New Testament Archaeology - Paul the Tent-Maker

[Jona Lendering]

Four books that may be helpful, more on Paul than on tent making:

• Gedaliah Alon, The Jews in their Land in the Talmudic Age (1980): a masterpiece on Jewish life in general, written by a modern age sage
  Jonathan L. Reed: Archaeology and the Galilean Jesus (2000): the "Jesus" of the title is there because it sells better, in fact a good book on archaeology
  Bruce Malina and Richard Rohrbaugh: Social-Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels (1992) (there's a sequel on Acts; ignore occasional irrelevant digressions on "U.S. supported, continued Israeli brutality and inhumanity" etc)
  Ben Witherington III:The Paul Quest. The Renewed Search for the Jew of Tarsus (1998): a good discussion of the life and teaching of guess who

On the tent making: please note that Paul had the Roman citizenship and studied at the feet of Gamaliel, one of the most important Pharisaic teachers of his age. Paul was not poor; he must have owned something like a tent factory. Something similar can be said about Andrew and Peter: fishermen, certainly, but able to rent the right to fish in Lake Genesareth.