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  • From: "Jim Hester" <hester AT jasper.uor.edu>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: RE: Roman churches
  • Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2000 11:09:54 -0800


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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