Paul remains one of the most complex, controversial, and influential figures in Christian history. His letters are our earliest written sources about Jesus and have profoundly shaped Christian belief and practice, yet they are also among the most challenging texts in the New Testament to interpret. In recent decades, historians have reexamined nearly every aspect of the traditional understanding of Paul, suggesting that his message was not simply misunderstood but turned upside down. We’ll place Paul in his historical, literary, and surprisingly complicated social and religious contexts and work toward reading his letters as they would have been understood by their original audiences.