Corpus-Paul

[Frich107 AT aol.com]

I have recently been considering Romans chapter 14, and in particular the 
antithesis of the 'weak and the 'strong'. I began by considering that they 
were simply Christians with rather different beliefs about specific issues 
(as does Stanley Stowers - 'A Re-reading of Romans'). However, as I thought 
about this, it became apparant that this was inadequate. It was at this point 
that turned to 'The Mystery of Romans'.

I have to say that I found Mark Nanos' comments there, on these motifs, 
extremely helpful and probable. As I read him, he is basically suggesting 
that the 'weak' are the Jewish, Torah observant, Christians, whereas the 
'strong' are Gentile Christians. This seems to work very well. However, I am 
still a little puzzled by what Paul means in verse 1 of chapter 14, when he 
says 'but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions', as the NRSV 
renders it. My own reading of the Greek here (DIAKRISEIS DIALOGISMWN), leads 
me to think of translating it rather differently - 'but not for the purpose 
of debating disputable things.' The question here, for me, is what are these 
'disputable things', or 'opinions'? Are they which days are special, and what 
is okay to eat? On the other hand, are there matters which are not 
disputable? If so, what are they? I think that Mark doesn't really consider 
these questions in much depth, and so I would be interested to know what he, 
and others, think (apologies if I have missed something as I have been 
reading through 'Mystery of Romans').

I would really appreciate some feed-back on these issues.

Regards,

Fred Rich.
Ph.D. Student,
Department of Biblical Studies,
University of Sheffield.