Corpus-Paul

["Jim Hester" <hester AT jasper.uor.edu>]

Eric Potts wrote:

> True, Paul had no personal experience of the Roman situation,
> but recent studies (Sanders et al) do suggest that Paul had a certain
> amount of information about the churches there, perhaps acquired from Aquila
> and Priscilla and other Roman Christians whom he knew. And this information
> seems to have brought him straight into his lifelong struggle over the
> relationships between Gentile and Jewish Christians.

Johannes Vorster in his article "The Context of the Letter to the Romans"
(Neotestamentica 28 (1994): 127-145, makes a persuasive case that far to
much emphasis has been placed on possible sources of info on Rome available
to Paul and points out that even under a generous interpretation of time
frames, some info he had would have been at least five years old! (pp.
137-138) He argues for a Burkean perspective of the historical context that
allows for Paul's language as one source for the creation of the social
realities reflected in the text.

> [...] so much of the argument in Romans appears to be directed to Jewish
> Christians. For example, just how meaningful would the excursion into the
> Abraham story have been to Gentiles?

I have been persuaded by Mark Nanos that the audience of Romans was Gentile
Christians, but keep in mind that I also think that Paul constructed the
particular audience he wanted to address.  I see no compelling argument for
a Jewish audience for Romans 4. Abraham as "our father according to the
flesh" is the paradigmatic man of faith, whose example is meaningful to all
Christians, Gentile or Jewish. He was one who demonstrated the obedience of
faith Paul preached to Gentile Christians.

Finally, it seems clear that there would have been Jewish Christian hearers
of the letter, but, as I argue in a forthcoming essay, I think Paul was
concerned with establishing his persona as apostle to the Gentiles and so
was presenting his Christian paideia.
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