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  • From: "Charles R. Scott" <venerablescott AT juno.com>
  • To: corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Corpus-Paul] Re: Corpus-Paul Digest, Vol 11, Issue 1
  • Date: Thu, 4 Dec 2003 14:49:35 GMT


>Dear List:

>I would love to know what any of you make of Paul's quotation of Psalm
>44:22 (44:23 HB) in Romans 8:36: "As it is written, 'For your
>sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be
>slaughtered'" (NRSV).

>My point is that Psalm 44 is a protest directed to/at God, but Paul's
>Use seems very positive. In fact, I'd say that he uses it support the
>Idea of "vindication through suffering." One other thing, the
>Psalm has been reinterpreted in a post-holocaust vein (obviously). >All
>responses are appreciated.

>Tom Edmondson
>Student, Candler School of Theology
_______________________________________________
>From memory Richard Hays talks about this quotation in his book
>(Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul. New Haven: Yale >University
>Press, 1989). “I tend to think that in Romans 8 Paul has >in mind the
>OT/Jewish Background of the suffering of the righteous.”

>I myself am very interested in hearing from others regarding how Rom
>>8:36/Ps 44:22 should be understood. Look forward to hearing more >comments.

Siu-Fung Wu
Melbourne
Australia
========================


John Knox (Interpreter’sBible - Abingdon 1954) sees the quote of the Psalm as
part of the answer to the question “Who shall separate us from the love of
Christ? He refers back to Romans 8:18 and points out Paul is linking
present suffering with Christ to future glory with Christ. Knox writes,
“That Paul is thinking in this verse primarily of sufferings inflicted by
others beause of the believer’s attachment to Christ appears from the
quotation from Psalm 44:22. For thy sake, as Paul understands it, means for
“Christ’s sake.” But the reference to “tribulations in this passage must not
be limited to such persecutions.”

Knox, after the statement above, refers back to “suffering with him” in
Romans 8:17. Knox chooses the rendering “God works for good with those who
love him, and are called according to his purpose.”

That concept, of God working with us as we suffer together with and in Christ
enriches and “fills full” the allusion to Psalm 44:22. The Suffering
Servant of Israel becomes the Christ of the present whose suffering is
redemptive and gives meaning to the lives hidden with Christ in God.
Suffering has meaning found in God's purpose. The answer to the problem of
suffering is that it is used to accomplish the redemptive purposes of God.

This concept is consonant with other expressions of “suffering with Christ”
in the New Testament such as Colossians 1:24 “Now I rejoice in my sufferings
for you, and I fill up—for the sake of his body, the church –what is lacking
in the sufferings of Christ.”

Charles Scott
Anglican Church of the Good Shepherd
Indianapolis, Indiana




  • [Corpus-Paul] Re: Corpus-Paul Digest, Vol 11, Issue 1, Charles R. Scott, 12/04/2003

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