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The Genius of Paul: A Study in History (1958) is a book by Samuel Sandmel.

Abstract

Sandmel here attempts to view and understand Paul from a strictly historical perspective, which means at first forgetting not only later Church biographies on Paul, but also all New Testament literature outside of the genuine Pauline letters. The picture drawn of Paul is one of a Hellenistic, Greek Diaspora Jew (in many ways similar to Philo) whose particular experiences in the Diaspora led him to view the Law as, at least for Paul himself, unable to be fulfilled and therefore irrelevant to one’s justification. This Greek Paul desired to find and commune with the transcendent God, something which the Mosaic Law could not provide. His experience with Christ, an “offshoot” of God, allowed Paul the closest possible means of achieving his goal. When Paul entered Christianity, he found a Palestinian, Jewish sect which subtracted nothing from contemporary Judaism. Paul transformed this group both by his mission to the gentiles and his idea that, through Christ, God was available on earth, thereby making the Law unnecessary. The final half of the book is dedicated to the rest of the New Testament literature and what these texts tells us about their relationship to Paulinism. Sandmel believes that Paulinism lies at the foundation of almost all NT texts, but the authors of these texts had to reject the implications that (extreme) Paulinism could lead to (docetism, anarchism). Paul’s insistence on the value of personal experience over organized religion was hardly a foundation on which to build a stable Church. Therefore, the NT authors, predominantly the author of Acts, had to neutralize Paul by creating a fictitious “Petrine” school. Paul, the preeminent Apostle to the gentiles, the religious genius, became just another apostle, preaching and believing what was shared by the others. – Jason Zurawski, University of Michigan.

Editions

Published in New York, NY: Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, 1958. Reissued in New York, NY: Schocken Books, 1970, with a new Introduction by the Author.

Table of contents

• I. Paul the Man

• II. Paul the Jew

• III. Paul the Convert

• IV. Paul the Apostle

• V. Paul and the Acts of the Apostles

• VI. Paul and Other New Testament Writings

• VII. Paul’s Stature

External links

• Google Books