Paul Among the Gentiles: A "Radical" Reading of Romans

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Jacob P. B. Mortensen. Paul Among the Gentiles: A "Radical" Reading of Romans

Inhalt

Geleitwort aus dem Kreis der Herausgeberinnen und Herausgeber

Preface

Introduction

1 The State of the Research – the radical new perspective. Introduction

History of research

Scholarly predecessors to the radical perspective. Franz Mussner, Krister Stendahl, John Gager

Lloyd Gaston

Stanley Stowers

The ‘actual’ radicals

Mark Nanos

Paula Fredriksen1

Runar Thorsteinsson

Caroline Johnson Hodge

Pamela Eisenbaum

Critical evaluation of the radical perspective: T.L. Donaldson and A. Wedderburn

Evaluation and task

2 Terminology: Jews, Gentiles, Christians, or something else? Introduction

Caroline Johnson Hodge

Joshua Garroway

Paula Fredriksen

Mark D. Nanos

Paul’s (and Peter’s) identity

Concluding remarks and evaluation

3 Introductory Questions – Gentile addressees. A real letter (epistolography)1

The integrity of the letter

A 14-, 15-, or 16-chapter version of Romans

Place of writing

Addressees, audience, recipients: external versus internal evidence

A Gentile audience

Some Jews after all…?

The Gentile identity of ‘the strong’ and ‘the weak’

Jews in chapter 16

The occasion and purpose of Romans – some preliminary insights

4 A fictive Gentile interlocutor – προσωποποιία. Paul’s educational background

Προσωποποιία

Προσωποποιία continued

The significance of προσωποποιία – literature and life, or rhetoric and realism

5 Romans 1:18–32. Introduction

Ethnic Stereotypes – a modern perspective

Stereotyping in Antiquity

Stereotyping in Paul’s practices

‘Us’ – the Jews

‘Them’ – the Gentiles

Continuity from chapter 1 to chapter 2

6 Romans 2:1–29. Romans 2:1–5

Judgement and justification – justice and mercy

Linguistic, stylistic, structural, and grammatical continuity in 2:1–16

Romans 2:17–24

Rom 2:25–29

Continuity from chapter 2 to chapter 3

7 Romans 3:1–31. Rhetorical strategy of chapter 3

Romans 3:1–8

Romans 3:9–20

Romans 3:21–26

Romans 3:27–31

Continuity from chapter 3 to chapter 4

8 Romans 4:1–25. Romans 4:1–12

Romans 4:13–25

9 Romans 5:1–21. Adam, but not anthropology

Romans 5:1–11

The qal wa-chomer reasoning

Continuity between 5:1–11 and 5:12–21

Genesis 2–3 in Old Testament exegesis

Second Temple parallels: Adam’s actions are not considered in a negative way

Sin and evil

Sin and Gentiles

First probing – the limitations of the analogy: Romans 5:12–14

The perception of Adam in Second Temple Jewish literature is specifically positive

God’s benevolence is greater than his punishment

Romans 5:14c–17

Adam and Christ compared

Romans 5:12–21 in a broader perspective

Continuity between Romans 5 and 6–7

10 Romans 6:1–7:6. Gentiles in chapter 6

Already walking in the newness of life, but also not yet

The question, meaning, and function of baptism in 6:1–14

Romans 6:1–14

Romans 6:15–7:6

11 Romans 7:7–25. Romans 7:7–25

Sin, the (Mosaic) law, and another law

Romans 2 and 7 – an inversion

Recapitulating the interpretation of 7:7–25

Continuity between chapter 7 and chapter 8

12 Romans 8:1–39. Romans 8:1–17

Roman socio-legal practices concerning adoption (of ex-slaves)

