Review of Gager, Who Made Early Christianity?

H-JUDAIC REVIEW:

Kok on Gager, 'Who Made Early Christianity?: The Jewish Lives of the Apostle Paul'

Author: John G. Gager
Reviewer: Michael Kok

John G. Gager. Who Made Early Christianity?: The Jewish Lives of the Apostle Paul. New York: Columbia University Press, 2015. 208 pp. $30.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-231-53937-1.

Reviewed by Michael Kok (The King's University)
Published on H-Judaic (December, 2015)
Commissioned by Matthew A. Kraus

The Jewish Reception of the Apostle Paul

Together with Lloyd Gaston and Stanley K. Stowers, John G. Gager developed the Sonderweg reading of the Pauline Epistles.[1] According to this model, Paul understood Christ to have opened up a “special path” to salvation for non-Jews distinct from the provision of salvation that was already available to Israel through the Sinai covenant. Despite its title, this book covers far more ground than ancient and modern Jewish interpretations of the Pauline corpus. It also explores the active participation of Diaspora Jewish populations in the civic life of Mediterranean societies and the range of Jewish and Christian social interactions in antiquity.

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Past posts on the book are here and here.