Corpus-Paul

[Loren Rosson <rossoiii AT yahoo.com>]

Bob, Mark, Dave, others --

Here's my outline of Romans, submitted for criticism.
It attempts a few things. First to tie Philip Esler's
recategorization agenda with Mark Nanos' ideas about
the weak/strong in Rome. Also to come to terms with
Paul's various personal dilemnas and rhetorical shifts
(Galatians often in the background as a control). Paul
was struggling to reconcile Christ-believing
convictions with native ones (thus Sanders) no less
than switching rhetorical tactics according to
audience and situation.

Esler's work (Conflict and Identity in Romans) opposes
a strong trend (since Stowers especially) of seeing
Romans as having Gentiles in view. This, despite (1)
the fact that Paul continually shits gears, from the
pagan in 1:18-2:5 to the Judean in 2:17-29; from
Judeans who know the law in 7:1 to Greeks who should
not boast in 11:13; etc). This also despite (2) the
obvious attempt to handle Judean concerns so
delicately in Romans, as contrasted with Galatians.
Esler calls attention to (at least) seven of these:

1. In Galatians Paul says that "in Christ there is
neither Judean nor Greek" (3:28). In Romans this is
the last thing he wants to say. (p 218)

2. In Galatians Abraham is primarily the heir of the
uncircumcised (3:6-9). In Romans he is the heir of the
uncircumcised and circumcised in equal measure
(4:1-17). (p 185)

3. In Galatians the law is a force of enslavement from
which believers are liberated (4:1-7; 5:1). In Romans
sin is the force of enslavement from which believers
are liberated (6:16-23). (p 229)

4. In Galatians (related to the above) the law is an
active agent in confining Israel to sin (3:19-24). In
Romans, the law is either passive in its relationship
to sin (7:7-13), or has nothing to do with it at all
(7:14-25). (p 230)

5. In Galatians divine sonship is a result of being
liberated from the law (Gal 4:4-7). In Romans divine
sonship is a reason for living by the spirit (8:1-17).
(p 248)

6. In Galatians the promises to Israel are no longer
in force, replaced with the promise of Christ
(3:15-4:2). In Romans the promises to Israel are still
being fulfilled, but in an unexpected way (9:1-11:32).
(p 277)

7. In Galatians (as a result of the above) the
Christ-group is Israel (6:16). In Romans Israel is
Israel (9:1-11:32). (p 307)


With all this in mind, here's the outline, from 1:18
to 15:13.


A. Judeans and Greeks in Christ (1:18-8:39)

     The Judean and the Greek are judged, justified, 
     and put to death.

        1. Both judged (1:18-3:20) 

                a. Greeks judged apart from the law

                b. Judeans judged by the law

        2. Both justified (3:21-4:25)

                -- Both justified by faith, whether 
                   uncircumcised or circumcised 

        3. Both die (5:1-8:39)

                a. Both die to sin 

                b. Greeks die to ungodliness 

                c. Judeans die to the law

                d. Both fulfil the requirement of the  
                   law by a different route: the
                   spirit

B. Israel (9:1-11:32)

     Unbelieving Israel is shamed and glorified.

        1. Israel shamed (9:1-10:21)

                a. God consistent with election
                  (he hates Israel now, as he hated 
                   Esau) 

                b. God consistent with justification
                  (the Torah declares itself a dead-
                   end project)

        2. Israel glorified (11:1-32)

                -- God consistent with his promises
                   to Israel (faith-righteoused pagans
                   are the means to Israel's ultimate 
                   salvation) 

C. Believers in Rome (12:1-15:13)

     Believers are free, yet not free.

        1. Believers are free from the world, but 
           subject to Caesar's taxes (12:1-13:14)

        2. Greeks are free from the Torah, but not
           in the presence of Israel (14:1-15:13)


Summaries, functions, and comments (where deemed
necessary) follow. 


A. Judeans and Greeks in Christ (1:18-8:39). The
Judean and the Greek are judged, justified, and put to
death.

1. Both judged (1:18-3:20)

1:18-2:5  All Greeks, whoever they are, will be
punished for the crimes of Sodom. 

Function:  To indict the Greeks first and foremost,
since they are most guilty of believing themselves
superior to others (cf 14:1-15:13).

Comments:  Sodom is in view rather than Adam (see
Esler, Conflict and Identity, pp 145-150), and thus
Greeks alone targeted. 

