Q. Let’s talk for a minute about the radical Jewish re-reading of Paul fostered by Mark Nanos, Paula Fredricksen etc. that suggests a two-track model of salvation for God’s people— Jews being faithful by keeping the Mosaic covenant, Gentiles by embracing Jesus. This even has been stretched by Nanos to Paul is talking about Gentiles in the context of the synagogue, not as a practicing community in house churches separate from the synagogue. Recently, I have read Mark Kinzer’s... Read more

Q. I was intrigued by your drawing on Teresa Morgan’s work on fides and iustitia. While I think she does a good job of making her case in regard to the Latin usage of those terms and the range of possible meanings, I was less convinced about the Greek terms that parallel those words, especially in the hands of a devout Jew like Paul. It seems to me that Paul is giving us in Greek his Jewish take on such... Read more

Q. I was intrigued to see you draw on the Psalms of Solomon to help explain Paul’s background and how he used to view not only who counted as righteous and sinners, but one could add, what the Messiah’s role would be when he came. So… I kept waiting for you to say something about Ps. Sol. 17-18 where we hear about a militaristic messiah ala David the warrior. If Saul had thought this way, clearly Gal. 2.15-21 makes clear... Read more

Q. One of the major arguments in your Galatians commentary, about which I think you are fundamentally right, is the issue is ecclesiology, though there are sub-themes involving soteriology and eschatology and Christology. The thing that strikes me about this is how ill-prepared post-Enlightenment folk, and especially Protestants are, to think about Galatians as NOT mainly having to do with how the individual gets saved or justified. Sociologists talk about corporate identity in that world, about how group identity is... Read more

Q. Early on you make the point that the term ‘Judaizer’ does not refer to what the agitators were up to in Antioch and Galatia, but rather to what Gentiles might or could do to join Judaism. They were Judaizing their lives. I wonder then what we should call ‘the men who came from James’ who were insisting not only that Peter not have table fellowship with Gentiles, but, if they are the same folk who went on to bewitch... Read more

What happens to a young girl who thinks she has a normal family including a younger sister, and the whole thing turns out to be a deep fake, so the parents can act as spies for a foreign government.  Then, what happens when one of these ‘sisters’ joins the Avengers and they sort of become her new family.  The story of Natasha (very ably played by Scarlet Johansson)  the super hero who left the dark side for the Avengers is... Read more

Q. I completely agree with you that Galatians is an early letter maybe even Paul’s earliest of the extant letters we have, and it seems clear it was written before the Acts 15 council. He seems to be swimming upstream, whereas if Acts 15 had already happened, he could simply have cited the decree to the Galatians and said— ‘see, the apostles all agree Gentiles don’t have to get circumcised and become Jews in order to be part of Jesus’... Read more

Q. I am very glad that you make clear at various points that Galatians is not in the main about later Protestant issues with Catholicism, such as faith vs. works, or salvation by faith alone, and that there is nothing in Galatians that encourages antinomianism, an allergic reaction to obedience to God’s commands as necessary to living out the Christian faith. One of the major problems with reading Galatians is the legacy of Luther, and subsequent Lutheran divines, we’ve inherited... Read more

What follows here is a long running Q.A. with Tom about his new Galatians commentary. Buckle up as it will be an exciting ride. Q. Let’s talk for a minute about spiritual formation, a buzz word phrase if there ever was one. One of the things I have found so puzzling is the attempt to place spiritual formation in one category, and profound study of God’s word in another. Sometimes it even sounds like a sort of gnostic de-historicizing of... Read more

Though Tom Wright has written many fine monographs, a good biography of Paul, a whole series of William Barclay like small commentaries for the laity, what he had not done thus far is write major stand alone commentaries on NT books (he did write a helpful mid-level Romans commentary for the New Interpreter’s Bible series in 2002).  But now he has written a very fine, clearly written mid-level commentary on Galatians, and the only problem is we wish he had... Read more