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  • From: "Christian I. Anible" <cia4 AT cornell.edu>
  • To: <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Romans 8.12-13
  • Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2001 13:54:04 -0500


I am exegeting Romans 6 & 8 as part of a larger project, and am considering
putting forward a reading of 8.12-13 that departs from how it is typically
taken. I would value reactions from list members. An excerpt of my study
follows.

***********************
The antithesis of v. 13 (“if you live according to the Flesh / if by the
Spirit you put to death …”) is the one instance that might certainly be read
as a true conditional, suggesting that all persons, whether believers or
not, are constantly faced with a decision whether to live by the Flesh or by
the Spirit put to death the deeds of the body. But such a meaning would
present a direct contradiction to what he has said leading up to this
statement and following it.
The statements which control the flow of the argument are absolutes (vv. 1,
2, 3, 9, 12, 15, 16). Furthermore, Paul gives no linguistic indication that
he intends to say something in this clause in contrast to what he is saying
before and after it. Verse 12 is introduced with the progressive _Ara oun_,
and v. 13 with an explanatory _gar_. This has every appearance of
continuation of thought. And, finally, we should consider how closely this
statement parallels what Paul has said in 6.16-18.

6.16 Do you not know that, to whom you yield yourselves as obedient
slaves,
you are slaves to the one you obey; either of Sin resulting in death,
or of
obedience resulting in righteousness?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------
8.12 So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the Flesh to live
according
to
the Flesh— 8.13 for if you live according to the Flesh, you are
destined to
die;
but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will
live.

In chapter 6, Paul posits two options, which in considering the whole of
humanity are the two eschatological possibilities. Either one is an obedient
slave of Sin, or an obedient slave of Righteousness. But as he goes on to
make clear in vv. 17-18, there is no question remaining for believers which
of the two describes them.

6.17 But thanks be to God that, though you were slaves of sin, you
became
obedient
from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were
entrusted,
6.18 and
having been set free from sin, you became slaves of Righteousness.

Here in chapter 8, Paul describes the same two eschatological categories,
only now he uses the language of Flesh and Spirit. As he asked rhetorically
in 6.2, “How can we who died to sin live any longer in it?” In the language
of chapter 8 this would read, “How can we who died to the Flesh live any
longer in it?” The implicit answer to both questions is, of course, “In no
way at all!” Although Paul does not complete the antithesis in chapter 8 as
he has in chapter 6, we can hardly deny that the same conclusion is
intended. Had he done so, it might have read something like, “But thanks be
to God that, though you were debtors to the Flesh, you have come to live by
the Spirit; and having been set free from the Flesh, you became debtors to
the Spirit.”

This raises the question of what is to be understood by the expression in
13b, _ta praxeis tou somato thanatoute_. This appears to be as close to an
imperative as Paul comes in this section.

As we have already seen, Paul is not presenting an uncertain state of
affairs, as if believers could be imagined as living by the Flesh. What
compels us to take the other side of the equation as a state of uncertainty,
in which believers face on ongoing challenge to “put to death the deeds of
the body”? Is Paul really saying that, moment-to-moment, the believer is
confronted with “deeds of the body” that must be “put to death”? It seems
far more consistent with his continuing argument to judge that this is
another rhetorical conditional, as with the others we have considered above.
In that case, both _mellete_ and _thanatoute_ should be taken as states of
being descriptive of those who are in the realms, respectively, of Flesh and
Spirit. Viewed from the hypothetical perspective of those on the threshold
of baptism, a choice presents itself: “If you live according to the Flesh
[you will be embarking upon (or rather, continuing in) a way of ordering
your life in which] you are destined to die; but if by the Spirit you put to
death the deeds of the body, [you will be embarking upon a way of ordering
your life in which] you will live.” Which path Paul’s readers have taken is
not in question. They are those who have, by the Spirit, put to death (past
tense) the deeds of the body.”
******************************

Christian Anible
Cornell University /Regent College, Vancouver
----------------------------------------------
166 Pearsall Place
Ithaca, NY 14850-5932
Telephone: 607-256-0074
E-mail: cia4 AT cornell.edu






  • Romans 8.12-13, Christian I. Anible, 12/14/2001

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