In this chapter on Paul's letter to the church at Rome, Ehrman does a good job of presenting the main issues related to the interpretation of this letter. Erhman does not address the whole issue of the relationship between the Jewish Law and justification by faith in Jesus, because he already covered that topic in his discussion of Galatians. If you are interested in knowing more on the topic of the role of the Jewish Law in the letter to the Romans, I have posted on Course Documents a study on the topic of the Law and Romans that I wrote a few years ago.
Ehrman does a nice job of laying out the theme of this letter, as found in 1:16-17, which is that the "gospel" is the power of God to salvation for all who have faith in Jesus. Paul uses the word "gospel" to refer to the message of the salvation that is available by faith to all who believe in what God has done in the death and resurrection of Jesus. This is explained on pages 253-254. While many scholars through the ages have assumed that Paul's letter to the Romans was written solely for the purpose of stating his mature theological views, that is not necessarily the only reason. There are two other issues worthy of consideration. The first is that Paul is unknown to the Christians of Rome, except by reputation. Just in case Paul's reputation in Rome is based on reports spread by people who either misunderstand Paul's teachings, or intentionally misrepresented him, he wants to set the record straight for the Christian in Rome on what he believes regarding the basic truths of Christianity. Not only that, but also his style of writing makes it clear that he is attempting to persuade the reader to adopt and accept his interpretation of Christianity. He wants the Christians in Rome to look favorably upon him when he arrives there (which is why he is sending this letter ahead of him), in hopes they might also be persuaded to offer him money to finance his planned missionary journey to Spain (15:24). As best we know, Paul never got the opportunity to go to Spain.
Paul wrote Romans while he was in Corinth preparing to embark for Jerusalem with his collection of money from the churches in Greece (Paul uses the names of the Greek provinces of Macedonia and Achaia (15:26). As we learn from Acts, Paul is arrested when he arrives in Jerusalem and is eventually taken to Rome.
While there have been a variety of explanations for what Paul was hoping to accomplish in writing Romans, there are 2 popular theories of the last century, the first being the traditional Protestant idea of Romans as a comprehensive theological treatise on the significance of the death and resurrection of Jesus and how that brings eternal life to humanity. The second popular theory is the one that Ehrman presents, that Paul is introducing himself to the Christians in Rome in hopes of receiving a favorable reception when he arrives there (this theory enjoys widespread support among historical critical scholars). Another theory that gets less attention is the idea that Paul had in mind when writing Romans the question of what kind of reception he would get from the church in Jerusalem, especially as they are still very Jewish and the Christians who will be accompanying Paul on the trip to Jerusalem are Greek converts from paganism. So Paul writes about how Jesus is savior of both (but most scholars think it would be odd for Paul to write to Rome about an issue that concerns Jerusalem without stating it explicitly). Another minor theory is the view that the discussion of moral issues in chapters 12-15 indicates that Paul knows much of what is going on in the church in Rome and has taken it upon himself to offer his solution to their divisions in hope that things will be smoothed over before he arrives in Rome. But this interpretation has not found many supporters as most interpreters believe that chapters 12-15 are intended to provide a general application of the truths expressed in chapters 1-8, and show how the implications of salvation-through-Jesus for living the Christian life in-power-of-the-Holy-Spirit (as in Chap 8), and what it should look like when it is lived out in a community of Christians who come from different backgrounds.
A peculiarity of Romans worth noting is the fact that 3 chapters smack in the middle of the letter to the Romans (chapters 9, 10 & 11) are directly concerned with the fate of Jewish people who have not accepted Jesus as the Jewish Messiah. This makes me think that since we know there was a large group of Jews living in Rome, and if they were the original converts to Christianity in Rome, it may be of great interest to the church leaders in Rome in knowing where Paul, the great evangelist to the non-Jews and pagans, stands on the issue of the role of Jewish people in God's plan for the salvation of humanity, since Paul does not publicly seem concerned about the eternal fate of his Jewish brethren. Paul's answer in chapter's 9, 10 & 11 is that it is his hope that the Jewish people will see all the converts from paganism embracing the fruits of the promises to Abraham coming to reality in salvation-through-Jesus and Not want to miss out on what God is doing in bringing the promises made to his chosen people to their ultimate fulfillment.
If I am correct in my reading of the intent of chapters 9, 10 & 11, then it would make sense why we see so much talk about "justification by faith" in Galatians and Romans, but not the other letters. If my theory is correct, it would seem that the whole business of "justification by faith" is primarily related to the relationship of Christian believers to the Jewish Law. Paul wants to explain how people who were born pagan can claim to inherit the benefits of the promises God made to the Jewish people if they do not adopt a Jewish lifestyle (meaning, following the Jewish Law). Jesus' death and resurrection is the reason. In Romans 1-8, Paul lays down the logic for this belief. There is no reason for Paul to discuss justification by faith with the Corinthians since rather than talking them out of the Jewish Law, his main challenge is talking them into adopting Jewish morality in place of pagan hedonism. Therefore, in my opinion, the topic of "justification by faith" is primarily the way Paul explains the change in the purpose and role of the Jewish Law for godly living in light of Jesus' death and resurrection. As a Christian, the Jewish Law tells how to live a moral and virtuous life, but there is nothing in it that can of its own put a person in a right relationship with God. In Paul's mind, only Jesus can do that based on what he has already done in his death and resurrection, and what Jesus will complete when he returns for the final salvation of believers and final judgment of unbelievers.
On pages 254-259, Ehrman discusses what he calls two different models for salvation that Paul employs in Romans. The one that Ehrman calls the "judicial model" is the one that is most often spoken of in discussions of Paul's interpretation of the death of Jesus. The judicial model focuses on what Jesus did on the cross as paying the penalty for human sinfulness to appease a righteous God. But Ehrman also highlights what he calls the "participatory model." In this model the main impact of Jesus' death is to free humanity from bondage to sin, perceived as a spiritual force that enslaves humanity. That probably strikes you as an odd way to look at sin, but it would seem to be a fair explanation for what Paul is speaking of when he says that all humanity is enslaved to sin (6:17).
My take on this is that while Ehrman uses these labels to explain what Paul is doing in Romans chapters 1-4 and chapters 6-8, I personally see the distinction more in terms of how the death of Jesus affects the salvific possibilities for humanity (chaps 1-3) and what it looks like and feels like when a person becomes a Christian believer and experiences the benefits of that death and resurrection for her or himself (chaps 6-8). Another way of stating it would be to call it the objective and subjective sides of human salvation. On the one hand there is what Jesus did on the cross, and on the other hand, that event has no saving value until it is experienced personally by a human being.
Chapter 8 in Romans is really a model for what Christian life ought to look like, but that assumes that the Holy Spirit has taken over the dominant role in a believer's life, and the Law is irrelevant, because the Holy Spirit (in Paul's opinion) is capable of empowering the believer to live a righteous life, precisely what the Jewish Law was incapable of accomplishing.
Ehrman provides a nice summary of Paul's argument in Romans, and in what he presents on pages 259-261, he is simply repeating the widely accepted views of modern biblical scholarship.
No comments:
Post a Comment