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  • From: RSBrenchley AT aol.com
  • To: corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: Romans 13:1-7
  • Date: Wed, 15 May 2002 16:14:11 EDT


Hi All.

Dick Horsley's seminar has got me thinking again about this much used (or
abused) passage of Paul. I have a great many theological difficulties with
the traditional interpretation, like many others; how can it be said that
'all authority is from God' when authority, then as now, so often becomes a
manifestation of sheer evil. Having personally known a major war criminal,
now thankfully dead, who was at one time Chief Secretary of State and
minister of Mines in Sierra Leone, after a previous spell as Vice-President,
I find this position impossible to accept. Given that Paul was so often in
trouble with Jewish and probably Roman authorities, not to mention his
controversies with the Jerusalem leadership, I find it difficult to imagine
him believing this as traditionally understood.

The main problem lies with the single phrase OU GAR ESTIN EXOUSIA EI MH
APO QEOU and the following phrases which depend upon it: AI DE OUSAI EXOUSIAE
UPO QEOU TETAGMENAI EISIN WSTE O ANTITASSOMENOS TH EXOUSIA TH TOU QEOU
DIATAGH ANQESTHKEN; apart from this, it could be taken as advice to tolerate
the existing order, which in Paul's view is doomed anyway, and avoid trouble.
A lesser difficulty is found in v3; OI GAR ARCHONTES OUK EISIN PHOBOS TWN
AGAQWN ERGWN; if this really means what it appears to mean, how can it be
said by a Jew, with such a list of martyrs in his own history, including the
very Messiah whose name he proclaims to the Gentiles? Paul must have known as
well as anyone that authority can easily become a terror to good works, and
an aid to the evil.

Is there another explanation of Paul's words (assuming it really is Paul)
that works without resorting to special pleading? There's clearly no
consensus among scholars, and so far I find myself unconvinced by any
approach I've come across.



Regards,

Robert Brenchley
RSBrenchley AT aol.com
Birmingham UK




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