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corpus-paul - Re: Weak and strong in Romans 14

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  • From: Frich107 AT aol.com
  • To: corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: Weak and strong in Romans 14
  • Date: Tue, 10 Sep 2002 18:08:00 EDT


Mark,

Thanks for your e-mail. Sorry about my mis-reading of 'Mystery'. Having
re-read your arguments, perhaps with a more alery frame of mind, I see my
mistake. Although I remain unsure that I agree with your reading of the
'weak' being Torah obervant Jews, as opposed to Torah observant Jewish
Christians, I can follow your line of thought well, and am almost persuaded.

You speak of the disputable things being those that Paul mentions in chapter
14 (and I would certainly agree with that). Would you limit these things that
were being discussed/disputed in the synagogue in Rome to those issues alone,
or do you think they would be wider ranging? In particular, would you not
feel it reasonable to postulate that another issue of disagreement would
likely be the identity of Jesus?

I suppose the one major stumbling block in your argument for me is the common
ground that you discuss. You speak of that being related to the quotation
that Paul makes from Isaiah 45, and hence is being able to worship God
together (in the synagogue context). Now undoubtedly that would be common
ground between Christians and Jews in First Century Rome. However, would Paul
really be speaking to the Roman Christians, asking them to not just accept
Jews but worship with them when they had a rather different view of Jesus'
identity? It is the thought of worship being the shared ground without
agreement about Jesus that I find hard to accept. Maybe I am being
anachronistic here.

Regards,

Fred Rich.
Ph.D. Student,
Department of Biblical Studies,
University of Sheffield.




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