Background
Gager was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1937.
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John Gager
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From Yale University and his Doctor of Philosophy from Harvard University.
Career
The Gager family"s roots in New England reach back to the arrival of John Winthrop and the "Winthrop Fleet" at what became the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630. Gager joined the faculty of Princeton University in 1968 as an assistant professor in the Department of Religion, having previously taught at Haverford College. After studying at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, Gager went on to receive his Bachelor of Arts and M. Division.
Gager undertook additional studies at the Sorbonne in Paris and at the University of Tübingen in Germany.
Professor Gager is also an avid rock climber, kayaker, and cyclist. From Library Journal on "Reinventing Paul:" Traditionally, biblical scholars have held that Paul taught that the Church replaced the Jews as those now in covenant with God and that Paul thought the Law was no longer binding.
Gager sees this as a complete misunderstanding that can be cleared up if we recognize that Paul"s teachings on these issues were meant for Gentiles only. He then shows how passages in the New Testament books of Galatians and Romans can be interpreted very differently when his Gentile audience is kept in mind.
This informed and revolutionary view of Paul"s thought will become one of the central books of modern scholarship on this subject." Gager"s work on curse tablets or defixiones in his book Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World is some of the best in this field
Views
"Gager (religion, Princeton) has written an articulate and well-documented presentation of a controversial but increasingly popular point of view in Pauline studies.
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Born
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Nationality
United States -
Religion
Judaist