As the summer winds down now, I realize we’re well more than halfway done with the year, and I’ve still got seven books left to read on our 2024 Siblings’ Book Club list! Of course, that means I’ve read 8 thus far (though I haven’t yet reviewed them all), so I guess I’m still on track to finish.
Note: this post includes Amazon affiliate links.
A Useful Biography
This biography by John Pollock on the life of Paul surprised me a bit. For some reason, I had anticipated a novel of sorts, an historical fiction based on the man’s life. Perhaps while flipping through its pages, I had noticed those few places with offset dialogue like we see in novels, and so I expected something different. What we have here, though, is a biography like most others, where the author gives us a detailed account of Paul’s life—and never quotes anyone directly where he doesn’t have the historical records and right to do so.
Still, as I told the others in my reading group, I found this book to be a super useful biography of Paul that puts his travels and letters into chronological context. I’ve always been a strong proponent of reading Scripture chronologically, because context is a major, major part of interpretation. Understanding Paul’s circumstances from Acts for when and why he wrote his letters places his themes into a much better, much more legitimate focus than we get from a straight reading of the letters.
The indwelling Holy Spirit guides us into all things and teaches us, yes, but if we’re not also donning our thinking caps when we study Scripture, then we’re just setting ourselves up for heresy, confusing our own ideas and impressions as “the Holy Spirit” speaking to us. It’s a danger people don’t recognize nearly enough, which is why the global church is so filled with weirdos with wacko ideas. I won’t name any names.
Context for Paul’s Beginnings and End
I especially enjoyed from this book the earliest and latest portions. In the early chapters, we get a fantastic sense of Saul’s early life, pre-conversion. Pollock pieces together these scenes from historical records of the time period and also from Paul’s own writings and recollections of his past. It sets the stage for all that follows, and it really drew me in.
The later portions of the book offer a deep dive into Paul’s trials and imprisonments among the Romans. I hope it’s not wrong to say that the Scriptures tend to gloss over these events, simply because the people first reading them were living within the very system it moderately describes. We modern-day readers lack the socio-political context for understanding the Roman processes, so we miss a lot when we read the Word straight. No, we don’t need Pollock’s book or other commentaries to understand Scripture (the Holy Spirit is sufficient), but the extra insight sure does help! It proves particularly helpful in developing Paul’s mindset for what he wrote in his later letters about his imprisonments, his urgency, and his nearing the end of his race.
Incidentally another fantastic book on this topic is John W. Mauck’s Paul on Trial (2001). I’ve summarized it somewhat in my “Introduction to the Book of Acts.”
Conclusion
Overall, I found this book not only entertaining but also incredibly insightful, and I genuinely believe it will affect how I read Paul’s letters moving forward. I would recommend this book to anyone, but especially to those believers who find the Word of God confusing in its organization and long to understand its context better. This book is not inspired Scripture, but like many commentaries, it’s a helpful tool for better understanding Scripture—and an entertaining tool at that!
©2024 E.T.