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Possibly Paul is the most complex biblical author. His letters were written in a complicated colloquial language. His arguments often ramble from one subject to another. The contrasts are almost always black-white: flesh as opposed to spirit, works/actions as opposed to faith, the Law of Moses as opposed to the Law of Christ, slavery as opposed to freedom, etc. How did Paul come to his theology? There is a romantic image of Paul. He is said to be born in a pious Pharisaic family and educated by the great Pharisaic scholar Gamaliel in Jerusalem. But this is hardly noticeable in Paul's letters. However, they show a lot of affinity with the Greek-Roman culture of those days. In Volume 1 of Paul's Youth and Early Years, titled Paul, a Hellenistic Jew?, the author discussed at some length Paul's education in a Hellenistic-Jewish milieu in the Greek Diaspora, and the influence this had on his seven authentic letters. In this second Volume (which could be read independently) the author investigates the broader Greek-Roman environment of Paul's youth. The book shows that Paul has been very much influenced by Greek-Roman culture. Afterall, Paul is a Roman name! The military, juridical and administrative Roman culture as well as the philosophical movements of Stoicism and Platonism - merged into Middle Platonism - have left their marks on his theology. But also the widespread mystery cults didn't pass Paul unnoticed. These four phenomena from Paul's time are explained, whereupon the author examines which traces they left in the letters. Then the image arises of Paul as a child of the Greek-Roman world. At a later age all these influences from his youth and early years have contributed to the development of his theology. By scrupulously reading Paul's letters against the Greek-Roman background of his cultural, philosophical and religious environment many difficult passages become quite understandable. The question whether Paul has preached the original doctrine of Jesus of Nazareth unchanged, is mentioned briefly in this book, but will remain open for further investigation. Dr. S.P. (Peter) van 't Riet (1948) studied Mathematics and Psychology at the Free University of Amsterdam and obtained his PhD in educational psychology. Until his retirement he worked as a teacher, researcher, director and professor in Higher Education. He published several books about the Jewish character of the New Testament. For more information about his publications, see his website www.petervantriet.nl.

Many scholars and readers of the Bible have a romantic image of Paul: born in a pious Jewish family, educated in Jerusalem at the feet of the famous Pharisaic scholar Gamliel and fluently speaking Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Latin. However, does this fit in with the data from the genuine letters of Paul? In this book the author shows that the above mentioned image of Paul is especially derived from the Acts of the Apostles, in which the evangelist Luke has adapted the image of Paul to his own almost Pharisaic idea of the messianic time. In contrast however, Paul himself presents a completely different Christology (doctrine about Christ) in his letters. His language and way of thinking are more cognate with the Hellenistic, Greek speaking Judaism of his days. The author discusses successively: 1) Hellenism, the dominant culture of the Greek-Roman world of those days; 2) the Hellenistic Judaism of the Diaspora, which differed greatly from the Aramaic Judaism of Jesus and his early disciples; 3) the Septuagint, the Greek Bible translation, which had already existed about 300 years in the days of Paul and which deviated in many respects from the Hebrew Bible. Next the author researches what of these three phenomena could be found in the letters of Paul. Which turned out to be a lot more than he presumed at the start of his research. The Hellenistic Judaism is so intertwined with Paul's thought that the most obvious conclusion is that Paul has spent his youth and early years in a Hellenistic-Jewish milieu. This background clarifies many difficult passages in the letters of Paul and leads to a better understanding of his theology.