Adrogatio and adoptio

Social distinctions and status-consciousness within the Roman family and society

The adoption metaphor in Romans 8:15

The relation of υἱοθεσία in 8:15 to υἱοθεσία in 9:4

The relation of 8:12–17 to 8:18–30 and the question of continuity

Romans 8:18–30

Romans 8:31–39

Continuity from chapters 6–8 to 9–11

13 Romans 9–11. Introduction

Rhetorical strategy

Authorial voice and the ‘I’ of chapters 9–11

Romans 9:6–29 – God has not rejected Israel

Romans 9:30-10:21 - Christ is the goal of the law for Gentiles

Works-righteousness or a righteous law – the problem of νόμος δικαιοσύνης

The stumbling stone

Christ as τέλος of the law for Gentiles

Christ fulfils the law

Romans 11:1–10 – God’s unbroken fidelity to Israel

Romans 11:11–24

Romans 11:17–24 – the olive tree metaphor

Romans 11:25–32 – the ‘mystery’ and the Sonderweg interpretation in 11:25–26

The problem of οὕτως

Romans 11:25–32 resumed

14 Romans 12–15 and the relationship between theology and paraenesis. Introduction

Romans 12:1–2

Romans 12:3–21

Romans 13:1–7

Romans 13:8–14

The ‘strong’ and the ‘weak’ in 14:1–15:6

The (Mosaic) law in 14:1–15:6

A perspective on the (Mosaic) law from inside and outside the covenant

Could ‘the strong’ and ‘the weak’ be proselytes and/or God-fearers?1

Why does Paul’s position vacillate with regard to the ‘strong’ and the ‘weak’?

Romans 15:7–13 – Christ as servant of the circumcision to the Gentiles

Conclusion

Recapitulation of interpretative findings

The achievements and limitations of my interpretation

Bibliography. Sources

Secondary Literature

Fußnoten. Introduction

Introduction

History of research

Franz Mussner, Krister Stendahl, John Gager

Lloyd Gaston

Stanley Stowers

The ‘actual’ radicals

Mark Nanos

Paula Fredriksen

Runar Thorsteinsson

Caroline Johnson Hodge

Pamela Eisenbaum

Critical evaluation of the radical perspective: T.L. Donaldson and A. Wedderburn

Evaluation and task

Introduction

Caroline Johnson Hodge

Joshua Garroway

Paula Fredriksen

Mark D. Nanos

Paul’s (and Peter’s) identity

Concluding remarks and evaluation

A real letter (epistolography)

The integrity of the letter

A 14-, 15-, or 16-chapter version of Romans

Addressees, audience, recipients: external versus internal evidence

A Gentile audience

Some Jews after all…?

The Gentile identity of ‘the strong’ and ‘the weak’

Jews in chapter 16

The occasion and purpose of Romans – some preliminary insights

Paul’s educational background

Προσωποποιία

Προσωποποιία continued

Introduction

Ethnic Stereotypes – a modern perspective

Stereotyping in Antiquity

‘Us’ – the Jews

‘Them’ – the Gentiles

Continuity from chapter 1 to chapter 2

Romans 2:1–5

Judgement and justification – justice and mercy

Linguistic, stylistic, structural, and grammatical continuity in 2:1–16

Romans 2:17–24

Rom 2:25–29

Rhetorical strategy of chapter 3

Romans 3:1–8

Romans 3:9–20

Romans 3:21–26

Romans 3:27–31

Romans 4:1–12

Romans 4:13–25

Adam, but not anthropology

Romans 5:1–11

The qal wa-chomer reasoning

Continuity between 5:1–11 and 5:12–21

Genesis 2–3 in Old Testament exegesis

Second Temple parallels: Adam’s actions are not considered in a negative way

Sin and evil

Sin and Gentiles

First probing – the limitations of the analogy: Romans 5:12–14

The perception of Adam in Second Temple Jewish literature is specifically positive

God’s benevolence is greater than his punishment

Romans 5:14c–17

Romans 5:14c–17

Adam and Christ compared

Gentiles in chapter 6

Already walking in the newness of life, but also not yet

The question, meaning, and function of baptism in 6:1–14

Romans 6:1–14

Romans 6:15–7:6

Romans 7:7–25

Sin, the (Mosaic) law, and another law

Romans 2 and 7 – an inversion

Recapitulating the interpretation of 7:7–25

Continuity between chapter 7 and chapter 8

Romans 8:1–17

Roman socio-legal practices concerning adoption (of ex-slaves)

