I have done in the last few decades on the Pauline Epistles and the Acts of the Apostles. The epistles contain the primary, the only contemporary, source for Paul’s life and thought. Acts contains, inter alia, an account of Paul as he appeared to a sympathetic writer about thirty years after Paul’s death. In the introductory essay in this volume I have set side by side the two pictures of Paul (confining myself for the sake of brevity to his relations with the church of Jerusalem) derived from these two sources. Contemporary with Acts and later there are other pictures of Paul, not biographies but references, sometimes historical allusions. I wish to look at these, and at non-Pauline strands in the history of early Christianity, which may be thought of as sometimes rival, sometimes collaborative, forces in theology and church life, and to take this study into the second century, as far as Marcion and Irenaeus. This may teach us something about Paul, it is almost certain to throw some light on the history of the church. It has been suggested to me that such a volume as the present one, in which a few pieces that I have written about Paul are collected and reprinted, may help to introduce the work that is still to be written and also lead to some economy in its presentation.

It will I think be useful to indicate here in a few lines the relevance of the essays that appear below. The introductory essay ‘Paul and Jerusalem’ has been written because the first step in our investigation must be to gain as clear a picture as possible of Paul ...