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The Bible’s Most Misunderstood Verse

When I was working as a bishop, interviewing clergy for parish jobs, one of the questions I would sometimes ask was, “If you could take one chapter of the Bible to a desert island, which would it be?” To make it more interesting, I would often add, “Let’s say you’ve already got Romans 8.” Otherwise […]

Into the Heart of Romans

On September 22, Tom Wright announced his new book, Into the Heart of Romans. In this announcement video, Tom shares how the book of Romans continues to surprise him and brings new discoveries even after working on Paul’s letter for fifty years. Free access to the first chapter is available here: https://zondervanacademic.com/leads/into-the-heart-of-romans Learn more: https://zondervanacademic.com/into-the-heart-of-romans

How Greek was Paul’s Eschatology?

How Greek was Paul’s Eschatology? Prof N. T. Wright (with G. van Kooten and O. Wischmeyer) St Mary’s College, University of St Andrews, KY16 9JU, Scotland [Originally published in New Testament Studies 61.2, 239-253, 2015. Reproduced by permission of the author.] Introduction Constraints of space dictate a brief summary of complex issues. We must avoid […]

Paul: A Biography

N. T. Wright’s latest book, Paul: A Biography, is coming out in February from Harper Collins.  This book provides an entry point for readers, summing up key parts of Paul’s life, analyzing his character, and presenting him as the extraordinary man he was.  It is an excellent introduction to Wright’s interpretation of Paul and a […]

Learning from Paul Together

LOI Theological Educators’ Consultation Selwyn College, Cambridge, 5 September 2017 ‘Learning from Paul Together: How New Insights into Paul’s Teaching can Help Move us Forward in Mission’  Rt Revd Prof N T Wright, University of St Andrews [Papers and Audio from the Lausanne-Orthodox Consultation are available at LOI 2017 website.] Introduction Thank you for your […]

Historical Paul and ‘Systematic Theology’

  Historical Paul and ‘Systematic Theology’ To Start a Discussion [A version of this article is published as ‘Historical Paul and “Systematic Theology”: To Start a Discussion’, pages 147-164 in Biblical Theology, ed. M. W. Elliott. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2016.] Theology Graduate Seminar, February 5 2014 Prof N T Wright Introduction Once upon […]

New Perspectives on Paul

Delivered at the Tenth Edinburgh Dogmatics Conference Introduction I am grateful for the invitation to this conference, and for the sensitive way in which the organisers responded to my comments on the initial outline of the programme. I am aware that fresh interpretations of Paul, including my own, have caused controversy in evangelical circles, and […]

The Letter to the Galatians: Exegesis and Theology

(Originally published in Between Two Horizons: Spanning New Testament Studies and Systematic Theology Joel B. Green and Max Turner, eds., 2000, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 205–36. Reproduced by permission of the author.) N. T. WRIGHT The dense and dramatic argument of Galatians excites and baffles by turns.  Sometimes perceived as a flamboyant younger sister of the […]

Paul and Caesar: A New Reading of Romans

(Originally published in A Royal Priesthood: The Use of the Bible Ethically and Politically, ed. C. Bartholemew, 2002, Carlisle: Paternoster, 173–193. Reproduced by permission of the author.) Introduction We have moved away quite rapidly in recent years from the old split, which was assumed by and built into the fabric of Western biblical studies, between ‘religion’ […]

Communion and Koinonia: Pauline Reflections on Tolerance and Boundaries

A paper given at the Future of Anglicanism Conference, Oxford, 2002. Introduction: Paul’s Context From the very beginning, the church was faced with the problem of different cultures coming together. Even in the earliest days, when all Christians were Jews, there were Greek-speaking Jews and Hebrew (or Aramaic-) speaking Jews, and problems arose between them. Even during the […]

An Evening Conversation on Jesus and Paul

On October 25, 2004, James D.G. Dunn and N.T. Wright had a two-part dialogue on Jesus and Paul in Durham, England. This a transcript of the dialogue, edited by Mark M. Mattison. Transcript: An Evening Conversation on Jesus and Paul (PDF 144 KB) Audio recordings: Jesus: Durham New Testament Seminar Paul: Durham New Testament Seminar

The Law in Romans 2

N.T. Wright Romans 2 is the joker in the pack. Standard treatments of Paul and the Law have often failed to give it the prominence that one might expect it to have, judging by its position within his most-discussed letter. But generations of eager exegetes, anxious to get to the juicy discussions that surround 3.19-20, […]

New Perspectives on Paul

Rutherford House, Edinburgh 10th Edinburgh Dogmatics Conference: 25–28 August 2003 N. T. Wright, Bishop of Durham I am grateful for the invitation to this conference, and for the sensitive way in which the organisers responded to my comments on the intial outline of the programme. I am aware that fresh interpretations of Paul, including my […]

Gospel and Theology in Galatians

(Originally published in Gospel in Paul: Studies on Corinthians, Galatians and Romans for Richard N. Longenecker, eds. L. Ann Jervis and Peter Richardson, 1994, pp. 222–239. Journal for the Study of the New Testament, Supplement Series 108. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press. Reproduced by permission of the author.) N.T. Wright The word ‘gospel’ has had a […]

