This volume comprises a selection of exegetical, theological and academic studies on religion by Dieter Zeller that focus on Philo of Alexandria and his contemporary Paul. The essays all deal with key issues: on Philo they concern the question of God, his monotheistic belief in relation to the environment, his conception of life and death, whereby the essay on "The Life and Death of the Soul", the revised version of which is published here in German for the first time, is groundbreaking. The essays on Paulus discuss atonement through the death of Jesus, justification and its ethical consequences, the role of the law, Israel's position in salvation history and in the apostolic mission, and his own personal hopes. The volume thus gives an insight into the theological reflections of the two Jewish thinkers.The essays, written between 1978 and 2009, have been formally standardized and complement each other, so that the book can be read as a coherent whole.>