2:6-2:16  Indeed, everyone, the Judean and the Greek,
will be rewarded and punished (2:9-11), the latter
apart from the law, the former by the law (2:12).
Greeks are subject to a "law" of sorts, the law of
Noah -- "requirements written on their hearts" to
which their consciences bear witness" (2:14-15) -- no
less than Judeans are to the law of Moses.      

Function:  To emphasize that God is impartial in
judgment, and that Greeks will be judged by the
universal code of conduct applicable to them as
pagans. To provide a transition to the Judean
indictment in 2:17-3:20 by contrasting Greeks who
don't have the law with Judeans who have it.

Comments:  Paul presumably has in mind some version of
a Noahide code binding the Greeks. (See Segal, Paul
the Convert, pp 195-201, and Nanos, Mystery of Romans,
pp 50-56 for discussion of Noahide laws in the time of
Paul.)
                        
2:17-2:29  Judeans cannot rely on their status under
the law to escape judgment. Offending the Torah --
stealing, committing adultery, and robbing temples
(2:21b-22) -- calls forth as much wrath as pagan
immorality, and renders their circumcision valueless
(2:25) 

Function:  To indict the Judeans as much as the Greeks
-- and prevent another Galatian scenario which could
otherwise result from the one-sided indictment of
1:18-2:5.

Comments:  Paul's outrageous accusations (especially
temple-robbing) reflect the rhetorical diatribe
expected from a Judean prophet/apostle in an
honor-shame world. Sanders compares this with the
exaggerated rhetoric found in places like Ezek 33:25f
and Ps Sol 8:9f (Paul the Law and the Jewish People, p
125), and suggests that it is perhaps surprising Paul
didn't go further by leveling charges of sexual
misconduct, common as they were in polemic (p 133).
This is preferable to the strained approach of
Stowers, who thinks Paul is indicting an apostrophic
Judean in order to censure Judeans, Greeks, and Greek
Christians at once (see The Diatribe and Paul's Letter
to the Romans, p 177). Paul, rather, indicts Greeks
for being Greeks (1:18-2:5), and Judeans for being
Judeans (2:17-29).
 
3:1-3:20  (Clarification) Judeans have the edge in
terms of native privileges and educational background
(3:1-8), but no advantage as regards salvation
(3:9-18). The law puts them under the power of sin
(3:19) in that through the law comes knowledge of sin
(3:20).  

Function:  To make the law parallel to pagan deities.

Comments:  Being under Torah subjects one to the power
of sin as much as ungodliness does to a pagan, though
in a completely different way: the law accentuates sin
when transgression occurs (echoing Gal 3:19-24). It's
important to note that, despite the perversity of this
claim, Paul never suggests that God gave the law in
order to produce transgressions. "Given such a view,"
drawls Esler, "we might observe Paul considered that
God had commanded the Israelites to worship him alone
in order that they would serve Baal and Chemosh, to
honor their parents in order that they would shame
them, not to kill in order that they would engage in
homicide" (Galatians, p 196). The pedagogue metaphor
of Gal 3:23-26 refutes this in any case, since
pedagogues were slave tutors who protected boys from
harm, educated them in proper behavior, and punished
them for wayward behavior -- and were certainly not
given by parents to produce bad behavior in children.
But even if Paul maintains that the Torah was given to
protect the Jewish people from immorality, guide them
in holy living, and punish them for breaking its
commandments, he adds the perverse twist that sin
actually increases (or is heightened) because of this,
and this was the law's "key" purpose as intended by
God. 

2. Both justified (3:21-4:25)

3:21-31  Christ's sacrifice has inaugurated the end,
and so there is no longer any distinction between
Judean and Greek (3:22). Boasting of special privilege
is excluded (3:27). All are now justified on the basis
of faith apart from the law (3:28), because God is One
-- the God of Greeks and Judeans alike (3:29-30).
Judeans still uphold the law (3:31), but it provides
no basis for justification. 

Function:  To explain Paul's summary doctrine of
justification by faith. (a) To explain to Greeks that
the end-time pulls the rug from under Judean privilege
which came through the Torah. (b) To assure Judeans
that the Torah is not discarded altogether as a result
of it being ended as an avenue to salvation.

4:1-17  This end was anticipated by the righteousness
of Abraham, who was justified by faith prior to
circumcision, precisely in order to become the
ancestor of both Greeks and Judeans (4:9-12;16).

Function:  To prove the doctrine of 3:21-31 by
revising the common understanding of Abraham. 

