Winner of Biblical Archaeology Society Award - Best New Testament Book"We are left to construct a portrait of Paul with only scraps of what was once a large and imposing canvas - a small collection of letters and a historical narrative written a generation after his death. This reconstruction focuses on important parts of the image that usually fall in the shadows, parts dealing with Paul's sexual asceticism, his preoccupation with holiness - holy Spirit, holy community, and holy ethos - the evolution of his theology, and his emergence as a legendary figure. Although I have tried to follow the strict rules of historical investigation, of necessity much guesswork is involved in any exploration of Paul's life... All of these efforts are attempts to deal with the gaps in the text, understood in the broadest sense to include not just Paul's written words but also the culture, social world, and political realities surrounding them.

- From the Introduction