Portraits of Paul: An Archaeology of Ancient Personality

How did ancient persons understand themselves other people and the world around them? Is there a marked contrast between their understandings of self and other and the way modern Westerners define the same? Bruce Malina and Jerome Neyrey focus on the figure of Paul to provide a comprehensive investigation of how one man was perceived in the ancient world. Drawing on primary sources from antiquity as well a lessons from cultural anthropology the authors help provide a fuller understanding of the person of Paul and his world. The result is a new more balanced way to approach the New Testament.