Comments:  From the common Judean point of view, the
promise to Abraham was subsumed within the Sinai even:
Abraham was justified after being circumcised and
keeping the Torah, which legitimated him as the
ancestor of all nations (thus Sir 44:19-21). For Paul,
the promise to Abraham was independent of the Sinai
event and non-contingent upon his circumcision.

4:18-25  (Excursus) Abraham's faith, moreover, was
"strong" because he believed God would create life
from the dead, as Isaac was created from Sarah's dead
womb. Throughout Israel's history, Abraham alone had
this measure of faith -- though it was not for his
sake alone (4:23), but for later Christ-believers who
would believe that God raised life from the dead in
Jesus of Nazareth (4:24). 

Function:  To show that Christ-believers (Judean and
Greek) have the measure of faith anticipated by
Abraham's unique situation.

Comments:  This section refutes salvation-history
theories, such as Wright's "climax of the covenant".
God's promise to Abraham remained in a docetic state
until Christ arrived (Luz); Israel was "a dance sat
out by the promise" as it waited for Christ (Martyn,
"Events in Galatia", from Jouette Bassler's Divine
Impartiality, p 172); the Israelite era was "a period
of unrelieved gloom" (Esler, Conflict and Identity, p
286), during which time there was no
faith-righteousness -- certainly not the "strong" kind
anticipating life-from-death, against the evidence. 

3. Both die (5:1-8:39)
                                
5:1-21  Christ died in order to restore God's creation
and bring the epoch of Adam to a close. The reign of
sin (~law) is in the process of ending; the reign of
grace has begun.

Function:  To set up the framework for the argument of
chs 6-8, in which the epoch of Christ opposes (yet
overlaps) that of Adam.

6:1-15  All, Judeans and Greeks, die to the power of
sin (6:1-15). 

Function:  To explain that Christ-believers are
suspended between death and resurrection; they have
died but not yet risen; until the resurrection they
exist in the realms of Adam and Christ simultaneously
(Dunn's commentary offers one of the best analyses of
this eschatological tension.) 

6:16-23  Greeks are no longer slaves of ungodliness --
that is, no longer slaves of "impurity and
lawlessness" (6:19). They are slaves of
God (6:22).

Function:  To explain how Greeks have died to the
reign of Adam/sin. 

7:1-6  Judeans are no longer slaves of the law. They
are slaves of the spirit (7:6).

Function:  To explain how Judeans have died to the
reign of Adam/sin.

7:7-13  (Clarification I) The law is parallel to sin
though not equated with it. The law is holy and given
for the purpose of righteousness and life, yet unable
to do the job God gave it. Sin took it over and
perverted it, foiling God's intent (as with Adam and
Eve in paradise).
                                
Function:  To assure Judeans (and Paul himself) that
God always acted for the good. To correct the perverse
claim of Gal 3:19-24, where the law is an active agent
in consigning Israel to sin, and indeed where God
intends such a result "so that" he may save another
basis. To sever the link between God and sin, and to
make the law passive in its relationship to sin.

7:14-25  (Clarification II) Sin has nothing to do with
the law, which is perhaps capable of doing the job God
gave it after all. Sin bypassed it, foiling God's
intent by invading human flesh directly -- producing
uncontrollable disobedience, anguish, and despair in
the human condition.

Function:  To go another step, and completely sever
the link between the law and sin.

Comments: Two ironies result from these
clarifications. (1) Paul ends up contradicting his own
Pharisaic experience (Philip 3:4b-6), especially in
the second half (7:14-25). (2) Paul manages to
exonerate God only at the expense of his sovereignty.
Instead of a perverse deity who gave the Torah in
order to consign Israel to sin (Gal 3:19-24), he is
now an incompetent deity foiled by the power of evil,
which either used the law against him (7:7-13) or
reproduced sin within human flesh (7:14-25). (See full
discussion in Sanders' Paul the Law and the Jewish
People, chapter 2). 

8:1-17  All believers, Judeans and Greeks, fulfil the
requirement of the law by the spirit. They achieve the
ideal of the law which was never realized by the law.

Function:  To explain that believers have access to
the best which the Torah promised but never delivered
(Esler, Conflict and Identity, p 335). To prove that
obedience to God (not moral anarchy; cf 3:8; 6:1,15)
is indeed the result of being a Christ-believer.

8:18-39  (Excursus)  The end is in the process of
unfolding now. 

Function:  To explain that creation will soon be
completely restored.
                
