Romans on J. David Stark

The Unique Ways τὲ καί Clarifies Paul's Audience in Romans

Mon, 11 Dec 2023 08:59:17 +0000

By itself, τὲ καί can’t indicate who Paul was writing to in Romans. But the phrase puts on the table important pieces to the puzzle.

Audience and Predestination in the Letter to the Romans

Mon, 27 Jul 2020 12:00:00 +0000

In a special podcast, Chris Jones and I discuss the challenging issues of Romans’s audience and the letter’s perspective on predestination.

Rasputin and Romans 6

Wed, 03 Jun 2020 14:34:27 +0000

In his Tyndale series Romans commentary, F. F. Bruce offers the following colorful, if also sad, illustration as he discusses Rom 6:

A notable historical instance [of a tendency to read Paul as advocating antinomianism] may be seen in the Russian monk Rasputin, the evil genius of the Romanov family in its last years of power. Rasputin taught and exemplified the doctrine of salvation through repeated experiences of sin and repentance; he held that, as those who sin most require most forgiveness, a sinner who continues to sin with abandon enjoys, each time he repents, more of God’s forgiving grace than any ordinary sinner.((Bruce, Romans ( affiliate disclosure), 134.))

Daily Gleanings: Romans (27 December 2019)

Fri, 27 Dec 2019 16:00:42 +0000

Chris Tilling has a very fine two-part lecture on Karl Barth’s commentary on Romans.

Daily Gleanings: Romans (14 November 2019)

Thu, 14 Nov 2019 16:00:00 +0000

Daily Gleanings about Word & World’s issue on Romans and especially Arland Hultgren’s essay on “Paul, Romans, and the Christians at Rome.”

Daily Gleanings: Romans (11 October 2019)

Fri, 11 Oct 2019 16:00:15 +0000

Daily Gleanings about Sarah Casson’s “Textual Signposts in the Argument of Romans: A Relevance-Theory Approach.”

Daily Gleanings: New Publications (24 July 2019)

Wed, 24 Jul 2019 16:00:36 +0000

Daily Gleanings from Greg Goswell about reading Romans after Acts and from Carol Newsom about rhetoric and hermeneutics in biblical and ST literature.

Daily Gleanings: Paul in RBL (2 July 2019)

Tue, 02 Jul 2019 16:00:16 +0000

Daily Gleanings from RBL about Channing Crisler’s “Reading Romans as Lament” and David Capes’s “Divine Christ.”

Daily Gleanings: Craig Keener Lectures (28 May 2019)

Fri, 31 May 2019 08:38:49 +0000

Daily Gleanings with Craig Keener on Acts and Romans from the 2019 Stone-Campbell Journal conference.

Anchor Bible Discounts from Logos

Mon, 23 Oct 2017 13:00:28 +0000

This month, three Anchor Bible volumes are free or deeply discounted from Logos Bible software. The Anchor Bible series is itself also on sale for 50% off.

Gaventa, "Romans 13"

Tue, 28 Mar 2017 13:00:14 +0000

The newest issue of the Journal of Biblical Literature contains Beverly Gaventa’s essay, “Reading Romans 13 with Simone Weil: Toward a More Generous Hermeneutic.” According to the abstract,

Simone Weil’s interpretation of the Iliad as a “poem of force” has resonances with Rom 1–8, reinforcing the question of how Rom 13:1–7 belongs in the larger argument of Romans. Seeking a generous reading of 13:1–7 along the lines of the generosity Weil extends to the Iliad, I first take Pharaoh as an example of Paul’s understanding of the relationship between God and human rulers and then propose that Paul’s treatment of human rulers coheres with his refusal in this letter to reify lines between “insider” and “outsider.” I conclude with a reflection on the need for generosity in scholarly research and pedagogy.

