Kirsopp Lake was a well-known New Testament scholar in his day, teaching at both University of Leyden and Harvard. Today, Lake's work is frequently cited in Bible dictionaries, encyclopedias, and theological journal articles dealing with Pauline studies.
The Earlier Epistles of St. Paul fills in the background details surrounding Paul's letters to the Thessalonians, Corinthians, Galatians, and Romans. Lake engages the "literary and critical questions introductory to these letters, concerning their integrity, destination, and history." He also explores the "intricate question of the world of religious thought to which the earliest Gentile Christians belonged—the world of the Hellenistic Mystery Religions."
There is enough demand for this classic title that new reprinted copies are available for about $30. Used copies run from $11 to $50.
Kirsopp Lake was a well-known New Testament scholar in his day, teaching at both University of Leyden and Harvard. Dr. Peter Toon writing in Who's Who in Christian History says of Lake, "In the study of Christianity's origins and in New Testament textual criticism, Lake was a pioneer." Today, Lake's work is frequently cited in Bible dictionaries, encyclopedias, and theological journal articles dealing with Pauline studies.
Additional Details
- Title: The Earlier Epistles of St. Paul: Their Motive and Origin
- Author: Kirsopp Lake
- Publisher: Rivingtons
- Date: 1911
- Pages: 466
- Electronic edition is available as a download only!
An interesting tale of how a Logos employee came to acquire this print edition while on a trip to South Africa can be found on his personal blog.
From the Preface to the Print Edition
"The difficulty which undoubtedly attends any attempt to understand the Epistles of St. Paul is largely due to the fact that they are letters; for the writer of a letter assumes the knowledge of a whole series of facts, which are, as he is quite aware, equally familiar to his correspondent and to himself. But as time goes on this knowledge is gradually forgotten, and what was originally quite plain becomes difficult and obscure; it has to be rediscovered from stray hints and from other documents by a process of laborious research, before it is possible for the letters to be read with anything approaching the ease and intelligence possessed by those to whom they were originally sent. It is necessary to reconstruct the story of the motive and origin of the letters, and create a picture of the background of thought and practice against which they were set in the beginning.
"The following pages are an attempt to do this for the earlier Epistles of St. Paul. I have not tried to give a description of St. Paul’s own thoughts—I trust that I may attempt this task later—but to reconstruct the background, a knowledge of which renders it possible to read the Epistles with intelligence..."
About the Author
Excerpted from Who's Who in Christian History
LAKE, KIRSOPP (1872-1946), Biblical scholar
Born at Southampton (England), Lake attended St. Paul’s School, London, and Lincoln College, Oxford. After ordination into the Church of England he was curate of St. Mary the Virgin, Oxford, from 1897 to 1904. There he began his career as an academic writer, publishing The Text of the New Testament (1900).
For the next ten years Lake was professor of early Christian literature at the University of Leyden (Holland), where he wrote more books, including The Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ (1907). In 1914 he crossed the Atlantic to become a professor at Harvard. He remained at that school until his retirement in 1938.
Perhaps Lake’s greatest contribution to learning was the series of volumes he wrote with F. J. Foakes-Jackson entitled The Beginnings of Christianity: Part 1; The Acts of the Apostles (1920-1923). In the study of Christianity’s origins and in New Testament textual criticism, Lake was a pioneer.
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