Paul, Apostle of Grace

“Frank Thielman’s book on Paul does for a new generation what F. F. Bruce’s Paul: Apostle of the Heart Set Free did in his day: provide an overview of the apostle’s ministry based on the testimony of Acts and all thirteen letters traditionally ascribed to Paul. Without sacrificing depth, the book is impressively broad in scope, combining careful historical description with brief interpretations of each of Paul’s letters. This is the book on Paul I would recommend to anyone who is looking for an overview of the apostle of grace.”
—Douglas J. Moo, Wheaton College
 
“Frank Thielman’s Paul, Apostle of Grace is an amazing achievement. We needed an up-to-date work on Paul’s life and letters, and Thielman has provided us with a work well-versed in the Greco-Roman and Jewish worlds that Paul inhabited. He also situates and explains the letters in the context of Paul’s life. The work stands out for accepting all thirteen of Paul’s letters as authentic. At the same time, he makes a fascinating case for Paul’s death in his first Roman imprisonment, which means that the Pastoral letters are assigned a different time frame than we find in those who argue for a second Roman imprisonment. Scholars, pastors, and students of Paul will find this work invaluable and will want to consult it again and again.”
—Thomas R. Schreiner, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
 
“At long last we have a worthy successor to F. F. Bruce’s famous biography of Paul. Drawing on all relevant Jewish and Greco-Roman sources and giving the book of Acts its full weight as a historical witness, Thielman paints a remarkably vivid picture of the apostle in his historical context. He offers a satisfactory solution to the old riddle of how to situate the pastoral epistles, and he gives a compelling account of Paul's theology in the light in which it should be understood: his missional and pastoral ministry.”
—Sigurd Grindheim, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences
 
“Frank Thielman’s sure-handed guide allows readers of Paul’s thirteen letters and the Book of Acts to accompany the apostle on his journeys through the Greco-Roman world. Thielman breathtakingly assesses what made Paul tick and drove him across land and sea to tell of the Messiah, sent by God, to save all people from the enormity of sin and humanity’s rebellion against God.”
—A. Andrew Das, Elmhurst University
 
“This meticulous study judiciously integrates Paul’s canonical letters, Acts, Greco-Roman writings, ancient Jewish sources including the Old Testament, and a vast range of scholarship. Thielman is creative, impressively comprehensive, and deeply contemplative in his reconstructions of Paul’s convictions, travels, companions, and concerns. This book will stand for decades as the preferred starting point for orientation into what the historical sources reveal regarding the apostle Paul’s life and times and his testimony to the messianic Savior he called Lord.”
—Robert W. Yarbrough, Covenant Theological Seminary
 
“What Frank Thielman offers in this book is nothing less than the now-definitive biography of the apostle Paul, written with customary clarity, caution, and commitment to historical investigation and theological elucidation. Students, pastors, and scholars will equally benefit from this immensely valuable study.”
—Eckhard J. Schnabel, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
 
“In a volume reminiscent of F. F. Bruce’s classic Paul: Apostle of the Heart Set Free, Frank Thielman offers a wonderfully written portrait of Paul that is profound, insightful, and deeply rooted in good scholarship. Thielman does a skillful job of weaving Jewish and Graeco-Roman historical information into his presentation showing Paul’s indebtedness to his Pharisaic Jewish background, but living and ministering in a Hellenistic and Roman environment. This book will surprise the reader, too, in some bold and well-supported new proposals about the life-setting of some of Paul’s letters, such as Galatians and the Pastoral Epistles. Anyone wanting to know the apostle Paul and his writings better will need to read and reflect on this masterful work.”
—Clinton E. Arnold, Talbot School of Theology, Biola University
 
“Thielman’s reconstruction of Paul’s life from Acts and the canonical letters is both readable and stimulating. His description of Paul’s travels is especially evocative. Utilizing the latest scholarship on roads and transport in the Roman Empire, he presents the apostle’s journeys in a way that makes geographical and hodological sense.”
—Mark Wilson, Stellenbosch University
 
“The interest in and publications on Paul continue unabated. For those who are looking for an inviting and very readable biography of this extraordinary man, the Lord’s apostle of grace, this is it. Based on wide-ranging primary research in the book of Acts, the Pauline writings, and contemporary extra-biblical writings, and combined with a thorough grasp of modern scholarship on Paul, Thielman has produced a magnificent volume. With clarity and artistic force he integrates the brushstrokes available from Luke’s narratives on Paul and the apostle’s own epistles to paint a portrait of the man that comes alive in the reading. As a nonspecialist in Paul, whom I perceive as the Moses of the New Testament, this is exactly what I needed to provide depth and texture to my own understanding of the Scriptures about him and written by him. What a delight it has been to track the man’s transformation through his own experience and understanding of grace embodied in Christ Jesus our Savior. Congratulations on the publication of this masterpiece.”
—Daniel I. Block, Wheaton College