Joseph R. Dobson, Paul the Rabbi Philosopher: Stoic and Jewish Philosophy in the Apostle’s Thought (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2026)

In this work, Dobson’s goal is to move beyond the divide that has long plagued scholarship of parsing out and dividing St. Paul’s thought into Greek and/or Jewish categories by arguing that the apostle is at the same time a Jewish rabbi and a Greek philosopher. In his words, “Paul represents a multidimensional, culturally impacted author who strategically utilizes the common vernacular, philosophies, and stories surrounding him to communicate the good news to all people in relatable, understandable, and authentic ways” (6). 

To accomplish this end, Dobson divides his work into an introduction, two parts each with five chapters, a postscript, an appendix, and a bibliography. In the introduction (“Introduction: Paul, the Man of Twists and Turns,” 1–7), Dobson lays out the above-mentioned goal and the book’s structure. The first part (“Paul the Rabbi and the Jewish Tradition”) introduces the Wisdom of Solomon (11–16) and contains five chapters that read St. Paul’s letter to the Romans alongside the Deuterocanonical work, the Wisdom of Solomon. In the first chapter (“Death, Sin, and the Devil in Wisdom and Romans,” 17–32), Dobson explores death, sin, and the devil in Wisdom and Romans, concluding that in the former death is a motivation to achieve salvation, while in the latter death explains that Christians already possess salvation. The second chapter (“The Cosmic Avenger and the Groaning Mother in Wisdom and Romans,” 33–44) examines how both Wisdom and Romans personify creation. In Wisdom, creation has fought and will continue to fight for God’s people, while in Romans she suffers with them until the eschaton. In the third chapter (“The Rebuking and Interceding Spirit in Wisdom and Romans,” 45–56), Dobson surveys the Holy Spirit in Wisdom and Romans, concluding that in the former the Spirit brings the sinful thoughts of humans before God, while in the latter the Spirit brings the prayers of Christians before God. The fourth chapter (“The Perennial Problem of Israel in Wisdom and Romans,” 57–72) chronicles the history of Israel in Wisdom and Romans. Dobson contends that in Wisdom wrath disassociates the Lord from punishing Israel and in Romans the Torah is disentangled from Israel’s salvation from it. In the fifth chapter (“The Intractable Problem of Evil in Wisdom and Romans,” 73–84), Dobson explores how Wisdom and Romans treat the rule of evil powers and the suffering of the righteous. 

The second part (“Paul the Philosopher and the Stoic Tradition”) contains an introduction to Seneca (87–90) and five more chapters in which Dobson compares St. Paul’s letters to the writings of the first century AD Stoic philosopher Seneca. In the sixth chapter (“The ‘Crucifixions’ of Seneca and Paul,” 91–104), Dobson examines Seneca’s metaphorical use of crucifixion in his On the Happy Life and the apostle’s use of it in Galatians, highlighting their similarities and most importantly for this chapter their differences. The seventh chapter (“Crucified Heroes: Seneca’s Regulus and Paul’s Christ,” 105–19) surveys Seneca’s treatment of the crucified general Marcus Atilius Regulus and St. Paul’s of Jesus the Messiah. In the eighth chapter (“Roman Feasts and Homoerotic Activities in Epistle 95 and Romans,” 120–34), Dobson reads Seneca’s invective against the degrading passions of humans in Epistle 95 with St. Paul’s in Romans 1 underscoring the similarities between the two accounts. The ninth chapter (“The Yonder Man and the Hypocrite in Epistle 59 and Romans,” 135–49) argues that Seneca’s Epistle 59 parallels St. Paul’s rhetorical hypocrite in Romans 2 and that in the latter the apostle “sounds just like the Stoics and that his diatribe fits their classic indictment of the pretentious philosopher” (138). In the tenth chapter (“The Curious Case of Apocalyptic Eschatology in Seneca and Paul,” 150–69), Dobson compares apocalyptic, by which he means works that “contain revelations of life after earth given by a celestial figure” (151), texts that are eschatological to the Senecan and Pauline corpora. 

The work’s final chapter (“Postscript,” 171–72) rearticulates Dobson’s thesis: that St. Paul is a diverse “figure who not only brings the divine message to humanity but is also able to adroitly twist and shift to faithfully interpret it to Gentiles, Romans, Greeks, and Jews” (171). And in its appendix (“Personification and Powers,” 173–77), Dobson provides a discussion of the apostle’s personification of powers. 

Paul the Rabbi is thoughtful, well-researched work that demonstrates in a sophisticated way the benefit of engaging with Jewish and pagan sources to illuminate early Christianity. It exemplifies the fruitfulness of such research that has moved beyond the older and outdated divide of whether a Jewish or pagan idea influenced St. Paul. As Dobson’s volume shows, the apostle was a Jewish rabbi and a Greek philosopher at the same time. Therefore, I recommend picking up your copy today from Hendrickson! 

I am grateful to Hendrickson for the gratis copy of this work, which in no way influenced my reading of it.