Every serious student of Paul must attempt to integrate the data scattered across his letters and Acts into a coherent picture of the apostle's life. Many generations of students have been helped in this task by F. F. Bruce's Paul: Apostle of the Heart Set Free. Frank Thielman now offers a worthy successor to Bruce's classic biography. Paul, Apostle of Grace presents a coherent and compelling account of the life and ministry of the apostle. Thielman's thorough research and lucid writing make this an excellent textbook for introductory courses on Paul and a valuable resource for students. Thielman makes several important interpretative choices regarding issues debated among Pauline scholars. The first such choice is to base his reconstruction of Paul's life primarily on the evidence from the thirteen letters of Paul, all of which are considered authentic by Thielman, as well as from Acts. In the first of three appendices, Thielman explains why he considers all thirteen letters genuinely Pauline and why he regards the evidence from Acts as historically reliable. He contends that none of the arguments customarily put forward in support of the pseudonymity of the disputed letters is decisive (pp. 344–45). Drawing on the scholarship of Jermo van Nes regarding statistical variation in vocabulary and syntax across the Pauline corpus (p. 343), Thielman argues that such variation is insufficient to support the pseudonymity of the so-called Deutero-Pauline letters. He also follows Andrew W. Pitts in questioning whether responsible judgements can be made about the elasticity of Paul's writing style (p. 342). Thielman further contends that signatures and warnings against forgeries (e.g., 2 Thess. 2:2; 2:17) were incorporated both in genuine letters and in forgeries, and therefore cannot serve as reliable indicators of pseudonymity (pp. 340–42). He also finds arguments positing theological differences between genuine and pseudonymous letters of Paul to be subjective and, therefore, inconclusive (p. 343). Based on these considerations, Thielman concludes that it is best to evaluate the authenticity of Paul's letters according to the reliability of ancient sources attesting to their authorship, rather than on highly disputable internal characteristics (p. 345). Thielman takes a similarly firm stance on the historical value of Acts. Pauline scholarship is divided: some researchers reconstruct the apostle's life mainly from the letters, while others use Acts to corroborate the letters but remain cautious about details found only in Acts. Thielman adopts a third position, treating Acts as a reliable source on a par with the Pauline letters (pp. xi–xii, 345). He argues that the introduction and writing style of Acts more closely resemble historiographical works, such as Sallust's The War with Catiline, than ancient historical novels, such as the Book of Judith or Chariton's Chaereas and Callirhoe (pp. 345–46). He also rejects the claim that Acts cannot be relied upon because ancient historians were unconcerned with factual accuracy (p. 346). According to Thielman, Luke composed Acts in accordance with standards of historical accuracy similar to those outlined by Polybius (Hist. 2.56.10; 12.27.4–6). Thielman's approach to evidence for Paul's life is likely to receive a mixed reception, as the field is divided on these questions. A biography is not the proper venue for a full-scale argument on such disputed matters. Nevertheless, Thielman has successfully shown, at least in this reviewer's eyes, that his approach, i.e., treating the evidence from Acts and the thirteen letters as essentially credible, is responsible and defensible. Thielman's chief contribution in this respect is showing throughout the book how evidence from Acts and letters can be brought together into a cohesive picture. The second significant interpretative choice is Thielman's attempt to integrate the Pastorals into the chronology of Acts. Many scholars who, like Thielman, consider the Pastorals to be genuine Pauline letters, place their composition during the hypothetical second imprisonment in Rome. Thielman, however, contends that there is no compelling evidence for a second imprisonment and that Paul was most likely executed at the conclusion of his first. Thielman lays out his position on the time and circumstances of Paul's death in the third appendix (pp. 363–70). On Thielman's reading, 1 Timothy was likely written from Macedonia, not long after the ‘painful visit’ to Corinth mentioned in 2 Cor. 2:1 (pp. 196–99). He further argues that Paul could have left Titus on Crete during his sea journey to Rome (p. 276; cf. Acts 27:9–12; Tit. 1:5). Paul subsequently instructs Titus to meet him at Nicopolis, perhaps hoping that he would soon be released and could journey back east (p. 281). Thielman assigns 2 Timothy to Paul's first and only Roman imprisonment. He also orders the prison letters according to their increasing pessimism regarding the apostle's fate, beginning with the more hopeful Philippians, Philemon, and Colossians, and ending with the most pessimistic, Ephesians and 2 Timothy (pp. 358–59). Thielman's third noteworthy conclusion is that he regards Galatians as addressed to Southern Galatia, while at the same time interpreting Gal. 2:1–10 as a description of the Jerusalem Conference (pp. xii, 92, 145–46). This is a notable choice, since many proponents of the South Galatian hypothesis regard the absence of any reference to that conference as evidence for an early dating of the letter. Thielman's proposal, however, has the advantage of explaining the clear parallels between Gal. 2:1–10 and Acts 15:1–29. He situates the composition of Galatians in the first half of Paul's stay in Corinth, prior to the writing of 1 Thessalonians. In support, Thielman observes that 1 Thess. 1:8 suggests Paul had already received communication not only from the Macedonian churches but also from southern Galatia. At the same time, he may have been informed of the troubling situation in Galatia (p. 145). Thielman's reconstruction of the chronology of this period in Paul's life is elegant and compelling. While Thielman relies chiefly on the canonical letters and Acts for information about Paul's life, he also draws on a wide range of other sources to enrich his description of the locations visited by the apostle and the broader events of this period. This adds texture to his account and enhances its readability. For example, Thielman draws on Strabo and Cicero to illuminate the circumstances of Paul's early years in Tarsus (pp. 2–3); on Philo, Josephus, and Philostratus to describe political turmoil as a background for Paul's ministry in Syria and Cilicia (pp. 54–58); and again on Strabo to detail the possible cargo of the ship on which Paul journeyed to Jerusalem (p. 241). Thielman should be commended for undertaking the challenging task of weaving together various pieces of data into a coherent narrative of Paul's life. The result is an eminently readable and coherent biography that will benefit a wide range of readers. Any attempt to piece together the details of Paul's life requires considerable imagination, and Thielman's overall reconstruction depends on numerous interpretative choices that are debated among Pauline scholars. Nonetheless, even readers who are less sympathetic than this reviewer to Thielman's positions on issues such as the authorship of the Pastorals and the Prison Letters will hopefully appreciate his invitation to ‘think through the evidence again’ (p. xii). Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.
Filip J. Sylwestrowicz (Tue,) studied this question.