The centuries after the Protestant Reformation brought about a radical reinterpretation of the epistles of St. Paul, disconnected from any historical reality. But Paul operated, during his entire life, as a faithful Pharisee within the Roman Jewish world. In Saint Paul the Pharisee: Jewish Apostle to All Nations, Fr. Stephen De Young surveys Paul’s life and writings, interpreting them within the Holy Tradition of the Orthodox Church. This survey is followed by De Young’s interpretive translation of St. Paul’s epistles, which deliberately avoids overly familiar terminology. By using words and ideas grounded in first-century Judaism, De Young hopes to unsettle commonly held notions and help the reader reassess St. Paul in his historical context.
