Paul and His Legacy
Collected Essays
William O. Walker, Jr.
The letters of the apostle Paul are the oldest extant records of Christian history. Yet certain passages in the letters present exegetical, historical and theological problems that have had a lasting impact on Western culture. Paul’s letter to the Galatians, for instance, underpins modern Christian attitudes toward gender and sexuality, faith and law, and ultimately Jewish-Christian relations. How should such passages be translated and interpreted in a historically sensitive way? Which passages are authentically Pauline and which were inserted by later generations? What historical information can we glean from the letters? Representing three decades of research on the Pauline letters, this collection of essays gives special attention to historical-critical issues in Galatians, 1 & 2 Corinthians, and Romans, along with the often problematic dependence of the book of Acts on the letters of Paul.
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Praise for Paul and His Legacy:
“In this book readers are able to follow the work of a scholar who has—for almost four decades—intensively examined the correspondence of Paul. Many of the essays in this impressive collection constitute fundamental scholarship on the letters of Paul, attempting as they do to determine what Paul wrote and what he did not write. Others propose innovative and compelling solutions to long-contested problems. All of them demonstrate Walker’s meticulous attention to the original texts and his clarity in setting out the results.” —Joseph B. Tyson, Professor emeritus of Religious Studies, Southern Methodist University
“… Walker’s work is characterized by breadth and depth of research, clarity and cogency of argument, and creativity and originality of perspective.” —William Baird, Professor emeritus of New Testament, Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University
Contents
Preface
Abbreviations
Part One: Studies in Galatians
Chapter One: Why Paul Went to Jerusalem: The Interpretation of Galatians 2:1–5
Chapter Two: Translation and Interpretation of Ἐὰν Μή in Galatians 2:16
Chapter Three: Does the “We” in Galatians 2:15–17 Include Paul’s Opponents?
Chapter Four: Galatians 2:8 and the Question of Paul’s Apostleship
Chapter Five: Galatians 2:7b–8 as a Non-Pauline Interpolation
Chapter Six: “There Is Not Male and Female”: A Pauline Addition in Galatians 3:28
Part Two: Studies in the Corinthian Correspondence and Romans
Chapter Seven: 2 Corinthians 6:14–7:1 and the Chiastic Structure of 6:11–13; 7:2–3
Chapter Eight: 1 Corinthians 15:29–34 as a Non-Pauline Interpolation
Chapter Nine: 2 Corinthians 3:7–18 as a Non-Pauline Interpolation
Chapter Ten: Apollos and Timothy as the Unnamed “Brothers” in 2 Corinthians 8:18–24
Chapter Eleven: Romans 8:29–30 as a Non-Pauline Interpolation
Part Three: The Book of Acts and the Letters of Paul
Chapter Twelve: The Timothy-Titus Problem Reconsidered
Chapter Thirteen: Acts and the Pauline Corpus Reconsidered
Chapter Fourteen: Acts and the Pauline Corpus Revisited: Peter’s Speech at the Jerusalem Conference
Chapter Fifteen: The Story of Peter and Cornelius as a Corrective to Galatians 2:11–14
Chapter Sixteen: The Portrayal of Aquila and Priscilla in Acts: The Question of Sources
Addendum: The “Theology of Woman’s Place” and the “Paulinist” Tradition
Bibliography
Index of Ancient Sources
Index of Modern Authors
William O. Walker, Jr. (Ph.D., Duke University) is the Jennie Farris Railey King Professor Emeritus of Religion at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. He has served as author, co-author, editor, associate editor, or assistant editor of a number of books, including Interpolations in the Pauline Letters (2001) and The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary (1996). He has also published more than fifty articles on New Testament topics. He is a member of Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas, the Society of Biblical Literature, the Catholic Biblical Association of America, and the Westar Institute’s Acts Seminar.
