Portraits of Paul:New Testamen

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

Not long after St. Paul penned his letters they were already the subject of debate and disagreement. The author of 2 Peter says of them, that they contain things that are hard to understand, and that some people have twisted their meaning to exploit their own interests (3:15-16). In the end, the New Testament itself contains a variety of portraits of Paul. These portraits comprise the one found in his authentic letters, the depiction of Paul by Luke in the Acts of the Apostles, and the picture of Paul in the deutero-Pauline and non-Pauline letters. This course recovers the various portraits of Paul in the New Testament, in an effort to understand the complexity of this towering figure in early Christianity and the legacy he left behind.