Paul in Acts and Paul in His Letters

The reception of Paul in the first century is a highly debated issue. In this collection of essays, Daniel Marguerat defends the position of a threefold reception of Paul in parallel ways: documentary (the canon of Pauline writings), biographical (the book of Acts and the apocryphal Acts of the Apostles) and doctoral (Deutero-Pauline and Pastoral Letters). Marguerat advocates that the value of the phenomena of reception be appreciated, in particular the figure of Paul in Acts. It should not systematically be compared to the apostle's writings, even though this image evolves from a Lukan reinterpretation. It actually gives us an aspect of Paul which forges the background of the epistolary literature, especially concerning his rapport with Judaism. The essays in this book concern the literary and theological construction of the narrative of Acts, focusing on the figure of Paul: his rapport with the Torah, the Socratic model, the Lukan character construction, the resurrection as a central theme in Acts, the significance of meals. In his analysis, Marguerat combines narratology and historical criticism. He is highly attentive to how Christology emerges as narrative Christology. Some of the essays treat classical or less classical themes of Pauline theology: Paul the mystic, the justification by faith, imitating Paul as father and mother of the community, and the affair of the woman's veil in Corinth. Concerning the statute of the Torah, Marguerat debates with the "New Perspective on Paul". He also sheds a fresh light on less known aspects of the apostle: his mystic dimension and the emotional impact in his correspondence to the Thessalonians.