In the (e)mail: Rodríguez and Thiessen, "The So-called Jew"

Thu, 16 Mar 2017 14:00:47 +0000

In addition to Boccaccini and Segovia’s Paul the Jew, inbox recently saw the arrival from Fortress Press of a review copy of Rafael Rodríguez and Matthew Thiessen’s edited volume The So-Called Jew in Paul’s Letter to the Romans(2016). According to the book’s blurb:

Bates, "Salvation by allegiance alone" and some theological forebears

Thu, 09 Mar 2017 14:00:02 +0000

One of the new titles in the recent Baker catalog (due for release this month) is Matthew Bates’s Salvation by Allegiance Alone: Rethinking Faith, Works, and the Gospel of Jesus the King. According to Michael Bird’s blurb,

Matthew Bates argues that faith or believing is not mere assent, not easy believism, but covenantal loyalty to the God who saves his people through the Lord Jesus Christ. Bates forces us to rethink the meaning of faith, the gospel, and works with a view to demonstrating their significance for true Christian discipleship. This will be a controversial book, but perhaps it is the controversy we need!

A further update on Migne's "Patrologia Latina"

Wed, 08 Feb 2017 14:00:13 +0000

SBL Press has clarified its guidance about citing J.-P. Migne’s Patrologia Latina based on the discovery that various year’s printings of certain volumes within Patrologia Latina have differences. Among these differences are variations in the column arrangements for the texts contained in Patrologia Latina. The Press’s initial recommendation was that

authors always check a PL volume title page to ensure that the printing is dated 1865 or earlier. If the publication or printing date is 1868 or later, we encourage authors to find an earlier printing of PL to cite.

Keener on Romans

Sun, 02 Oct 2016 11:07:20 +0000

This month, Logos Bible Software has Craig Keener’s New Covenant Commentary volume on Romans available for free. The companion deep-discount volume is Gordon Fee’s on Revelation, also from the NCC.

Sacred Texts and Paradigmatic Revolutions in Paperback, Part 2

Thu, 15 Oct 2015 13:49:49 +0000

A while ago, I mentioned Sacred Texts and Paradigmatic Revolutions would be coming to paperback. That format is now available at about a fourth or less of the MSRP for the hardback.

Bulletin for Biblical Research 24, no. 4

Mon, 09 Feb 2015 17:09:20 +0000

Bulletin for Biblical Research 24, no. 4 contains five articles on various topics in Biblical Studies.

Sacred Texts and Paradigmatic Revolutions

Fri, 14 Feb 2014 23:30:30 +0000

The latest Bloomsbury Highlights notes the newly available volume 16 in the T&T Clark Jewish and Christian Texts Series. The volume is a revision of my 2011 dissertation at Southeastern Seminary and primarily explores paradigmatic, or presuppositional, aspects of the hermeneutics at play in Romans and some of the Qumran sectarian texts.

Porter and Ong, "'Standard of Faith' or 'Measure of Trusteeship?'"

Thu, 11 Jul 2013 16:19:37 +0000

Stanley Porter and Hughson Ong have the latest article in the Journal of Greco-Roman Judaism and Christianity: “‘Standard of Faith’ or ‘Measure of Trusteeship’?: A Study in Romans 12.3—A Response.” The article’s opening paragraph explains its responsive character and general argument as follows:

John Goodrich has recently published an article regarding the interpretation of μέτρον πίστεως in Rom. 12.3 in the Catholic Biblical Quarterly. We have tried to respond to his article in that journal, but regrettably, the journal does not publish responses to articles, although we think that Goodrich’s article warrants a response. Goodrich argued ’that μέτρον πίστεως in Rom 12:3 refers to the believer’s charism, addressed shortly and explicitly thereafter in 12:6’ (p. 753). Against the typical view that takes μέτρον πίστεως as ‘standard/measure of faith’, he proposes that this charism should be seen as ‘a trusteeship’ God grants to each believer. Specifically, the genitive construction in μέτρον πίστεως, regarded as appositive, is ‘a measure, namely a trusteeship’ (pp. 769, 772). This old alternative that Goodrich seeks to revive, however, poses some significant problems that can be neither resolved nor sustained by the arguments and evidence he marshals in this article. We assess critically each of these in what follows, followed by our own interpretation of μέτρον πίστεως in Rom. 12.3. (97)

Parker, "Works of the Law"

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 13:02:46 +0000

Barry F. Parker has the latest article in the Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism, "‘Works of the Law’ and the Jewish Settlement in Asia Minor." According to the article’s conclusion:

