Welcome to the Study

This study of the life and ministry of the Apostle Paul is presented as an overview with the goal of introducing you to the basics of developing a rich understanding of this early Christian leader whose writings comprise nearly half of the twenty seven documents found in the Christian New Testament.

The objective is to enable you to acquire foundational understanding in how to develop a deeper awareness of the thinking of the apostle. Since the Englightment standardized approaches to the study of Paul have emerged. But now in the Post-Modern era, now ways to getting at his thought are emerging.

The study guide is designed for serious Bible students with a desire to go deeper into scripture study. Contemporary and historical scholarly insights will be treated in this study, but without overtly technical language. The footnotes in each study probe the text at the more scholarly level.

Work on the study guide progresses as we cover the materials during the Wednesday evening Bible study time at the International Baptist Church in Escazú, Costa Rica. The beginning of the study was in October 2011. No dead line is established for completing the study. The study group moves through the materials slowly and intentionally in order to understand as much as possible about the topic for the evening.

Two sets of materials are being produced for the study.

1) The background, in-debth commentary consisting of chapters with upwards of 150 pages each. These are detailed analysis of relevant scripture texts. This provides the background materials for the study. The pdf file for each study is hyperlinked in the left hand column.

2) A powerpoint notes handout for each of the Wednesday evening studies. These are available in the List of Topics page as pdf files.