Who were Paul's opponents? Were they one or were they many, depending upon the church concerned? These questions continue to be of interest to Pauline and other New Testament scholars, and are addressed in this volume of collected essays. Some of the essays are on specific books, such as Galatians, the Corinthian letters and Romans, while others treat broader issues in Paul's world.

Who were Paul's opponents? Were they one or were they many, depending upon the church concerned? These questions continue to be of interest to Pauline and other New Testament scholars, and are addressed in this volume of collected essays. Some of the essays are on specific books, such as Galatians, the Corinthian letters and Romans, while others treat broader issues in Paul's world.

Fourteen-year-old Lucas leads a lonely, monotonous life in the house of his unpleasant guardian until the unexpected arrival of an unusual little girl presages a series of events that completely change his life.

To develop a method for identifying Paul's opponents it is first necessary to analyse procedures used by previous scholars. Too little attention has been paid in the past to issues of method, and many procedures have been used which violate the canons of historical research. In the first place, limits should be set upon the use of historical reconstructions and of external sources, and the determinative source for identifying the opponents of any letter must be that letter itself. Secondly, a satisfactory method will analyse passages within the primary text according to the nature of the section (e.g. polemical or didactic) and the types of statements they contain (e.g. explicit statements about opponents or allusions to them). Then each combination of context and statement type is evaluated to determine (1) how certain we can be about whether the passage refers to opponents and (2) how much distortion is likely to be present. The application of the proposed method to the two letters within 2 Corinthians indicates that Paul faced the same group of opponents in both letters. These opponents were pneumatics who demanded a particular manner of life as evidence that a person possesses the measure of the spirit which makes one an apostle.

Fourteen-year-old Lucas leads a lonely, monotonous life in the house of his unpleasant guardian until the unexpected arrival of an unusual little girl presages a series of events that completely change his life.

Paul’s conflict with viscous enemies, human and otherwise, led him to employ efficacious powers, charismata (charismatic powers), and controversial and sometimes illegal practices that are only coherent when placed in context of the first century Hellenistic-Roman world. These included soul and spirit transportation, possession, and exorcisms, special techniques to repel demonic attack, as well as what was considered the darkest of black magic in the ancient world—the casting of death curses, which called on Satan to infect, harm, and even kill his enemies. All of these can be recovered in striking detail using risk analysis of his undisputed writings and comparing them with contemporary sources, papyri, and documents independent of the New Testament. The results demonstrate that Paul’s letters are so much more than simply intellectual and rhetorical correspondences—they are infused with dangerous mystical and charismatic powers feared in an ancient world that was saturated with prevalent, active dark forces and multi-layered human and supernatural conflicts; of angels and demons at war; of charismata and anathemata (deadly curses); and Paul’s expectation of the hemera kuriou, “Day of the Lord,” that would defeat Satan and the curse of death via pistis (faith) in the efficacious euangelion (gospel) of agape (love).

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