Adrogatio and adoptio

Social distinctions and status-consciousness within the Roman family and society

The adoption metaphor in Romans 8:15

The relation of υἱοθεσία in 8:15 to υἱοθεσία in 9:4

The relation of 8:12–17 to 8:18–30 and the question of continuity

Romans 8:18–30

Romans 8:31–39

Introduction

Rhetorical strategy

Authorial voice and the ‘I’ of chapters 9–11

Romans 9:6–29 – God has not rejected Israel

Works-righteousness or a righteous law – the problem of νόμος δικαιοσύνης

The stumbling stone

Christ as τέλος of the law for Gentiles

Christ fulfils the law

Romans 11:1–10 – God’s unbroken fidelity to Israel

Romans 11:11–24

Romans 11:17–24 – the olive tree metaphor

Romans 11:25–32 – the ‘mystery’ and the Sonderweg interpretation in 11:25–26

The problem of οὕτως

Romans 11:25–32 resumed

Introduction

Romans 12:1–2

Romans 12:3–21

Romans 13:1–7

Romans 13:8–14

The ‘strong’ and the ‘weak’ in 14:1–15:6

The (Mosaic) law in 14:1–15:6

A perspective on the (Mosaic) law from inside and outside the covenant

Could ‘the strong’ and ‘the weak’ be proselytes and/or God-fearers?

Romans 15:7–13 – Christ as servant of the circumcision to the Gentiles

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Jacob P. B. Mortensen

Paul Among the Gentiles: A ‘Radical’ Reading of Romans

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This book intends to offer an interpretation of the unity, coherence, and progression of the epistolary discourse on the surface level of the letter. Many scholars have provided impressive and intriguing interpretations of Romans, but few have managed to link together all the separate parts of Romans as a coherent whole. Two important examples of such work, by which I have been very influenced, deserve mention here. One is Troels Engberg-Pedersen’s Paul and the Stoics (2000). Throughout the chapters on Romans, Engberg-Pedersen strives to incorporate all the different parts of Romans into one coherent and unified whole. However, he succeeds only by assuming that the letter has an internal logic. Hence, Engberg-Pedersen’s interpretation does not unfold, from the beginning to the end of the letter, as a natural and logical development of the rhetorical strategy of the letter. Stanley Stowers’ work (A Rereading of Romans, 1994) does accomplish this. However, Stowers wavers on the identity of the interlocutor in chapter 2 of Romans, and finds two separate interlocutors in chapter 2. Hence, Stowers does proceed on the surface level of the letter from beginning to end, but switches the identity of the interlocutor from chapter to chapter, making the dialogue in the letter somewhat difficult to follow. In this book, I have tried to provide a simpler and more consistent interpretation, which proceeds from beginning to end, sticks to one interlocutor throughout chapters 2 to 11, and attempts to incorporate all the different parts of Romans into one coherent and unified whole. I hope and intend that the reading of Romans proposed here will be useful, and prompt fruitful, scholarly debates within Pauline circles.

One of the advantages of Fredriksen’s work for the radical perspective is her focus on the eschatological situation of Paul and his congregations. By drawing on the idiom of Jewish restoration theology concerning the return from Babylon and the experience of redemption from sin, evil, and exile, Fredriksen establishes a plausible social and religious context for Paul’s mission and work. The Jews at the time of Paul who participated in this restoration movement were expecting the twelve tribes to be restored, the people to be gathered back to the Land, the Temple and Jerusalem to be restored and made splendid, the Davidic monarchy to be restored, and God’s kingdom to be established.9 And in this splendid restoration, Fredriksen identifies a certain part to be played by the Gentiles. For one thing, the Gentile nations will be destroyed, defeated, or in some way subjugated to Israel. But another stream within the restoration thinking concerns the eschatological inclusion of Gentiles. Within this stream of restoration theology, the Gentiles participate in Israel’s redemption. They stream to Jerusalem and worship the God of Jacob together with Israel (cf. Isa 2:2–4; Mic 4:1ff.). On God’s mountain, the Gentiles will eat together with Israel (Isa 25:6), and as the Jews leave the lands of their dispersion, Gentiles will accompany them (Zech 8:23). According to Fredriksen, it is crucial that these Gentiles remain Gentiles and do not undergo conversion and circumcision. They are to be saved as Gentiles, and do not, eschatologically, become Jews. These Gentiles, then, were the ones to whom Paul addressed his gospel, and who made up his eschatological congregations.

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