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Social-Science Commentary on the Letters of Paul. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2006. 417 pp. £13.78/$27.00.

Bruce J. Malina and John J. Pilch.

Nijay K. Gupta
Durham University
Durham, England, UK

'Of the writing of commentaries there is no end', so the saying goes. Other than new insights that either supplant or support the 'New Perspective on Paul', it seems that recent commentaries on the Apostle rehash the same issues in more or less the same way. Bruce Malina and John Pilch seek to refocus the conversation in Pauline circles through the lenses of anthropology and social psychology for the purpose of establishing the 'most culturally plausible interpretation of Paul's letters' (p. ix). The authors explain the necessity of such an approach by labeling the culture of the Paul's time as 'high context', where a particular group shared knowledge of the context of a discourse with little need for the communicator to make explicit exactly what he or she is talking about. The problem comes, they argue, when modern western readers have to 'fill in the gaps', lacking the same knowledge and assumptions of the original communicator and recipient(s).

The commentary narrows the focus to Paul's undisputed letters, dealt with in a hypothetical chronological order of when they were written: 1 Thessalonians, 1-2 Corinthians, Galatians, Romans, Philippians, and Philemon. After a brief introduction that lays the foundation for how the authors understand Paul and his context, textual notes on the NRSV text cover about three hundred pages. Subsequently, a section is devoted to 'Reading Scenarios' that provide a sort of dictionary of key concepts derived from social-scientific analysis and specifically relevant to Paul's 'authentic' letters.

The purpose of this commentary is admirable. It takes seriously how people in NT times understood themselves and interacted with the world around them. The 'Reading Scenarios' deal with invaluable topics such as 'Collectivistic Personality', 'Honor-Shame Societies', the 'Patronage System', 'Reciprocity', and 'Social Identity'. Although these issues (and many more) are integrated into the textual comments, the separate descriptions offer further clarity.

The above notwithstanding, several concerns warrant caution. First, Paul is not considered to be the apostle to Gentiles, but apostle to Israelites in non-Israelite locales. In large part, Malina and Pilch base this view on the notion that translating hellēn as 'Greek' is anachronistic since there was no Greek nation at the time. They argue, instead, that this word was used in Paul's context to mean 'civilized', or Hellenised. In order to maintain this view, though, Malina and Pilch must read certain passages in such a way that seems overly contrived (e.g. 1 Thess 1:9).

Second, the application of modern anthropological theories to ancient cultures can also seem methodologically suspect, as when Satan is described as a 'cosmic secret service agent' (45). In addition, the handling of 2 Corinthians is disconcerting, splitting the text into as many as five separate letters (or fragments) stitched together and claiming the support of 'most scholars' in this (134). Such an approach to 2 Corinthians betrays the evidence from early manuscripts that demonstrate its unity as well as more recent attempts to understand the epistle in light of ancient rhetorical style.

Finally, on a more practical note, the commentary lacks depth due to its attempt to cover seven epistles. The flow of the comments seems choppy, and because several kinds of comments appear repeatedly in each epistle, there is a good deal of repetition. This project may have been more successful as a series of commentaries on Paul.

In the end, this book will introduce students and NT enthusiasts to the social world of Paul and his readers and provide a fresh picture of how his letters may have been read by the original recipients. Additionally, the 'Reading Scenarios' make the work much more attractive as an ongoing reference resource.