The first recourse for the Anatolian Jews under [social, political, and religious] pressure was not an appeal to ‘legalism’, but to ‘selective works of the law’, as is implied by the phrase ἔργα νόμου. The only appearance of this phrase from that time outside of Paul is found in 4QMMT. The use of ‘works of the law’ there confirms both that Paul is in (indirect) dialogue with those familiar with Essene terminology and that selectivity is in view. Although he speaks to a different audience about a different problem regarding the law in Romans, when Paul uses the phrase ἔργα νόμου in Romans 3, the immediate context is quite similar to what he addresses in Galatians. It is, in both cases, a matter of the righteousness of God, as expressed in the faithfulness of Christ (πίστις Χριστοῦ). This faithfulness of Christ suffices for both Jew and Gentile (pagan), who are equally condemned—in Galatians they are condemned for trying to supplement that faithfulness with a perverted version of the law, and in Romans they are condemned for perverting the law by their very efforts to fulfill it through a selective participation in it ( 96).

On the Web (February 7, 2013)

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 22:07:54 +0000

On the web:

Larry Hurtado comments on Alan Mugridge’s PhD thesis, “Stages of Development in Scribal Professionalism in Early Christian Circles,” which is currently under revision for publication.
Nathan Eubank enters the biblioblogosphere (HT: Stephen Carlson).
Baker is now releasing the “Teach the Text” commentary series. Currently available is Marvin Pate’s volume on Romans, and Robert Chisholm’s volume on Samuel is available for preorder (HT: M. Miller).

Green Collection Romans Fragment

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 14:20:49 +0000

Dan Wallace digests the SBL meeting discussion of the recently announced Romans fragment in the Green collection.

Journal of Theological Studies 63, no. 2

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 13:46:24 +0000

The Journal of Theological Studies 63, no. 2 includes several articles of note.

Pillar Commentaries at WTSBooks

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 13:12:20 +0000

[caption id="" align=“alignright” width=“80”] Colin Kruse[/caption]

In recognition of the release of Colin Kruse’s Romans volume in the Pillar New Testament Commentary, the Westminster Bookstore is running several sales, including:

Thousands and Ten Thousands

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 11:39:55 +0000

[caption id="" align=“alignright” width=“250” caption=“15th-c. Illumination (Photo credit: Wikipedia)”] [/caption]

First Samuel 18:6 describes David’s return after killing Goliath ( 1 Sam 17:41–58). Precisely how this event sits chronologically in relationship to the surrounding narrative is difficult to establish. 1 One good way of reading the narrative, however, involves treating 1 Sam 18:1–5 as an extended parenthesis, which includes some foreshadowing, and understanding 1 Sam 18:6 to be bringing the reader back to the main plot line that had temporarily paused with 1 Sam 17:58. 2 In this context, it begins to be said הכה שׁאול֙ באלפו ודוד ברבבתיו ‎( 1 Sam 18:7; Saul has slain by his thousands and David by his ten thousands; see also 1 Sam 21:11; 29:5). 3 Yet, thus far, David has specifically been reported to have killed only one person (Goliath) and some animals ( 1 Sam 17:34–37)—not רבבת (ten thousands). 4 Rather, the women’s song quantitatively represents the qualitative value of David’s victory over Goliath as it relates to Saul’s previous exploits. 5 On hearing this song, then, Saul becomes enraged and starts looking and acting to do David harm ( 1 Sam 18:8–9).

So Then You Also Were Made to Die

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 00:36:08 +0000

In Rom 7:1–6, Paul appears to draw on Num 5:11–31 as a metaphorical way of characterizing the Christian community’s history. 1 While her husband lives, the wife’s involvement with another man would make her liable to the charge of adultery from her current husband. From this charge, the wife would also become liable to the ritual of Num 5:11–31, and the serious consequences that it would entail if she had indeed committed adultery ( Num 5:21–22, 24, 27–28).2

Sanday and Headlam, "Romans"

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 17:00:30 +0000

Google Books has available the full text of Sanday and Headlam’s commentary on Romans in the International Critical Commentary (5th ed.; 1899).

