The Life of St. Paul

by James Stalker, Wilbert W. White (Introduction)

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Genres: Christian, Biography, Christianity, Nonfiction, Church History, Religion, History

189 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1888

About the author

James Stalker (1848-1927) was a minister, lecturer and preacher for the Free Church of Scotland (United Free Church). He was educated at the University of Edinburgh, where he had a career of remarkable distinction, winning prizes in every class. He did especially well in philosophy, and gained the third place in English literature. He went on to New College to study for the ministry. Stalker also spent two summers in Germany where he attended Berlin and Halle, where he studied under Tholuck, Dorner, Weiss, Kostlin, Dillmann and Riehm.

Reviews

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

About 40-ish years ago, one of my Bible college professors made us buy this book. Then he told us we should read it, but would not be graded on it.

I immediately set it aside and did not pick it up again (except to add to a moving box now and then).

40-ish years later, my wife is making me downsize our stuff. I found the book in a box. It's fairly skinny, and I thought it would be a quick way to help reach my Goodreads goal of books to read this year.

Turns out, this is a terrific account of the life of (probably) the second most important person in the history of Christianity.

The author describes the places Paul went, the cultures and traditions of the times and integrates these into the narrative of his life (as we know it through the book of Acts and Paul's epistles). In doing so, he created a fascinating account, showing the likely thoughts and reasons behind his (and others') actions.

It's a skinny book, but it helped me understand much more about Paul's life and motives, as well as some of the conflicts and growing pains of the early church.

I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

[Amy Meyers · Rating 4 out of 5]

#LitLife192021 "A Literary Biography"
I started to read this with Seth, who said that Mark Minnick in his series on the Apostle Paul recommended this book as a must-read. It was excellent, and a quick, easy read. I enjoyed Pollock's bio of Paul better (it was more thorough and interesting overall), and this book also explains tongues in a charismatic way I wouldn't agree with, but I would recommend it for any Christian, especially those who will be teaching on Paul. The chapters on "His Great Controversy" and "the End" were especially moving.

[Bendick Ong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Did a module on the life and epistles of paul in seminary and this is the most enjoyable read in the textbooks list. 150 pages, a good summary of everything that has to deal with paul, complete with a guide for teachers and bible study group leaders.

[Randy Corn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I note in the opening page of this little book that I purchased it on 4/15/80. That means that it was a purchase from my time at Temple, though I have no actual memory of buying it. It also seems that I must have read through it or at least substantial portions, since there are many underlined passages. Once again, I have no real memory of working my way through the volume.

I recall that my theology professor at Temple, Mr. Winget, was quite high on James Stalker. I believe that I have both his commentary on Acts and his brief Life of Christ, as well as this volume.

I suppose this book could best be described as a broad survey of the life of Paul. The author does not go into detail on any particular aspect of the life of Paul. What’s more, this is not a scholarly volume where all of his sources are cited or counter arguments mentioned. That being said, I still think this would be an excellent volume for a student to read who was not familiar with the broad strokes of Paul’s life. I suppose Pollack’s book might do the same thing even better.

I enjoyed reading through this book. The author has a good command of the language and is a good representative of how many people wrote in the first half of the twentieth century. There is a sort of rhetorical flourish to his writing which is charming.

This is not the first book I would recommend on the life of Paul, but if one wanted to become thoroughly acquainted with the literature on Paul, I do think this would be one of the books that should be read.

[Khari · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good little book that helped me to understand Paul and his Epistles better.

It told the story of Paul's life while setting the scene of the kind of society that he was raised in. I learned a lot about Tarsus, Jerusalem and Rome that I never knew before reading this book.

The thing that really made me understand Ephesians better was finally realizing that it was written during/after his imprisonment in Rome. I never really made that connection before. In this book it was talking about the armor of God and how Paul would have had occasion to really know about the equipment of a roman soldier. I had always just accepted that it was a Roman soldier's armor, but, how would he have known about it? Did the average citizen really have time to get to know so well what roman soldiers were like? No. Probably just like today most people can't tell you what kind of clothing and weaponry and armor their soldiers use, they probably couldn't back then either. The reason Paul could was because he was under constant guard from these soldiers for at least four years. That kind of blew my mind. I somehow never realized it.