Wrap-up of 1-8:  Paul gives attention to "the Judean
and the Greek" (1:16) at every stage of his argument.
Both are equally liable to God's judgment, whether by
the law or apart from it; both are justified by faith,
whether circumcised or not; both die to the power of
sin, whether as ungodly pagans or Torah-observant
Israelites. Both, in other words, end up on the same
playing field from entirely different routes. The goal
is what Esler calls "recategorization": "only when
both groups are equal in status but share different
experiences or expertise can they readily respect and
value the other's unique contribution and believe they
will benefit from the presence of the other".
(Conflict and Identity, p 144).

B. Israel (9:1-11:32). Unbelieving Israel is shamed
and glorified.

1. Israel shamed (9:1-11:12)

9:1-5  (Preface) Paul is anguished over the fate of
unbelieving Israel and could wish himself accursed for
the sake of her salvation.

Function: To declare Paul's kinship with ethnic Israel
("my people" in 9:2-3), while also maintaining a
careful distance from it ("they" rather than "we" in
9:4; "them" rather than "us" in 9:5). (See Esler,
Conflict and Identity, p 273).

9:6-11:12  Pagans are legitimate heirs to the promises
of Abraham, because God calls whomever he wishes. He
hates Israel (for now) as he hated Esau, just as he
showers favor on the pagans as he did to Jacob (9:13).
The law is finished (10:4), because Moses anticipated
that it would be a dead-end project. The Torah may as
well be distant as the heavens and the abyss, for it
is Christ (not the commandment) who is nearby, on lips
and in hearts of believers (10:6-8). 

Function:  To offer the Judeans ammunition against
scorn or stigmatization, by showing God's consistency
with the purposes of election and justification
revealed in scripture. To legitimate their choice of
Christ and faith-righteousness in the face of pressure
from unbelieving Israel.

Comments:  Paul claims that God is behaving the same
as always -- as the sovereign lord before whom human
beings have no rights, the deity who loves and hates
whomever he chooses -- and thus perfectly consistent
in disinheriting Israel. He claims, furthermore, that
while Moses taught following the Torah's commandments
would lead to life, he also taught that this path
actually goes nowhere. But this is hollow continuity
-- "continuity by transformation", suggests Dunn (see
his Romans commentary), as when "a caterpillar becomes
a butterfly, and the empty shell of the caterpillar is
all that is left from the old stage of existence"
(though Dunn ultimately rejects this understanding at
all points throughout Rom 9-11). Esler is surely right
that Paul's attempts to suppress Israelite identity
and promote the identity of the Christ-movement in
such fashion "would have been bitterly resented and
resisted, indeed laughed to scorn, by Israelites who
came to hear of it." (Conflict and Identity, p 287). 

2. Israel glorified (11:13-32)

11:13-32  Greeks should understand that their
salvation is a means to an end, and that Paul
glorifies his ministry among them in order to provoke
Israel to reacquire what is rightfully hers
(11:13-14). Greeks are in fact worthless by
themselves: "wild olive shoots" dependent upon the
root of Abraham to be at all productive (11:17-18).
Moreover, they will be disinherited if they continue
treating unbelieving Israel with contempt (11:20-22).
Israel still has a chance, and will indeed be
ultimately saved (11:25). She is God's enemy for the
time being, but God's chosen in the end (11:28).

Function: To put the Greeks in place by showing God's
consistency with the purpose of Israel's salvation
revealed in scripture. To indict the Greeks for
arrogance towards unbelieving Israel, and explain that
Israel's ending will be happy after all, if in an
unexpected way.

Comments:  Paul, like many converts, "suddenly
discovered a reason to celebrate his original
allegiance and his affiliation with it" (Esler,
Conflict and Identity, p 273). The reason sounds
preposterous at first glance: unbelieving Judeans
would become jealous and provoked to accept the
Christ-gospel. But the idea is passable in Paul's
world, and two points are in order: (1) Jealousy, as
Esler notes, is different from envy; the former is a
defensive concern for the well-being of something,
while the latter is a begrudging of the success of
another (Conflict and Identity, p 290); that Paul has
the former in mind makes his claim more credible than
often assumed. (2) As Nanos argues, this scheme could
have naturally arisen out of remnant theology: Paul
simply hopes that unbelieving Israel will see in his
success among the pagans that her own universal hopes
are being fulfilled without her coparticipation, and
thus cause her to reconsider accepting Christ (Mystery
of Romans, p 249). In any case, the olive tree
metaphor implies "continuity by extension" (so Dunn),
against chs 9-10 which implied "continuity by
transformation" (the caterpillar becoming a
butterfly). But Dunn, like too many commentators,
glides over the tension between the two. Paul may have
wanted an olive tree, but he left the world a
butterfly. It could have been no other way. 
                                
