The book features critical essays by a prominent New Testament scholar, focusing on the Apostle Paul, his epistles, theological insights, and his role in shaping early Christian communities. This second edition, originally published in 1977, has been updated with new typesetting and includes an additional essay on the book of Ephesians, enriching the exploration of Paul's impact on the church's development.
Focusing on the Apostle Paul's life and theology, this collection of essays highlights his crucial role in the development of the church. Prof. Dahl's comprehensive research covers a variety of topics, making these writings essential for anyone studying the New Testament and understanding Paul's enduring significance in Christian thought.
Introduction Questions, Text- and Edition-Critical Issues, Interpretation of Texts and Themes
This volume of collected essays on Ephesians is divided into three sections. The first part deals thoroughly with introductory questions such as composition and style, the relationship to other Early Christian literature and Qumran, authorship (with a new suggestion), addressees and social setting. In the second part the extensive history of Early Christian texts and editions (in the Muratorian canon, the Marcionite prologues and the Euthalian apparatus) with special regard to Ephesians is investigated. The third part is dedicated to the interpretation of texts and themes of special importance for the understanding of this pseudo-pauline letter by one of Paul's younger disciples and co-workers. Here the theological and liturgical setting is reflected upon. Through all the detailed scrutiny of the history and the semantics of the epistle to the Ephesians, the question of its illocutionary function remains in focus. Not only what the auctor of Ephesians says in his letter but what he does by saying it is the central issue in Nils Alstrup Dahl's life-long interest in this intriguing letter. More than half of these essays have never been published before, and one essay is translated from Norwegian into English for the first time.