והיתה בריתי בבשׂרכם לברית עולם

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 08:47:14 +0000

Abraham

In Gen 17:13, God tells Abraham that his whole household was to be circumcised והיתה בריתי בבשׂרכם לברית עולם (and my covenant will be in your flesh as an everlasting covenant). Yet, Paul strongly opposes Gentiles’ submitting to circumcision in connection with their membership in the Christian community (Galatians) and asserts that ὁ ἐν τῷ κρυπτῷ Ἰουδαῖος, καὶ {ὅτι} περιτομὴ καρδίας ἐν πνεύματι οὐ γράμματι ( Rom 2:29; the Jew is one who is such inwardly, and [that] circumcision is of the heart by the Spirit, not by the letter). What then becomes of the בבשׂרכם []ברית עולם ( Gen 17:13; everlasting covenant in your [= Abraham’s household’s] flesh)? It is precisely there because of the circumcision of Abraham’s messianic seed ( Gal 3:16), ἐν ᾧ καὶ περιετμήθητε περιτομῇ ἀχειροποιήτῳ ἐν τῇ ἀπεκδύσει τοῦ σώματος τῆς σαρκός, ἐν τῇ περιτομῇ τοῦ Χριστοῦ ( Col 2:11; in whom you also were circumcised with an unhandmade circumcision in the removal of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of the Messiah; cf. Gal 3:23–29; Bede, Genesis, 284 [ affiliate disclosure]; Chrysostom, Hom. Col. 6 [ NPNF1 13:285; affiliate disclosure]; Cyril of Alexandria, Catena on Genesis[ ACCOT 2:56; affiliate disclosure]; Theodore of Mopsuestia, Colossians [ ACCNT 9:32; affiliate disclosure]).

The Stumbling Stone of Rom 9:32–33 as Torah and Jesus

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 09:12:15 +0000

In a 2003 article, Morna Hooker makes the following, insightful argument about the referent(s) of the λίθος ( stone) language in Rom 9:32–33:

Is Paul affirming here that Israel’s problem is simply that she has failed to believe in Christ? The majority of commentators accept this interpretation, but the possibility supported by some scholars that the stumbling-block is the law should not be too easily dismissed. It should be noted after all that Christ has not been mentioned since 9:1–5 and that the two subjects under discussion in Rom 9:30–31 are the law and righteousness. Moreover, what Paul has just stated is that Israel has misunderstood the function of the law. Perhaps then the stumbling-block over which Israel has fallen is the law.

"But What about Israel?"

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 20:08:15 +0000

The Evangelical Theological Society’s southeastern, regional meeting begins tomorrow and will feature some interesting-looking papers, a couple of which I have been able to preview as they have come through Southeastern’s Writing Center. Fellow blogger Alan Knox will be presenting on “A Theology of Encouragement in Hebrews,” and my own paper, “But What about Israel?: A Biblical-Theological Approach to the Question of Individual and Corporate Election in Romans 9–11” has also been included in the program. To abstract this paper briefly:

ΖΩΗ ΕΚ ΝΕΚΡΩΝ (Romans 11:15)

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:32:23 +0000

In Rom 11:15, Paul’s reference to ζωὴ ἐκ νεκρῶν ( life from the dead) may refer to bodily resurrection, but it may also be read as metaphorically referring to the restoration of the then hardened portion of Israel into participation in the blessings of the Abrahamic covenant that Paul regards as having come to fruition in Jesus:

Keener Interview (Part 2) Posted

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 21:35:32 +0000

Yesterday, Nijay Gupta posted the first half of his interview with Craig Keener, and the second half of the interview is now available.

The Textual Originality of Romans 15–16: Additional Evidence

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 11:00:40 +0000

Beyond these general reasons that the perspectives of Baur and others on Rom 15–16 are insufficiently supported, several other pieces of evidence also converge to suggest that these chapters, much in the form in which they appear in the modern, printed editions, are original to Romans.

On Origen’s testimony, Marcion truncated the epistle before the beginning of chapter fifteen ( Murray 2.265; cf. Carson, Moo, and Morris 246; Metzger 536). This fact, combined with the observation that Rom 15:1–13 completes the argument begun in Rom 14:1–23 strongly indicates that at least this part of Rom 15–16 is original to Paul.
Since only limited, if any, direct, textual evidence exists for the supposed fifteen-chapter version of the epistle, it seems quite likely that, as authenticity goes for one part of the section of Rom 15–16, so it goes for the whole ( Carson, Moo, and Morris 247).
The external manuscript evidence for Rom 15–16 is very strong, and the external, patristic testimony also seems reasonably good. Origen (ca. 185–254) includes this section in his Romans commentary ( Bray 353–81, 387), and both Justin Martyr (ca. 100/110-165) and Tertullian (ca. 155/160–240/250) seem to allude to it at various points ( Bray 360, 375, 387). With these last two examples, however, some caution must be exercised, since they do provide only allusions to and not direct quotations from Romans (cf. Bray xxii). Moreover, Carson, Moo, and Morris, 246, note that Tertullian, at least, does not quote from Rom 15–16 in places where he might have been expected to do so. Yet, if Tertullian was indeed writing against Marcionism in these texts ( Murray 2:264), he may have simply been attempting to construct his argument from texts that the Marcionites themselves would accept.
Finally, and specifically related to the doxology, very little evidence exists for its omission, and one manuscript (G), although it omits the passage, leaves room for its inclusion ( Metzger 534–35)].

