Skip to Main Content

New Testament Courses: NT221: Reading Paul's Letters

A resource guide for students in New Testament courses.

Course Description

"In this course, students are introduced to the earliest textual tradition of Christianity through the literature of the Apostle Paul. Students will grow in their understanding of who Jesus is as well as their ability to interpret the bible by attending to its literary, historical, and theological character." 

This guide provides resource ideas and direction for the History of Interpretation Exegesis Paper as well as the Greek Word Study.

Information on NT 221 taken from course syllabi created by Dr. Tyran Laws

Patristic Period

Other commentaries from Ancient Christian Texts (ACT) include Commentaries on Romans and 1-2 Corinthians and Commentaries on Romans, 1-2 Corinthians, and Hebrews (eBook). Other commentaries from the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (ACCS) include 1-2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1-2 Thessalonians, 1-2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Romans and Hebrews. Titles from this series are also found in our Ebsco eBooks Collection.

Online resources

Word Study Resources

These resources live in our reference collection, so they cannot be checked out. During the term NT 221 is running, they can be found behind the circulation desk for easy access.

Greek Alphabet

Image: Sketchplanations
CC BY-NC 4.0 DEED 
Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International

Medieval Age

Tips for finding the full-text

While the ACCS, RCS, and ACT series can be great starting points, they only provide a snippet of the full original text! Unfortunately, not all passages will have a fully translated version, so you might be stuck with just the portion available in the commentary. Here are a couple of (hopefully) helpful tips to find the full text:

  • Use the information provided in the ACCS, RCS, and ACT entries (the author and original text titles) as your search terms in the library, online databases (make sure you select the "Religion eBooks Collection," or (if absolutely necessary) on Google. 
  • Search the catalogue for the original author to see if the library has any items with full texts by that author 
  • Search the author and the passage or book of the Bible
  • Follow or search relevant subject terms on suggested books (such as "Christian literature, early")
  • Other modern commentaries may also include parts of ancient, medieval, and reformation texts. You can also check their reference lists to see where the modern commentary got the full text. 

Perlego Resources

Protestant Reformation Period

Calvin and Luther's commentaries are full sets, but Luther does not cover all of Paul's letters. Of Paul's letters Luther includes Lectures on Galatians, 1535, chapters 5-6 ; Lectures on Galatians, 1519, chapters 1-6Lectures on Titus, Philemon, and HebrewsLectures on Galatians; and Lectures on Romans. There are also some individual commentaries outside of these sets. Search "Calvin Commentaries" or "Luther Commentaries."

Other commentaries from Reformation Commentary on Scripture (RCS) include Hebrews, JamesRomans 1-8 and Romans 9-16. This series is also available in the Ebsco eBook collection.

Full Text Resources - Online Resources

ACCS, ACT, and RCS series

You can also check the "Bibliography of Texts in English Translations" at the back of the ACCS and RCS series. You may be able to find those sources through Perlego, the library catalogue, or EBSCO eBooks (the yellow "eBooks" button on the library homepage).