UNCA to Host Talk on Paul of Tarsus

UNC Asheville will host a talk on "Paul of Tarsus: Jewish Traitor, Jewish Dreamer?" by Walter Ziffer at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 23, at UNCA’s Owen Conference Center. Co-sponsored by UNCA’s Center for Jewish Studies and Religious Studies Program, the talk is free and open to the public.

Hundreds of books have been written about Paul of Tarsus, the first Christian theologian, whose legacy has been enormously important both for Christians and Jews. While Christians generally consider Paul to have been Christ’s most important apostle in terms of missionary work, Jews have often have dismissed him as an apostate who misrepresented Jesus’ teachings. The lecture will suggest that Paul can be best understood if both his Jewish and Greco-Roman background is considered while understanding Paul as a Jew who was concerned for the world he lived in.

Ziffer was born in Czechoslovakia and educated at Vanderbilt University, the Graduate School of Theology at Oberlin College and the University of Strasbourg in France where he earned a doctorate. He has taught in a number of international institutions of higher learning, as well as UNCA. Ziffer is author of more than 50 articles on theology and Bible study and the 1990 book "Teaching of Disdain," which traces the New Testament origins of anti-Semitism.

For more information, call UNCA’s Center for Jewish Studies at 828/251-6576.

Media Contacts:

• Dr. Rick Chess, UNCA Center for Jewish Studies Director, 828/251-6576
• Jill Yarnall, UNCA Public Information Assistant Director, 828/251-6526