Paul, Israel’s Torah and the Nations

Was Saul or Paul of Tarsus a Jew or a Christian? Did he forge new understandings – even a new religion – or did he remain a faithful Israelite living within the same world of first-century Judaisms as his peers? Did he want Jews to live as Gentiles, or Gentiles to live as Jews? Did he oppose the Mosaic Torah or support it? What did he share in common with other Jewish (and non-Jewish) groups, and where did he diverge from them? And why have all these questions been so thorny and controversial throughout history?

In this course, Dr. Mark Nanos, a Jewish scholar who has devoted upwards of thirty years to wrestling with Paul’s writings, presents a comprehensive overview of the “flashpoint texts” that have proven so critical and problematic for interpretation of this self-described “Pharisee” and “ambassador to the nations.” Lecturing through a series of conversations with Dr. Yeshaya Gruber, Dr. Nanos outlines a coherent, consistent picture of “Paul within Judaism” — a maverick thinker, teacher, and leader who expended great effort to preserve the identity boundaries between Jews and non-Jews, all while working just as hard to bring them together as Jews and non-Jews into a pluralistic, non-discriminatory unity “in Messiah.”