Based on these factors, it seems that only the doxology’s specific placement may remain somewhat in doubt, and one must admit that discerning its original placement is no simple task. Of the three basic positions in which it appears in different manuscripts (i.e., at the end of one of Romans’ last three chapters), a placement after chapter fourteen (either in addition to or instead of the placement at the end of Rom 16) would interrupt the train of Paul’s argument from 14:1–15:13. This placement could, therefore, perhaps be preferred because it is the hardest reading, and scribes copying Romans would have tended to remove rather than create difficulties in the text. Yet, this reading could also have arisen because the Marcionites used and circulated their version of Romans, which ended with chapter fourteen ( Metzger 472). Reading the doxology after Rom 15 has the support of an early third-century manuscript (P46), but this textual basis is very narrow and may merely reflect a scribal idiosyncrasy (cf. Metzger 471, 473). The final placement possibility for the doxology at the end of Rom 16, of the three major possibilities, has perhaps the best breadth and antiquity in its manuscript attestation (e.g., א, B, C, D, cop, eth, it, vg). In the end, therefore, because of the possibility of Marcionite influence in the placement of the doxology after Rom 14, it seems most probable that the doxology originally appeared after Rom 16 and that Rom 15–16 formed the concluding section of Paul’s original composition.

The Textual Originality of Romans 15–16: Responses

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:00:25 +0000

The arguments against the authenticity of Rom 15–16 that have been summarized are, however, inadequate for several reasons, which including the following:

Far from a needless repetition of Rom 12:1ff, Rom 15:1–13 actually provides a necessary continuation of Paul’s argument from Rom 14:1–23 ( Murray 2:263–65).
When Paul speaks of ministering “from Jerusalem and around as far as Illyricum” ( Rom 15:19), he does not indicate Jerusalem to be the chronological starting point and Illyricum to be the ending point of his ministry. Rather, he uses these cities to designate the geographical bounds for the region of his ministry ( Murray 2:213–15).
First Clement 5:7 speaks of Paul reaching “the limit of the west.” While Clement may have surmised from Rom 15:25, 28 that Paul actually did reach Spain, this text at least provides ancient testimony to the plausibility of the Spanish mission. In any case, the fact that Paul did not mention Spain in any of his other letters does not invalidate the usage here any more than the destination(s) given in a company’s first bulk marketing mailing is invalidated because that company or its employees have not previously been to that place.
That Aquilla and Priscilla could not have returned to Rome and established a residence there in the interval between the composition of 1 Corinthians [ca. AD 55 ( Carson, Moo, and Morris 283)] and the composition of Romans is by no means certain, especially if Romans is dated later in the period of AD 55–59 (cf. Murray 2:267–68). Moreover, Paul’s greeting so many other people in a city he had never visited does not necessarily provide evidence for non-Pauline authorship of this section of the epistle, since Paul may well have met these people elsewhere, have been introduced to them through correspondence, or have known them through others.
Very little manuscript evidence exists for omitting the doxology, and the consistent testimony of the earliest manuscripts is to have the doxology present at some point ( Metzger 534). Additionally, hypothesizing a Marcionite origin for the doxology seems quite strange, since Marcion’s text of Romans did not contain it ( Murray 2:263).

The Textual Originality of Romans 15–16: Objections

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 11:00:22 +0000

Perhaps the most persistently thorny issues in textual criticism of Romans are related to: (1) the placement of the doxology, which normally appears in Rom 16:25–27 in modern, printed editions and (2) the cohesion of Rom 15–16 with the rest of the epistle. While distinguishable, however, these issues cannot be completely separated from each other, since, at the very least, the doxology appears to be an ending to something.