Wrap-up of Rom 9-11:  Paul again gives attention to
"the Judean and the Greek" (1:16) with respect to
unbelieving Israel. He arms the Judeans with
ammunition against their kin (9:6-11:12) and then
shames the Greeks by implying they are baggage, the
means by which Israel will be saved (11:13-32).

C. Believers in Rome (12:1-15:13). Believers are free,
yet not free.

1. Believers are free from the world, but subject to
Caesar's taxes (12:1-13:14)

12:1-13:14  Believers should not conform to the world
(12:2) but instead follow Christ's other-worldly code
of behavior: they should be patient in suffering,
bless persecutors, associate with the lowly, do not be
haughty, feed enemies for vengeance's sake (in order
to "heap burning coals on their heads") (12:9-21). On
the other hand, they should not jeopardize the
Christ-movement by defying Caesar: they should be
temporarily resigned to imperial authorities and pay
taxes (13:1-7), since God's kingdom is "nearer than
ever before" (13:11). 

Function: To encourage counter-cultural behavior in
most aspects of everyday life, while leaving the
problem of Caesar to God (on the latter, see Horsley
and Silberman, The Message and the Kingdom, p 191).

2. Greeks are free from the Torah, but not in the
presence of Israel (14:1-15:13)

14:1-15:13  Greeks are not free from the Torah in the
presence of unbelieving Israel. No food is unclean in
itself (14:14a), but it is for those who think so
(14:14b). Greeks in the company of non-Christian
Judeans must abide by minimal Torah standards. If such
Judeans are being injured by what Greeks eat, then the
Greeks are not behaving properly (14:15); they should
not eat meat or drink wine if it causes strife
(14:21). The strong in faith should accommodate the
weak in faith -- "put up with their failings" -- and
not please themselves (15:1), so that unbelieving
Israel may embrace Christianity (11:23-24) and
everyone worship as one voice (15:5-6).

Function:  To stifle Greek freedom in the hope that
unbelieving Israel will be provoked (through jealousy)
to reacquire her salvation (cf 11:17-24).

Comments:  Mark Nanos has shown powerfully that the
weak in faith refer to unbelieving Judeans, despite
the near universal assumption that they are
Christ-believers weak on account of Torah-observance.
(1) Mark Given (not Nanos) points out that the weak
cannot refer to the addressees themselves. Paul would
not have intended for them to hear him tell the strong
that they should "put up with their failings" -- that
would be rhetorically inept, and undermine Paul's
intent to make the Greeks show them respect (see
Given's web-article on Rom 7, listed as "work still in
progress" (I hope I'm not citing out of turn here):
http://courses.smsu.edu/mdg421f/Truly%20Rhetorical%20Reasons.htm).
(2) Paul explains the terms "strong in faith" and
"weak in faith" in 4:18-25 (see above), where they
have nothing to do with any degree of
Torah-observance. The strong believe Christ was raised
from death, just as Abraham trusted Isaac would be
born from a dead womb (see Nanos, Mystery, pp
139-144). The weak are so labeled because they deny
Christ's resurrection, not because they adhere to the
law. (3) In 14:1-15:13 the weak are certainly Judeans,
but not because they are Judeans. Indeed they should
continue observing purity, fasting, and sabbath and
"be fully convinced in their own minds what is right"
(14:5); and they should continue doing so "in honor of
God" (14:6). These Judeans are not weak on account of
"upholding the law", which Paul believes perfectly
acceptable (3:31) (even if contributing nothing toward
salvation). As Nanos puts it, they are not "weak in
practice or opinions" (See Mystery, p 105) They are
weak in faith, denying the messiah's resurrection. (4)
Finally, this section follows hot on the heels of
12:1-13:14, which deals with proper behavior vis-à-vis
the "outside world"; the weak are thus likewise
outsiders.

Wrap-up of 14-15:  Paul wants believers to exercise
their Christly freedoms, save those from taxation and
the Torah. God will deal with Caesar himself, and
Israel must be respected for the sake of her
redemption.


=====
Loren Rosson III
Nashua NH
rossoiii AT yahoo.com

"In the natural sciences a person is remembered for his best idea; in the 
social sciences he is remembered for his worst."


                
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