St. Paul the Pharisee - with Fr. Stephen De Young

Fr. Stephen De Young is back on the channel to discuss his latest book, St. Paul the Pharisee. St. Paul is at the core of many modern misunderstandings about Christianity; Fr. Stephen presents how we can understand St. Paul’s writings within the context of who he was, when he lived, and who he was addressing in his epistles, ultimately bringing us closer to the vision Christ Himself gave us.

==========Book description==========
The centuries after the Protestant Reformation brought about a radical reinterpretation of the epistles of St. Paul, disconnected from any historical reality. But Paul operated, during his entire life, as a faithful Pharisee within the Roman Jewish world. In Saint Paul the Pharisee: Jewish Apostle to All Nations, Fr. Stephen De Young surveys Paul’s life and writings, interpreting them within the Holy Tradition of the Orthodox Church. This survey is followed by De Young’s interpretive translation of St. Paul’s epistles, which deliberately avoids overly familiar terminology. By using words and ideas grounded in first-century Judaism, De Young hopes to unsettle commonly held notions and help the reader reassess St. Paul in his historical context.

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==========Timestamps==========
00:00 - Coming up
01:13 - Intro music
01:38 - Introduction to St. Paul and Contextual Understanding
06:16 - Settling the "works vs faith" debate
13:06 - St. Paul and the Gospels: A Unified Message
15:37 - Scholasticism vs Mysticism
20:17 - The Transformation of Society through St. Paul's Vision
24:19 - Slavery and Christian Ethics in St. Paul's Writings
32:34 - The Kingdom of Heaven is already here
38:15 - Hierarchy bad
39:58 - The core of St. Paul's teachings: Faithfulness
41:34 - The Call to Individual Purpose
46:32 - The Nature of Christian Hierarchy
51:32 - St. Paul: Context and Misunderstandings
56:03 - Keeping Jewish practices
01:04:56 - The Sabbath
01:05:50 - Tradition preserves context
01:11:08 - Understanding St. Paul: A Personal Connection

[JustJordan]

Father Stephen was on the Transfigured Life channel talking about Paul and I was blown away then and still blown away today at his knowledge. His parishioners are blessed to have this man.

[zacharycable]

I live in a small town with a christian college and over 60 churches, I've been trying to find one that I can at least tolerate enough to become part of the community and I've been struggling. At the same time, I have been thinking a lot of St. Paul and how interpretations about his letters are so varied even within protestant circles, and I'm noticing very strained attempts to interpret his words in a protestant way at each church I go to. Next week I am planning to go to the nearest orthodox church which is about a half hour away, and this conversation is convincing me already that this is the right decision.

[vespersongs]

As a Jewish-background Orthodox Christian, I can say that voices like Fr. Steven's are really rare and much appreciated. There is so much that needs to be done on this subject—so much misunderstanding, talking *about* people and not talking *with* them, and vast amounts of biblical and historical ignorance. THANK YOU Fr. Steven for writing this book—I'm ordering it NOW!

[lounaannajung]

At around 43:45 it reminded me of an article I read a while back about how my country (Algeria) lost Orthodoxy. One theory that is proposed in the article was the absence of Monastic communities in Algeria prior to the Arab invasions.
If we had established Monastic communities, the Alagerian Orthodox community will always be tied to that land. But because of their absence, when the persecution didn't stop, the Orthodox Christians had to flee to neighboring countries and the communities grew smaller and weaker until they completely died off. When the Roman Catholic tried to convert my country again, that version of Christianity seemed too strange and different for the Algerian society. Now we're stuck. People like me have to get out of Algeria to even be baptized. But nothing is impossible with our Lord. May He make Algeria Orthodox (again) ❤

[josephaggs]

My messianic Jewish friends will need to see this . Some reject Paul altogether for this reason

[FaithEncouragedTV]

I hate it when you guys uncover my weaknesses publically. 😇😎Lord, have mercy!

[shotinthedark]

You have no idea how timely this is in my world.

[stevennewberg]

Dear Orthodox Friends, I love you.
“do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you.”

I remain infinitely grateful for your wisdom and excited for the unity that i believe may be possible for our Lord’s church, thanks to your faithfulness.

[michaelmethexis]

The book changed the way I read not just St. Paul but the whole Bible. Thank you Fr. Stephen!

[Nate_Higgins]

An enlightening conversation. I recently bought myself a Pageu print showing the cosmic victory of Jesus for my birthday. It is enlightening my home. Thank you, sir, for sharing the light.

[JacobLehman-oveu]

This appears to me, a very concise dismantling of Calvinist arguments. I'll pick this up and read it through because if this is true it definitely creates a clear issue with my current beliefs, as a baptist version of Calvinism.

[theeliteelite]

Good timing. I’m actually in the middle of Father Stephen’s book right now.

[kevinjohnson]

This was profoundly impactful for me. Within the first 5min I had already shared the link with five family members and friends because I immediately felt the message resonating. I had an accurate premonition about where the conversation was going..

This truely marks a moment of profound change in my life.

You guys addressed the topics I'm currently working through with such exact precision and pointed clarity..

This exact conversation is so significant and timely for me. The way you guys handled this sensitive subject matter and parsed it out with such neuance.. this is so timely, profound and significant for me on so many levels, I can't even overstate this

[johnsalamito]

As a Catholic, it drives me nuts when protestants misunderstand “works of the law“. Sometimes I think it is wilful ignorance. William’s explanation that works of the law is really the words of Torah is just brilliant! Thank you.

[HaydenG_]

Hearing Jonathan point out the flaw in the sola scriptura way of thinking which cherry picks verses and projects them onto the entirety of the cosmos is so validating. I had a conversation with a calvinist protestant who was trying to explain why I should believe in total depravity, and his argument essentially consisted of picking out a couple verses that seem to suggest something like total depravity, and then extrapolating the doctrine from there ( the verses were Jeremiah 17:9, Psalm 51:5, John 3:19, Romans 3:10-18 for those curious). The problem with sola scripture is that the "pure meaning" of the text as intended by God does not exist in any practical way. The only way we can ascertain meaning from text is through some interpretative framework, which necessarily brings to bear an individual's bias.

[EmbracingTradition]

Two of my favorite orthodox in one place! Dreams come true! lol 😂

[JessieJoseph-yw]

What a pleasant surprise. Love Fr. Stephen!

[tonyl]

A conversation with Catholics Pitre or Barber or Matthew Thomas, who share similar views, would have been great.

[feeble_stirrings]

Fascinating interview. Could have been 3 times as long and I"d be here for it.

[NdxtremePro]

2 of my favorite podcasters, and its for a reason. Listening to you 2 is enlightening.
Together, you cover the 2 types of minds we have, covering and connecting what doesn't make sense to me immediately.