I think these kinds of books are really good because they humanize the people in the Bible for us. Paul seems like an author's disembodied voice, so it's good to put him in his context and see what kinds of things he struggled with and why he wrote what he did. It was really interesting and the book was very easy to read.

[Lillie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short little book is packed with information about the life of St. Paul. Much of it is derived from the book of Acts and Paul's epistles in the New Testament; some of it is from tradition. Acts ends with Paul imprisoned in Rome, but this book speculates that he was released from prison, later imprisoned again, and beheaded. What I found most fascinating was the author's perspective on Paul's life and ministry, especially his writings.

[Susan Molloy · Rating 3 out of 5]

🖍️ Interesting, yet 🌵 quite dry reading.

📕 Published in 1888.

જ⁀➴🟢The e-book version can be found on the Project Gutenberg website.
🟣 Kindle.
✴︎⋆✴︎⋆✴︎⋆✴︎

[Kingue Georges · Rating 5 out of 5]

A life lived for God

This concise note is eye opening on the life of Paul. Recommended to every student of the Bible. Praise God.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though it is a short account of Paul's life written for a popular audience, it is filled with great insights, and his description of Paul's gospel is spot on. This needs to be reprinted.

[Jeanne Modisett · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve read many commentaries over the years, I couldn’t quite finish this one. It was just too boring.

[Lauren Gurnee · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great insight into the life of Paul.

[Pete F · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book and so gave it five stars, which is very generous for me, especially for a book so old, because I usually find old books of theology and biography dreary. But although written in the language of a hundred years ago (it was originally published in 1912), and in a style possibly enthused by the Holy Ghost(!), I found it riveting. However, some of it must have been speculation. The historical St Paul, the Paul of the Bible and his theology can be gleaned from his epistles and the Acts of the Apostles, but there is stuff here that can only be conjecture based on what we know of him. For example, we don't know for sure of his fate. The final letters of Paul were written from prison, and the sudden end of Acts tells us he was placed under house arrest by the Romans where he lived for two years. It says nothing of his execution, so this can only be conjecture. Traditionally, he was thought to have been beheaded but there is no concrete evidence of this.

This criticism aside, it is one of the best biographies I have read in a long time. It looks at Paul the man, and his training to be a rabbi, and his pharisee years, his persecution of Christians, his conversion to Christianity, the time spent in Arabia (again, a subject of speculation, as there is very little about this in the New Testament), his work as an apostle, his missionary journeys, his letters (or epistles as they are referred to in the King James Version of the Bible and in this book), and the persecution by his fellow Jews and imprisonment by the Romans, his place in history and his character. As the author says, he must have had a strong character and constitution to withstand the punishments meted out to him and the imprisonments, not to mention his long journeys through Asia Minor, the Middle East and the Mediterranean countries.

Paul was very much a man of his time but also a man ahead of his time. His instructions on how women should conduct themselves sound quaint at best and bigoted at worst to modern sensibilities, and his denunciations of homosexual acts also sound bigoted to modern ears. But the Paul who was ahead of his time was a radical, who believed in the equality of Jews and Gentiles, who opposed circumcision, opposed the idea that Gentiles had to become Jews before they could become Christians, and whose attitudes to women, though seeming quaint today, were better than the attitudes prevailing at the time. Notwithstanding the aforementioned attitudes to homosexuality (note that I have used the word homosexuality rather than homosexuals), I greatly admire Paul. Without him there would be no Christianity, and no epistles, which are also great works of literature as well as being inspiration for Christians through the ages and around the world.

This book is a great introduction to the life of St Paul for its time. It is available as a free download on Kindle and also as an ebook on Project Gutenberg.

[Seth Meyers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Summary: When all the facts of Paul’s life are copiously and imaginatively combined from the pages of Acts and his epistles, divine providence and Christian character shine with a luster unlike any other chapter in history.

Stalker is imaginative, interesting, and Biblical. Short and warm.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just finished studying Acts at Bible Study Fellowship. So the story of Paul was very interesting.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun, whimsical view of what Paul's life was like, with so much speculation, it borders on historical fiction.

[Chris Comis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sound biblical chronology. Impressive.

[Scott Cedotal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fourteen of the twenty-seven books in the New Testament have traditionally been attributed to Paul. I was always curious about who really was St Paul; this book is a historical biography.