Corpus-Paul

["Peter Kirby" <kirby AT earthlink.net>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob MacDonald" <bobmacdonald AT shaw.ca>
To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Sunday, August 18, 2002 5:37 PM
Subject: [corpus-paul] Paul and Church Fathers


> Does anyone know the earliest citations of Romans in other early writings?

Depending on how loosely you define a citation, that would be the apostolic
fathers or Irenaeus of Lyons.

Here are the potential allusions in the apostolic fathers.

Compar Rom 12:5 with 1 Clem. 46:7.  "Why do we divide and tear asunder the
members of Christ, and raise up strife against our own body, and reach such
a pitch of madness as to forget that we are members of one another? [hOTI
MELH ESMEN ALLHLWN]" (Kirsopp Lake)

Compare Rom 1:3 with Ign. Smryn. 1:1 "...that he is in truth of hte family
of David according to the flesh... [ALHQWS ONTA EK GENOUS DAUEID KATA
SARKA]" (Kirsopp Lake)

Compare Rom 14:10, 12 with Poly. Phil. 6:2 "we must all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ, and each must give an account of himself" [KAI
PANTAS DEI PARASTHNAI TWi BHMATI TOU XRISTOU KAI hEKASTON hUPER AUTOU LOGON
DOUNAI] (Kirsopp Lake)

There are clear references in Irenaeus in Against Heresies 1.3.4, 1.8.3,
1.19.1, and so on.

Without looking, I will say that there are also references in Clement of
Alexandria, Origen, Tertullian, Eusebius, Augustine, Jerome, and other
fathers.

> To what extent was this epistle influential prior to the reformation?

A huge question that I do not know how to answer.  Hopefully what I
indicated above is helpful.

But you did give me an idea to write a program that looks at the footnotes
of the online Roberts-Donaldson and creates a table of possible patristic
references to the New Testament books.  It would take some work, but it
might be worth it.

Of course, the Ante-Nicene and Selected Post-Nicene Fathers are available
here:

http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/

best,
Peter Kirby