Читать книгу Paul Among the Gentiles: A "Radical" Reading of Romans - Jacob P. B. Mortensen - Страница 42

So far, I have stated that, in Romans, Paul explains his gospel to Gentile believers in Christ, in order to equip these Gentiles not to pursue a full or normal Jewish life with circumcision and observance of the law as their mode of entry into God’s covenant with Israel. Should they pursue such a life, they would mistrust and betray their Gentile status as members of the family of Israel, and they would have misunderstood the purpose and efficacy of Christ’s sacrifice on their behalf. In this chapter, I will begin to move forward through the text of Romans (progressively) in order to substantiate these claims.

Throughout chapters 2–11, Paul presents an interlocutor who appears as a fictive Gentile who takes great interest in boasting of his Jewishness – except in 7:7–25. The Gentile interlocutor supposes that literal circumcision and observance of the law1 are obligatory entry requirements for being a member of the family of Israel, and for becoming an heir of Abraham. However, as Paul’s argument unfolds it becomes clear that Paul does not argue against Judaism, as traditional scholarship has it. Paul argues about Judaism – specifically how a Gentile as a Gentile gains entry into the family of Israel in the wake of Christ. Thus, Paul’s rhetorical strategy constitutes an argument that seeks to persuade the mistaken Gentile interlocutor that the faithfulness of Christ (πίστις Χριστοῦ) alone suffices to grant him access to the covenant and make him an heir of Abraham as a Gentile, and of what his position is within this new family. Consequently, the entirety of Romans 1 to 11 is Paul’s attempt to convince Gentiles in Rome that (Christ’s) faith alone has secured their status as members of the Abrahamic covenant and initiates into the family of Israel as Gentiles. Therefore, Paul must open the argument with a description of what it was like – from a Jewish point of view – to be a Gentile, in order to explain their situation or condition. And 1:18–32 serves this purpose.

In a general way, I consider 1:18–32 a stereotypical Jewish presentation of Gentiles – an ethnocentric description of the ‘others’ and ‘outsiders’. Consequently, before moving forward with the straightforward exegesis of 1:18–32, I will make a detour around the concept of stereotypes and related concepts (us/them, insiders/outsiders, etc.). These considerations of stereotyping serve as the entry-point to Paul’s description of the Gentile condition in 1:18–32. It is crucial to a straightforward and sequential interpretation of Romans to grasp this point of departure, because the Gentile condition as described in 1:18–32 reverberates – often verbatim – in subsequent passages of Romans. In this sense, 1:18–32 should be considered the foundation upon which the rest of the argument rests. The situation and facts underlying the letter’s outlook are described in 1:18–32, which should be considered the narratio of the letter. Thus, Paul uses 1:18–32 to present stereotyped Jewish perceptions of Gentiles, which inform and personify the interlocutor from 2:1 onwards. This means that 2:1ff. should be considered the probatio of the letter, and it constitutes it’s argumentative body.