Ben Witherington III is a world-renowned New Testament expert and biblical exegete.  He has authored books at both the scholarly and popular level, writing in a way that furthers discussions but is also accessible to all.  He is not cut and dry; both his personality and convictions come out strong, making enjoyable reads of otherwise serious topics.  Some of his expertise lies in the historical Jesus, the historical Paul, women in the early church, and using Graeco-Roman history to inform our exegesis and understanding of biblical theology.  He is presently on staff at Asbury Theological Seminary and has pastored many churches.

Witherington, Ben.  The Paul Quest: The Renewed Search for the Jew of Tarsus.  Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001.
347 pages.

The Paul Quest: The Renewed Search for the Jew of Tarsus is Ben Witherington III’s most comprehensive treatment of Paul the apostle.  This book is a welcome addition to Pauline literature that attempts to accurately discover the apostle’s identity, and contributes to the scholarly discussion by clear and strong argumentation.  Witherington’s approach is accessible, offering background information that is important for understanding Paul’s world.  In this way, his text is similar to those at the introductory level; detailed discussions are stabilized by the basic information important in keeping perspective healthy.  Still, The Paul Quest has a thesis that is focused and unique enough that it explores various dimensions of his life and character which further the scholarly discussion.  But before the particular ideas of his work are explored, it is worth noting some strengths that are both immediate and easily recognizable.  First, in his introduction Witherington reminds readers why studying the figure of Paul is so important.  The more we know about this influential apostle, the more we will know about the person of Jesus as well.  In other words, a strong connection exists between the historical Jesus and the historical Paul, since Paul’s letters are our earliest sources about Jesus.  Therefore for a Christian, knowing Paul the apostle means drawing closer to the object of their worship—Jesus Christ.  For the skeptic, knowing Paul means historically understanding one of the original forces behind the spread of the Christian faith.  Yet that is not to say that such motivations for embarking on the Paul quest cannot overlap!

Secondly, the structure Witherington chose for organizing his work offers a valuable method for one interested in learning about Paul.  His chapters each begin with several italicized paragraphs that introduce the material that will follow.  The conclusions stated in this section of the text are then supported by evidence in the main text of the chapter.  By providing a brief overview of the contents it creates easy access to crucial information.  The repetition also serves as a valuable learning method when one chooses to read straight through the book.  At the macro level, Witherington chose an interesting way to organize his ideas.  His chapters each describe a particular nuance of Paul’s identity (“Paul the Writer and Rhetor,” “Paul the Apostle and Prophet,” “Paul the Realist and Radical,” “Paul the Anthropologist and advocate,” “Paul the Storyteller and Exegete,” “Paul the Ethicist and Theologian”)  The strength of this approach is that it allows for the author’s particular interests and persuasions to be emphasized.  Sticking to a thematic outline for his book and avoiding the temptation to analyze Paul’s letters on an individual basis provides a sense of freshness and convinces readers that the contributions offered are more important than repeating information that can be found elsewhere.  A weakness of this approach is that nuances and perspectives cannot be exhaustive; they can cause a reader to sense that particular aspects of his identity may not have been treated.

One last remark is due for the book’s structure.  The section on chronology of life is wisely placed in the book’s appendix.  Again, this allows for smoother reading, flow of ideas, and analysis of Paul’s person.  Although important, chronological issues come as secondary in importance.  He even states this in the introduction.  The intent of the book is to examine what type of person Paul was, not what kind of life he lived.[1]

The strongest feature of The Paul Quest is in fact its thesis.  Witherington convincingly argues that understanding Paul’s identity requires familiarity with his context as a first century person living around the Mediterranean Sea.[2] He was a unique individual who lived in a world very different from ours, and ones interpretation might suffer from anachronism if modern Western methods are applied to understanding his identity. Witherington warns of this danger throughout his book, and works to rebut misrepresentations of Paul.[3] At the same time, he offers ways in which we can reconstruct identities of ancient persons living in communities like Paul’s.  A great discussion introduces what actually determined the identity of ancient Mediterranean people.  Generation, gender, geography, wealth, education, and religion are some of the components of ones identity, and individuals were expected to conform to them rather than try to defy or resist them.  Witherington demonstrates that understanding the social norms of Paul’s day helps clarify the struggles, intentions, and meaning of many of his letters.  Roman Citizenship, Jewish Pharisaism, and Christianity are treated as the “trinity” of Paul’s identity.  He does a good job at providing necessary background information to understanding how these influenced Paul’s person.  His treatment of honor, shame, and physiognomy were very clear and helpful.  Still, the section dealing with Paul’s Jewishness suffers a little from focusing too much on his interpretation of the Law.  Some more information on how Pharisees were trained and how they lived might have been useful.  This section may have benefited from some of the points from the discussion on p. 97.  Also, Witherington’s conclusions about Paul’s view of the interplay between the law of Moses and the law of Christ on p. 68 could use some more attention and expansion.

