Chapter Nineteen: Rereading the Rest of Romans
S.1. Preamble
The new reading of R 1-4 sheds new light on other JT texts (p765-66).
S.2 Identifying the "Heartland" Texts
'Justification' and 'faith' texts relating to R 1-4 (p767). Works' of 'law: R 9.31, 10.4, 10.5; Galatians 2.16, 3.2-12. 'Justification': R 9.31-32, 10.5; Galatians 2.16, 3.11-12. Faith and 'works': R 9.30-33, 10.4-6; Galatians 2.16, 3.2, 3.5-11. 'Justification' and 'faith': R 9.30-33, 10.3-6?, 14.18, 10.9-11, 14.22-23?; Galatians 3.6, 3.21-22. Further listings (p768). Passages with same lexical pattern as 'citadel text': R 5.1-11, 6.7-8, 9.30-10.21; Galatians 2.15-3.29, 5.5-6 (p769); text box of key terms (p770).
S.3 The Argumentative Dynamic of Romans 9-11
R 9-11 problematic unless we re-introduce the Teacher who asks whether: "... the anomalous salvation history generated in part by Paul himself calls Paul's version of the Gospel into question and discredits it" (p771). Paul must be wrong because the wrong people have accepted his Gospel and the right people have rejected it; Paul enrages the Teacher's constituency (p772); Paul a traitor of Judaism, accounting for biographical justifications (p773).
S.4 Romans 9.6-29
Paul's rhetorical traps and the citing of the Wisdom of Solomon (p774); R 9 question: can Pagans be included within salvation by the God of the Jews? Orthodox Jews could accept up to 9.24a but if this argument is accepted God must be allowed in principle to include pagans in salvation and has announced this beforehand; then Paul reverses in 9.24b (p775). The sequence of Isaac over Ishmael, the Exodus and the potter and the clay, positive stories of Israel (p776); the trap in 9.24. Not only the Jews but also the pagans; should God wish to call pagans, Jews cannot refuse (p777). The Wisdom of Solomon (p778); the operation of divine wisdom (p779); R 9.27 key cf Isaiah 10.22, 1.9; the problem of unsaved Jews (p780).
S.5. Romans 9.27-10.5
Possible challenges (p781-72).
5.1 Semantic Considerations: Christ saves (p783); Jesus is Resurrected and glorified after his faithful death on the cross (p784); Jews have not grasped the reality of Christ (p785-76); Leviticus 18.5 in R 10.5 the Teacher's programme (p787); Israel's "misstep" is to fail to acknowledge Christ and think the law sufficient for salvation (p788).
5.2 Paul's Subversion of the (Greek: Agon) Motif (p789-90): "Israel makes her mistake after the end of the race has arrived, not on the way to that goal" (p791).
5.3 Implications (p792): Anthropocentric, Jewish righteousness is a post Christian event; pre Christian Judaism celebrated, never cited in terms of "works of law" (p793-94).
S.6. Romans 10.6-21
6.1 Romans 10.6-8 (p795): The recurrence of Christ's faithfulness (p796); Judaism Re-readings of Deuteronomy 30.12-14, in the light of Wisdom; Christ is the wisdom of God; Wisdom in R 10 (p797); it is God's voice in R 10.6-8; Christianised Wisdom (p798); Paul subverts the Teacher's use of Deuteronomy 30.12-14 (p799); God has "come down" and spoken to his chosen people in Christ (p800), so Israel is accountable for turning away from Christ.
6.2 Romans 10.9-10: Continued rhetorical concern with Deuteronomy 30.12-14 (p801); salvation and faith are correlated not conditional (p802).
6.3 Romans 10.11-13: Isaiah 28.16, Joel 2.32; whereas the Teacher asks if pagans can be saved, Paul includes the Jews in the "all" of salvation (p803).
6.4 Romans 10.14-21 (p204): Hostile Teacher questions and Scriptural rejoinders (p805-06).
S.7. A Repunctuation of NRSV - Romans 9.26-10.21 (p808-09).
S.8. The Theological Implications
The apocalyptic re-reading deepens R 1-4 and 5-8 (p809).
8.1 The Retrospective Ground of Paul's Argument: From 9.27 "... the validity of Paul's claim that God has acted in Christ definitively to 'deliver' both pagan and Jew"; the repeated significance of Habakkuk 2.4; "life" is eschatological life; definitively retrospective (p810); "... only death in Christ effects righteous activity"; "... only participation in Christ's execution terminates humanity's sinful condition ... reconstitutes it ...to resurrect it" (p811).
8.2 Paul's Intertextuality: Whenever Paul contests the Teacher he uses a cluster of texts (p812); "Paul has crafted his own countervailing set of texts specifically to refute, word by word, the key Scriptural claims of the Teacher" (p813); J and righteousness language is the Teacher's (p814); varying judgments of Paul's skill (p815); the jigsaw of Scripture, almost certainly memorised, must refute and build Paul's own argument; but the Scripture is contingent (p816).
8.3. The Nature of Faith: "... 'belief' ends up functioning more as a marker of salvation than a solitary condition; it is a marker of participation in the faithful and resurrected Christ, which thereby implicitly guarantees for the believer a future participation in the resurrection that Christ has already achieved" (p817) and this is what Jews (and all) have been offered and rejected. Problems with a 'thin' reading )p818): Christ's fidelity, the Resurrection and the Spirit are otiose but a 'thick' reading embraces these (p819). Other features of R 10: Human freedom within salvation; response in belief and confession (p820); the great extent of Jewish rejection of the Christ that has come to them; Paul affirms his auditors' saved state.
S.9. Loose Ends in Romans (p821)
9.1 Romans 5.1-2 (p822): JT difficulties and apocalyptic advantages (p823-24).
9.2. Romans 6.7-8: JT embarrassment dissolved by the apocalyptic (p825) retrospective not prospective faith (p826).
9.3 Romans 12.1-8: giftedness and grace (p827); Christian thinking.
9.4 Romans 11.20-23 (p828-29.
9.5 Romans 14 (p830-32).