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corpus-paul - Re: Neil Elliot, "Liberating Paul"

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  • From: "Jeffrey B. Gibson" <jgibson000 AT mailhost.chi.ameritech.net>
  • To: Corpus-paul <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Neil Elliot, "Liberating Paul"
  • Date: Tue, 06 Jul 1999 14:26:27 -0500


Jon Peter wrote:

[much snipped]

>
> Had not Paul done enough in Roman
> > colonies/jurisdictions--and if Tom Wright and Neil Elliott are correct in
> their views
> > about Paul's Gospel as anti-imperial and one who, as herald of King
> Jesus,
> > challenged imperial pretentions--rendered himself long before the writing
> of Romans as
> > someone who was rather politically suspect?
> >
>
> All the more reason for Paul to start manufacturing a false and exculpatory
> paper-trail. Again, picture the scene in Rome: Spies are listening /
> watching from the pews or eavesdropping through open windows while Paul's
> letters are read aloud. And this public reading is very, very
> unequivocal.... "Obey authority, they're divinely inspiredÂ…" Wow, that has
> impact. That is what the spies overhear, without any hint or indication to
> suggest the contrary.
>

I've forwarded your post to Neil Elliott who is subscribed to C-P but is not
taking
List messages at the moment, and to Mark Nanos and David Noy, both of whom
have
written extensively on Jews in first century Rome, and I eagerly await their
responses to your reconstruction of what was going on around the time of
Paul's letter
to the Roman congregations. In the meantime. let me point out a few things in
your
post that lead me to believe that your speculations about what must have been
occurring are rooted more in your imagination than in historical reality.

First, there is to my knowledge absolutely no evidence of Roman spying on
Jewish
Synagogue services. Judaism was a legal religion, their synagogues
classified as
"collegia", and therefore *legally protected against* the sort of activity you
envision. Moreover, despite the so called disturbance under Claudius Roman
Judaism (of
which Roman Christianity was a part) was not under a cloud of political
suspicion.

Second, there were at least eleven synagogues in Rome. Not a single one had
pews. Many
were in tenements and therefore above ground. Window spying would be
difficult.

Third, so far as we know -- and as Paul himself testifies -- Romans was the
only
letter of Paul that the Roman congregations possessed or were familiar with.
So your
speaking of them as listening to Paul's letters being read aloud is a
considerable
historical inaccuracy as well anachronism.

Fourth, as commentators such as Cranfield and J..H. Yoder have noted, Paul
does
**not** counsel obedience. He counsels SUNTASIS, which, given the
connotations of this
word, would have had a quite different ring to it to both Roman Christian as
well as
non Christian Roman ones than you imagine.

Fifth, as Mark Nanos has argued, there is some doubt that what is going on in
Rom 13
has anything to do with Roman political authorities. Rather the admonition
here has to
do with Gentile Christians submitting to the authority of Jewish synagogue
leaders.
But on this, I've urged Mark himself to say more.

Yours,

Jeffrey
--
Jeffrey B. Gibson
7423 N. Sheridan Road #2A
Chicago, Illinois 60626
e-mail jgibson000 AT ameritech.net






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