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  • From: Karl Donfried <kdonfrie AT sophia.smith.edu>
  • To: Corpus-paul <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: RE: Roman churches
  • Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2000 10:07:06 -0500 (EST)


Dear Jim,

You might find the following article worthwhile: Peter Richardson,
"Augustan-Era Synagogues in Rome" in JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY IN
FIRST-CENTURY ROME (ed. Karl P. Donfried & Peter Richardson; Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1998) 17-29. Other articles in this SNTS Seminar collection may
be useful to you as well.

Best,
Karl



On Tue, 11 Jan 2000, Jim Hester wrote:

> I want to thank fellow listers who offered opinions on where the Roman
> letter might have been read. And, while I don't want to beat a dead horse,
> an article by Johannes Vorster, "The Context of the Letter to the Romans: A
> Critique on the Present State of Research", NeoT 28/1 (1994), has prompted
> me to re-visit the question.
>
> Vorster claims that despite the fact that Lampe has posited the existence of
> at least 5 synagogues in first century Rome, there is no archaeological
> evidence supporting the existence of synagogue buildings; therefore, it is
> likely that synagogual communities met in Jewish households. That suggests
> to me that arguing that the letter was read in "synagogues" imports an
> implied organizational and material construct that might be misleading.
>
> Now, given the fact that, as everybody points out(!), the letter is
> addressed to class of people and not an organization, I am further struck by
> the thought that the Roman situation is more organizationally chaotic than I
> had always assumed, and that even attempts to recognize divisions along
> lines produced by the effects of Claudius's edict are over reading the
> evidence. That hunch renews my speculation that, textual evidence aside,
> the list of names in 16:3-15 may have functioned as instructions to Phoebe
> in an effort to identify those who could help in publishing the contents of
> the letter. It would appear that Paul knew of no recognized and accepted
> leadership circle in Rome. That would have further complicated his
> argumentative task.
>
> I guess another way of asking my question is this: assuming for a minute
> that Mark Nanos is correct and the Romans letter is addressed to Christian
> Gentiles within the synagogues of Rome, how do you find them and publish the
> letter to them? The question is important because in the absence of an
> empirical audience, the real audience of the letter becomes, in large part,
> the creation of the author, and, as Vorster says, the rhetorical situation
> becomes "entextualized."
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> Jim Hester "Never be afraid to try something new.
> 736 Buckingham Drive Remember, amateurs built the ark.
> Redlands, CA 92374 Professionals built the Titanic."
> (909) 792-0533
> hester AT uor.edu http://rhetjournal.uor.edu
>
>
> ---
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