Book Review - Paul, A Biography by N. T. Wright

There is so much depth that highlights can only hint at. Paul’s pre-conversion zeal was based on the examples of Phinehas (Numbers 25:7-9) and Elijah (1 Kings 18:40). Psalm 106:30-31 says that Phinehas’ slaying of the brazenly apostate Israelite was reckoned to him as righteousness.  Wright points to the likelihood that young Saul took these to mean that the slaying of unrepentant backsliding Jews was how to deal with early Christians. (Acts 7:58). This was the mindset of Saul when confronted by Christ on the Damascus road.

Considering Paul’s life in chronological order, pulling the Acts and the epistles together, gives us clues to Paul’s interior life, and to events not reported by Luke. The author expends considerable effort on events in Ephesus not recorded by Luke, in which Paul experienced such grievous trials that he despaired of life. The evidence comes from Paul’s own words. The impact on Paul’s outlook on life, ministry, and writing style suggests that this was a significant event. He learned a new aspect of walking with Jesus: His faithfulness in the darkest trials, and being so weak that he had no strength of his own, and was totally dependent on the Lord.

It is hard for us to grasp how hard it was for Jews of Paul’s time to accept the idea of a crucified Messiah. Paul could not, until he met Him. When he preached to Jews, he emphasized continuity with the history, prophecy, and promises of the Jewish scriptures. But it was a hard sell to convince Jews, who expected a conquering hero to set the world right by force, that God had worked more powerfully in Jesus by defeating evil spiritual powers through His crucifixion and resurrection. Paul preached that they needed to experience that power personally, and when writing to churches, reminded them of their own experience with Christ.

The impact of Paul’s life is hard to overestimate. He personally travelled to innumerable cities, preached Christ, established churches, and demonstrated by his own life how a Christian lives. And then he wrote letters that have shown two millennia of believers not only the doctrines of the church, but also how to think about faith, religion, and life in a holistic framework. If nothing else, N. T. Wright’s biography awakens the reader with an appreciation of all that God did through Paul, in fulfillment of Acts 9:16.