Journal of Biblical Literature
“Gathercole has offered a stimulating study that makes an important contribution to an ongoing debate that may perhaps, with the aid of commendable efforts like his own, enter into new and more fruitful stages of discussion.”Evangelical Quarterly
“The volume is important for our understanding of the theology of early Judaism, for Pauline exegesis and theology and for New Testament theology in general. . . . Well written and persuasive.”

Bibliotheca Sacra
“Lucid, evenhanded, and helpful for any student of Jewish and Pauline soteriology.”

Peter Stuhlmacher
“Simon Gathercole’s new book is well worth reading. A solid piece of work, it enriches Pauline scholarship in at least three ways. First, the book offers the first monographic investigation of Paul’s use of kauchēsis/kauchasthai (‘boasting’) in Romans 1-5 in more than three decades, thereby filling a real gap in the research of the opening chapters of Romans. Second, by taking issue in a fair-minded way with the chief representatives of the ‘New Perspective’ on Paul (E. P. Sanders, James D. G. Dunn, and N. T. Wright), Gathercole demonstrates that already before the rabbis, a long succession of early Jewish authors advocated a soteriology resting on two principles — the principle of election and redemption on the one hand, and the principle of recognizing righteous deeds according to the measure of the law on the other. Paul takes critical issue with this view. Finally, Gathercole’s book stimulates one to rethink, on the basis of the original texts, the anthropological bases of the Pauline and early Jewish expectations of salvation and the question of the assurance of salvation.”