What happened in the last few years of Paul's life? Did he ever get to Spain? How and why did he die? Were his plans fulfilled or frustrated? How should we interpret our scant sources? And what light can be shed on these matters by the social, historical, and legal context of Paul's life? In this fresh investigation of the central historical questions, a group of leading international scholars bring together their collective expertise on the apostle Paul and on the Roman, Jewish and early Christian worlds in which he lived and died. Through new scrutiny of all the key sources, a number of fresh questions and hypotheses are developed, with wide significance for all who wish to know about the climactic and traumatic final years of Paul.

Contributors: Loveday Alexander, John Barclay, Angelo di Berardino, Reimund Bieringer, August Borrell, Juan Chapa, John Cook, Jorg Frey, Daniel Gerber, Erich Gruen, Wolfgang Grunstaudl, Jens Herzer, Friedrich W. Horn, Christos Karakolis, Peter Lampe, Daniel Marguerat, Valerio Marotta, Tobias Nicklas, Karl-Wilhelm Niebuhr, Peter Oakes, Heike Omerzu, Romano Penna, Armand Puig i Tarrech, Michel Quesnel, Rainer Riesner, Bernardo Santalucia, Udo Schnelle, Glenn E. Snyder, N.T. Wright