Corpus-Paul

[Loren Rosson <rossoiii AT yahoo.com>]

Moon, to respond briefly:

> When Paul said to the Gentile
> believers, "you are not under
> the Law but under grace", they
> might have thought that they
> were free to behave [as if] there
> were no laws guiding their behavior.

I think the Jews in Rome would also have received this
impression when Paul said “you are not under the law
but under grace” (!). See below.

> In short, in chapter 6 and
> 8, Paul argues that the gentile
> believers should fulfill the 
> requirements of the Law, even if
> they are not under the Law. Paul
> would not need to 
> emphasize that in the case of
> the Jews.

Oh, I think he would have, considering the thrust of
chs 5-8. How would any sane Jew react to the assertion
that one “is not under the law” (6:14), that one “dies
to the law” (7:4), and that one is “discharged from
the law” (7:6)? The emphasis on fulfilling the law’s
requirements in chs 5-8 has to do with fulfilling
either Mosaic (Jewish) or Noahide (Gentile)
requirements, on account of the fact that the new age
has only partly (and not fully) supplanted the old
age. A Jew might have failed to grasp Paul’s concept
of the eschatological tension as much as a Gentile,
and would have needed the statements of chs 6 & 8
spelled out accordingly.

> As Mark Nanos indicates, many
> commands of Rom 6, e.g. 6:19,
> have in mind those Gentile believers,
> who were following the pagan
> lifestyle, but now not under the Law.

I disagree with Mark that Rom. 6 singles out Gentiles,
for the above reasons. The passages which I believe
target Gentiles are 11:13-32 and 14:1-15:13 (and, as
I’ve argued for a different reason, 7:14-25).

(Mark must be biding his time, just itching to pounce.
. .)

Loren Rosson III
Nashua NH
rossoiii AT yahoo.com



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