Chapter 3—Paul the Writer and Rhetor—provided a clear and thorough discussion of ancient rhetoric. Witherington did a better job at introducing the matter than other texts out there, and successfully showed how recognizing Paul’s use of rhetoric helps us better understand his person and ideas.  Galatians and 2 Corinthians were used as case studies to demonstrate Paul’s handle on rhetoric.  Also helpful was Witherington’s treatment of ancient letter-writing.  Included in this section were comparisons and contrasts with other Graeco-Roman letters.  This helps readers of Paul gain some perspective, and by comparing Paul’s letter-style to other letter writers from his time, conclusions can be made about what emphases Paul wanted to make when writing his church audiences.

After developing Paul’s use of rhetoric, one conclusion that the author repeatedly points out is that the apostle “prefers to persuade” rather than command his communities of believers.[4] This idea would have benefited from some qualification, because it seems that often times Paul had no other choice than to persuade.  It is difficult to imagine a person whose authority is being challenged still being able to command people (2 Corinthians, Galatians).

Finally in this chapter, Witherington states that his argumentation of Paul’s identity as an ancient person will only be done from those letters whose authenticity have received approval from the majority of scholars.  In doing so, Witherington leaves out the Pastorals.  Though he wants to have his thesis accepted by the scholarly community, he does not hesitate to provide a brief (but strong) case for their authenticity, pointing out the weaknesses in other hypotheses.

In the chapter “Paul the Realist and Radical,” an attempt is made to create a distinction between “submitting” and “obeying.”  The discussion centers on what level of adherence to government authorities is proper for Christians.  Although the Greek “hypotasso” and “hypakuo” are offered to show that the two words are not identical, Witherington’s point suffers slightly from not defining the terms and not actually pointing out what the difference between the two words is.  In his discussion of household codes that follows soon after, the same problem surfaces again.[5] In this case, the author is trying to enunciate the difference between the commands given to wives vs. those given to children.

What may be considered the meat of Paul’s identity by some people—Paul the exegete, ethicist, storyteller, and theologian—is included in the last part of The Paul Quest.  While some scholars contest the idea of a Pauline theology, given the occasional nature of his letters, Witherington submits that at the center of Paul’s thought were stories (narratives).  The theology found in his letters flow from his narrative thought world, which Witherington divides into 5 main series of stories (the story of God; the story of the world gone wrong in Adam; the story of God’s people in that world, from Abraham to Moses and beyond; the story of the Jewish Messiah, Christ; the story of Christians, which arises out of stories 2-4).[6] Within this section he offers a strong apologetic for Paul’s typological interpretation of scripture, against many modern scholars who accuse Paul of “exegetical legerdemain.”

Also found in this section is an interpretation of Romans 7:7-13, which the author suggests is a presentation of all fallen humanity, told primarily from the perspective of a Jewish person.[7] He offers good evidence for such a reading, although it seems much of it clinches on the fact that verses 7-8 make mention of only one commandment, which Witherington argues is referring to the commandment Adam received about the tree of knowledge.  But this seems to ignore the fact that earlier in the context Paul is referring to the struggle with the single commandment of covetousness.  Why can it not be this commandment that verses 7-8 are referring to?  Furthermore, the defense of Paul’s use of the singular “seed” in Romans 9 could be honed and strengthened; his argument was a little less than satisfying.

Conclusion

The Paul Quest consistently provided strong argumentation for the points it made.  Ben Witherington convincingly presented the apostle Paul as an ancient Mediterranean person whose identity needs to be reconstructed very differently from ours.  The different aspects of Paul’s identity were carefully argued and they help modern readers get a sense of what type of person Paul was.  Some of his arguments could use stronger support, but the majority of his work was sound and well written.

While Witherington successfully proved the uniqueness of Paul’s identity, one of the most helpful aspects of his work were his conclusions drawn from the interaction between Paul and his culture(s).  The apostle seemed to have well understood which cultural norms could be harmonized with the law of Christ and which could not.  Ironically, he occasionally used some of the unacceptable ones to prove his point (2 Cor. 11), but in doing so, dismantled the very game of honor and boasting that he was using.  Witherington did a wonderful job at showing how, though Paul lived and ministered in a world that thrived off of honor codes, he managed to turn that which was shameful—a crucified Messiah—into the object of faith for the empire.

[2] Ibid., p. 17.

[3] See p. 87 for good examples of modern classifications that do not suit the social context of Paul’s day.

[4] Ibid., p. 90, 127.

[5] Ibid., p. 189.

[6] Ibid., p. 230.

[7] Ibid., p. 241.