Chapter 4: Paul and His Gospels Summary and Analysis

With Chapter 4, Mack begins a section of the book called "Christ and the Hinge of History." This chapter, entitled "Paul and His Gospel," examines what can be told about the author, Paul, and his concept of Christianity, and how it affected the course of the development of the Christian tradition.

Several of Paul's writings are included in the present New Testament, but not all of the books attributed to him are by the same person. Paul was an educated Jew writing in the 50s C.E., and a Pharisee, a conservative group of Jews who actively persecuted the early followers of Jesus. Paul himself was an opponent of the early Christians, according to his own words, but then underwent a conversion and joined them.

One of Paul's primary concerns in his writing was...