The discerning and perceptive essays gathered together in this volume make evident that a comprehensive understanding of Pauline thought must include the following aspects of his entire and comprehensive matrix: —an examination of the Pauline letters in their specific and contingent as well as their broader and coherent contexts; —a careful and precise analysis of all relevant Jewish literature, including the Dead Sea Scrolls; —the incorporation of all relevant archaeological, historical, and literary evidence for the reconstruction of the political, cultural, and religious matrix of the Greco-Roman cities to which Paul's letters are addressed. The issues treated in this volume are of enormous relevance for a better understanding of Paul's Jewish Matrix and his very "Jewishness." †
