A good modern commentary on St. Paul. ( )

Given the number of books Paul has inspired in almost two thousand years, readers may wonder why we need another. But Griffith-Jones manages to bring new eyes to old territory, and this makes his work a welcome addition to Pauline scholarship. The book is not a commentary, but it offers a new reading of Paul’s letters that is thoroughly conversant with existing readings and therefore useful as an introduction for students and others encountering them for the first time. More important, though, is Griffith-Jones’s consistent effort to “walk through Paul’s letters at ground level,” using modern tools to “unlock” ancient texts. In doing so, he presents Paul as a seer in a Hebrew tradition of seers that includes not only Jesus but also Daniel, Ezekiel, and Isaiah. In the process, he gives readers a better understanding of the tradition of Judaism to which both Jesus and Paul belonged. For Griffith-Jones, Paul is not only a seer but also a “father” to the assemblies he organized. As a human father, he could be both inspirer and bully. He emerges here as a fully human figure fully committed to a divine presence he believed had transformed him and could in turn transform the world.