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Review of the Book Paul Apostle of the Heart Set Free

by Wayne Stahre  
7/13/2007 / Book Reviews

Paul, Apostle of the Heart Set Free, by F. F. Bruce is a well known work on the life of the Aposlte Paul and his contribution to the New Testament. It appears to derive its title from 2 Cor 3.17. Bruce has the following quote on page 21: "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there the heart is free." This is the first of many problems with this book. It is not an accurate quote of the verse which actually reads: "Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."(NASB). I checked other versions and was unable to find one which translated the verse as quoted by Bruce. In fairness Bruce did not cite the version he quoted (in my opinion that is another failure on his part) so he may have the quote correct, but misquoting, or failing to provide a reference for a quotation which is apparently seminal to his tome at best demonstrates inattention to detail and at worst deliberate modification.

This is unfortunate as I approached this book with a fair degree of anticipation. I was looking forward to learning about Paul and his influence on the early church. My pastor had advised me that Bruce was pedantic but that did not discourage me as my favorite authors are A. W. Pink, and Alfred Edersheim, both of whom are easily characterized by that adjective.

For me, the fatal flaw in the book occurs on page 188 where Bruce writes:
"To keep the whole law was no easy task, but it was not impossible. The rich man who assured Jesus that he had kept all the commandments of the Decalogue from his youth was no hypocrite, and no more was Paul when, looking back on his earlier life from the perspective of twenty to thirty years' Christian experience, he says that "as to righteousness under the law" he was "blameless" (Phil 3.6),"

Fundamental to the need for the cross is the fact that no one can live a blameless life ...a life without violating the law. If it was possible to do so, even for one person, then Jesus did not need to die on the cross for our sins. Bruce appears to strike at the heart of this fundamental doctrine of Christianity. I disagree with Bruce on this. [Strike one]

It is hard to understand Bruce's position. I cannot recall another instance of a commentary that concluded that the RYR (as LRU Professor Hal M. Haller calls him in his article: "Did the Rich Young Ruler hear the Gospel According to Jesus?") was correct in his assertion. In fact, Professor Haller says in the cited article: "...[it] is impossible to ... keep the law continuously and perfectly, ...no sinful son of Adam could possibly do [so]."

On page 340, while recounting the story of Eutychus from Acts 20.9, Bruce says of this account that Eutychus was not dead but merely knocked unconscious by the three story fall and far from performing a miracle, Paul merely revived Euthychus "(perhaps performing some form of artificial respiration)". This statement severely troubled me as I tried to remember, without success, if Bruce had mentioned any miracles in the preceding 328 pages. I disagree with Bruce's conclusion on this event. [Strike 2]

Then on page 373 commenting on Acts 28.3-6, Bruce comments in a footnote that there are no poisonous snakes on Malta today and goes on to cite W. M. Ramsey suggesting that the snake Paul encountered was not poisonous either. Based on his comments regarding this and the incident with Eutychus I do not think that Bruce believes that miracles are possible. I disagree with Bruce on this item. [Strike 3]

One item which Bruce presented on page 108 which I did not know before was that the reason that Jesus sent out the seventy in Luke 10.8, was that it was believed that there were seventy nations in the world.

I am not a new Christian. I have been studying the Bible and reading related books for 30 years. Much of the information in this book is, of necessity, based on speculation by the author. For that reason, the author must have the trust of the reader. When the author betrays either bias or error regarding facts which I as the reader have knowledge of, he loses credibility to be trusted in correctly relating information which I do not know. The problems cited above are not a complete list of the issues with this book. However, they are sufficient for me to go against the majority opinion. Based on the above I believe this book to be an unreliable source of information.

Bruce, F. F., Paul Apostle of the Heart Set Free, 1977 The Paternoster Press Ltd., Paperback edition 2000 William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

"Did the Rich Young Ruler hear the Gospel According to Jesus?"
By Hal M. Haller, http://www.faithalone.org/journal/2000ii/Haller.htm

Copyright 5/26/07
By Wayne Stahre
[email protected]
Currently working on MA in Ministry/Christian Studies at Luther Rice University

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