4QMMT and Paul: Justification, ‘Works,’ and Eschatology

N. T. Wright Bishop of Durham [Auckland Castle, Co. Durham, DL14 7NR] Originally published in History and Exegesis: New Testament Essays in Honor of Dr E. Earle Ellis for His 80th Birthday, ed. Aang-Won (Aaron) Son (New York and London: T & T Clark 2006), 104-132. Reproduced by permission of the author. The topic of […]

Romans and the Theology of Paul

(Originally published in Pauline Theology, Volume III, ed. David M. Hay & E. Elizabeth Johnson, 1995, 30–67. Minneapolis: Fortress. Reproduced by permission of the author.) N.T. Wright Lichfield Cathedral A JEWISH THEOLOGY for the Gentile world, and a welcome for Gentiles designed to take the Jewish world jealous. That, I suggest, is what Paul offered […]

On Becoming the Righteousness of God

2 Corinthians 5:21 (Originally published in Pauline Theology, Volume II, ed. D. M. Hay: Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis, 1993, 200–208. Reproduced by permission of the author.) N.T. Wright 2 CORINTHIANS 5:21 poses several problems for the interpreter; I shall here focus on one in particular. What does Paul mean when he says “that we might become […]

Paul, Arabia, and Elijah (Galatians 1:17)

(Originally published in Journal of Biblical Literature vol. 115, 683–692. Reproduced by permission of the author) We don’t know, say most of the commentators, why Paul went to Arabia or what he did there. We aren’t even sure which bit of “Arabia” he visited. In what is, for Paul, an unusually long autobiographical section (Gal […]

The Paul of History and the Apostle of Faith

THE TYNDALE NEW TESTAMENT LECTURE, 1978 (Originally published in Tyndale Bulletin 29, 1978, pp. 61–88. Reproduced by permission of the author.) By N. T. Wright ‘Controversy’ writes Ernst Käsemann is the breath of life ‘to a German theologian’: and he should know. What he imagines the rest of us breathe he does not say: but […]

Two Radical Jews

a review article of Daniel Boyarin, A Radical Jew: Paul and the Politics of Identity. [1] (Originally published in Reviews in Religion and Theology 1995/3 (August), 15–23.  Reproduced by permission of the author) by N. T. Wright Lichfield Cathedral, England This is an incredible book.  I can’t believe the range, the skill, the chutzpah of it.  […]

Redemption from the New Perspective?

[69] Redemption from the New Perspective? Towards a Multi-Layered Pauline Theology of the Cross Originally published in Redemption, ed. S. T. Davis, D. Kendall, G. O’Collins (Oxford: OUP) 2006, 69–100. Original pagination is retained in bold italicized numbers. Reproduced by permission of the author. N. T. WRIGHT I INTRODUCTION Calling something ‘new’ is always risky, and […]

The Shape of Justification

(N.T. Wright, Bible Review, April 2001.  Reproduced by permission of the author.) A misunderstood term has caused great confusion in understanding Paul, and it’s time to get it right. Just before Christmas, Paul Barnett, an Australian bishop and a New Testament scholar, placed an article on his Web site entitled “Why Wright is Wrong.” (He […]

Paul and His Recent Interpreters

This companion volume to N. T. Wright’s Paul and the Faithfulness of God and Pauline Perspectives is essential reading for all with a serious interest in Paul, the interpretation of his letters, his appropriation by subsequent thinkers, and his continuing significance today. In the course of this masterly survey, Wright asks searching questions of all of the major contributors […]

Paul and the Faithfulness of God

This highly anticipated two-part fourth volume in N.T. Wright’s magisterial series, Christian Origins and the Question of God, is destined to become the standard reference point on the subject for all serious students of the Bible and theology. The mature summation of a lifetime’s study, this landmark volume pays a rich tribute to the breadth and […]

Pauline Perspectives: Essays on Paul 1978–2013

This companion volume to Paul and the Faithfulness of God and Paul and His Recent Interpreters brings together N.T. Wright’s most important articles on Paul and his letters over the last three decades. The book begins with Wright’s auspicious essay of 1978, when as a young, aspiring scholar, he gave the annual Tyndale lecture in Cambridge, and proposed, for […]

Paul in Different Perspectives

Delivered at Auburn Avenue Presbyterian Church (Monroe, Louisiana) Lecture 1: Starting Points and Opening Reflections Introduction Thank you for your warm welcome and generous hospitality. It is an enormous pleasure for Maggie and myself to be here in Monroe for the first time. I am particularly grateful to those who have worked very hard to […]

Paul’s Gospel and Caesar’s Empire

Written in Reflections, vol. 2, 1998 If Paul’s answer to Caesar is the empire of Jesus, what is an empire under the rule of this new lord? How does Paul’s gospel line up with Caesar’s empire? I am honoured to be lecturing in this famous institution, and my wife and I are deeply grateful for the […]