The following pages are intended to furnish a survey of the work which has been done in recent years upon the subject "Paul and Hellenism." I have, however, not merely endeavored to enumerate a list of books with their contents, but, in so far as space permitted, I have set forth the problems themselves and their possible solutions. The subject "Paul and Hellenism" seems to me beyond question to designate the field in which the chief problems of Pauline study for the future lie.

I have confined myself to the consideration of German works. This, indeed, is not to be taken to mean that nothing worthy of mention in this field is done outside of Germany. Certainly much valuable work is being done in Anglo-Saxon lands. One readily thinks of many items in W. M. Ramsay's books, of P. Gardner's excellent exposition of The Religious Experience of St. Paul, or of the valuable investigation of the mystery-religions which is to be found in the researches of J. G. Frazer, R. R. Marett, and Miss Harrison. But I regard it as quite unnecessary for a German to bring English and American works to the attention of Anglo-Saxon readers. Moreover, English and American treatises are not so fully accessible to me as the German. And, finally, it is possible to set forth the problems and their solutions even if one restricts himself to the field of German

scholarship. On these grounds I would explain and excuse my provincialism.

Before taking up our specific subject one very important fact should be strongly emphasized. This fact is almost self-evident, yet it must ever be kept in mind when placing Paul into relation with his surroundings; that is, he cannot possibly be explained merely as a result of his environment. No man can be so explained, least of all a superior individual who has awakened to a selfconscious life of distinctive personality and who is inwardly aware of the mystery of his own person. Paul experienced God inwardly, and from the day of his vision on the way to Damascus the consciousness of being chosen and called of God dominated his life. In ecstasy, revelations, visions, voices, and intuitions which came forth from the obscurity of his consciousness God made himself known to Paul. The yearning and self-torture, the seeking after God, in which so many of the best of his countrymen remained involved, were for Paul quieted. Peace and grace and blessed assurance had been born within him, for God had spoken to him. To one who has had an inner religious experience it is not necessary to explain at length that personal religious life in its subtlest and yet strongest manifestations never can be derived merely from education and environment. On the contrary, in such an experience the soul in its deepest life touches God, and God speaks to the soul. And that which is true of the simplest life of an average man must be still more readily assumed in the case of a religious hero and leader such as Paul. But we must frankly recognize that scientific inquiry, which can indeed describe and in some degree explain, at this point ceases and here we must resort to intuition and interpretation of life's deepest mysteries.

Nevertheless any specific personal religious life, with its experiences and inner conviction, always clothes itself in the thoughtforms and language of a particular age. Every religious individual finds himself in a strong stream of tradition which in turn supports and enriches him, and if he wishes to exert an influence upon his contemporaries he must speak in words and accents intelligible to his own age. What are these links of attachment between Paul and his age?

In attempting to answer this question, one is confronted at the outset by the fact that Paul was a Jew. In this article, however, which is concerned in an especial way with Paul's Greek environment, I shall deal only very briefly with the question of his Jewish presuppositions. These presuppositions are perfectly familiar to any student.

Paul is a Jew, as he himself was keenly conscious "a Hebrew the son of a Hebrew, a Pharisee the son of a Pharisee." Paul grew up, and remained, within the rich religious tradition of his people. Their sacred writings, their method of interpretation, their religious instruction, their pious customs, and the ethical training of Judaism were from youth familiar to Paul, who was born in a Pharisean home and became prominent in the learning of the Pharisees. Yet we must not think that Paul's Jewish inheritance can be understood by looking solely to the Old Testament. This procedure was possible for students of an earlier age to whom post-exilic Judaism was virtually an unknown quantity. We now know that Judaism itself developed considerably in the centuries following the Exile and that it also was extensively and emphatically influenced by foreign religions and ways of thinking. We also know this later Judaism of the Hellenistic period from a number of sources, the most important of which are the so-called Apocrypha of the Septuagint, the extant apocalypses, and the writings of Philo. Even rabbinical tradition, as contained in the various strata of the Talmud, is to be drawn upon more than formerly. As aids to this study, besides Schürer's' great and well-known work, we may place Bousset's exceptionally valuable exposition' as well as certain sections from Wendland's book3 to which reference will later be frequently made. Much work, however, remains to be done in this field, although excellent treatments of individual questions have appeared. As early as 1893 R. Kabisch expounded the eschatology of Paul with the help of the material which contemporary

1 Geschichte des jüdischen Volkes (3 vols., 4th ed., Leipzig, 1901 ff.).

* Die Religion des Judentums im neutestamentlichen Zeitalter (2d ed., Berlin, 1906). 3 Die hellenistisch-römische Kultur in ihren Beziehungen zu Judentum und Christentum (2d ed., Tübingen, 1912).

4 Die Eschatologie des Paulus (Göttingen, 1893).

Judaism offered. Brückner undertook a similar task for Christology,' and Everling and Dibelius3 interpreted the Pauline teaching about spirits and angels. These investigations, and others that might be mentioned, show a strong Jewish substratum, not only in the realm of Paul's religious ideas, but also in his religious feelings. To be sure, when we have attained an understanding of the distinctive Pauline teaching of justification by faith we have comprehended an essential-indeed the most essential-item in Pauline religion. Yet just as this central item certainly confronts us in a form conditioned by Paul's Jewish inheritance, so it is certain that in other respects his religion is to be understood in the light of the theology and practice of later Judaism.

The foregoing observations regarding the Jewish background of Pauline thought and feeling must inevitably have suggested further queries. What sort of a Judaism was it in which Paul grew up? Was it that of Palestinian Pharisaism? Does not the tradition which placed Paul's birth and the most important years of his youth in Tarsus, and further, the language in which his extant letters are written, testify that Hellenism, the dominant worldculture of his age, must have exerted a decisive influence upon him? Can the apostle be properly classified when, as frequently happens, he is called a "Jew of genuinely Palestinian stamp," a “fullblooded Jew"? These questions suggest the problems which it is the chief purpose of this paper to discuss.

Paul designates himself a Hebrew the son of a Hebrew. Although his family lived in the Diaspora, Hebrew-that is, Aramaicwas the language of his home. Thus Paul's family was certainly consciously conservative, and the religious life of the home must have been conducted in the Aramaic, and partly also in the Hebrew, language. The data which Paul himself supplies make it clear that Aramaic was his mother-tongue.

But Paul's letters themselves immediately suggest a contradiction. These are written in Greek and Paul is fully master of the Koine language of his day. He must have learned it even in his

'Die Entstehung der Paulinischen Christologie (Strassburg, 1903).

Paulinische Angelologie und Dämonologie (Göttingen, 1888).

3 Die Geisterwelt im Glauben des Paulus (Göttingen, 1909).