I do worry, however, that extratextual factors have played an outsize role in interpretations of the apostle in recent years. Modern scholars have access to an incredible store of information about the world of Paul’s day and have developed sophisticated interpretive methods to process and apply that information. All this is very good. The danger, however, is that we might illegitimately privilege one particular stream of information over another—often determined by the material with which the particular
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