New Books In Biblical Studies

Was Paul silent on the affairs and injustices of the Roman Empire? Or have his letters just been misread? In The Apostle and the Empire: Paul’s Implicit and Explicit Criticism of Rome (Eerdmans, 2023), Christoph Heilig returns to the active research scene on Paul’s perspective toward Roman imperial ideology with a fresh contribution arguing that the Apostle’s critiques were not encoded or hidden within the subtext of his letters, but rather expressed openly when Paul saw reason to air his unease or discontent with emperors and governing logics of the Roman state. Heilig contends that scholars have previously overlooked passages that openly denounce the empire—for instance, the “triumphal procession” in 2 Corinthians 2:14, which he discusses in detail by drawing on a variety of historical, literary, and archaeological data. His capable discourse with a range of other scholars suggests that the search for Paul’s perspective on Rome may be trending beyond the reliance on coded critiques within the “hidden transc