Popular translations of the Bible are too generic for anyone to reach a definitive interpretation and often perpetuate old concepts. Tim Seid takes a bold approach to Christian origins and offers fresh translations of the earliest of the New Testament authors.

In the first section of Rewriting Paul, Seid explains the foundation for a new understanding of Paul who remains a committed Jew but announces to the gentile peoples the good news that God has overlooked their sins because of the death of Jesus and has included them among the people of God. Paul writes letters of moral exhortation to household assemblies to encourage them to maintain their progress through philosophical practices to reach their greatest potential in a flourishing life.

Seid provides an overview of his interpretation of 1 Thessalonians, Galatians, Philippians, Philemon, and Romans based on his translations in appendix one. The paraphrase style of the translations helps the reader to see how to read Paul within this new interpretation.
 

 
About the Author
Tim Seid is an independent scholar and author. Tim grew up as a “preacher’s kid” and as a teen began to spend time in Dad’s study reading his books. A love of studying the Bible and ancient history and languages spurred him on to college, an M.A. from an evangelical Christian graduate school, and finally a Ph.D. from the Religious Studies program of Brown University. Along with him on this journey was his spouse and their five daughters. Tim served as a part-time pastor at two churches and worked in higher education as an administrator of a distance learning program for seventeen years. During that time he also had an appointment as Assistant Professor New Testament Studies and taught several classes a year.

Tim’s primary area of research is the apostle Paul. This is informed by two main approaches to Paul. One is the Radical New Perspective on Paul. The other is interpreting Paul within the context of Greco-Roman philosophy. Tim thinks that there could be a new reformation of Christianity by putting into practice the way in which he has interpreted Paul in his book “Rewriting Paul.” To this end he will be podcasting APeX Life (Ancient Philosophical Christianity) and developing the web site apexlifemedia.net.

Tim is semi-retired and caring for his spouse who has Multiple Sclerosis. In addition to his non-fiction, academic books, Tim has published a novel, “Catching Dreams and Letting Them Go,” about a man who creates an app to record dreams for the purpose of discovering the nature of dreams and dream-sharing while caring for his spouse who has MS.