To preach Him among the gentiles: a study of Paul’s missionary preaching according to his Epistles

Many have attempted to uncover or reconstruct Paul’s missionary message from various texts, chiefly Paul’s epistles and Acts. This study explores what of Paul’s missionary preaching we can uncover only from his epistles, but with reference to the secondary epistles and the Pauline tradition as presented in Acts. Following a review of the literature, a detailed examination is made of Paul’s word use in relation to his preaching. This includes words such as “gospel”, “word” and “mystery” and response words like “faith” and “repentance”. Attention then turns to specific summaries of the gospel in Paul’s epistles. These include 1 Thess. 1:9-10, 1 Cor. 1-2 and 15:3-5, Gal. 1:11-17 and Rom. 1:1-4. Included with the last passage is an exploration of the question of Romans itself being Paul’s gospel. The purpose of this thesis is to agree that there is one gospel/kerygma but that the expression of that changes with context. With unbelievers, the evidence would suggest that Paul preached the gospel in way that would most potently bring people to repentance and faith, but without compromising the truth of the message he presented. But with believers, the message became less (or non) negotiable and centred on the death and resurrection of Christ.