Monday, July 29, 2024

Jason A. Staples on Romans 9:22

 

The first problem is that the “endured with much patience” reading does not make sense in the context of the analogy; it is unclear that it would mean to “patiently endure” a vessel. Many commentators have expressed their confusion or frustration with how the metaphor seems to break down at this point, observing that Paul could have more clearly made his point about God’s right to arbitrarily predestine some to destruction. But he does not make that point clearly because that is not in fact what he argues at all. Once the precise terminology of the passage is better understood, it becomes clear that this verse sayings nothing of “enduring” vessels nor of predestination to destruction.

 

Specifically the verb φερω (here in the form ηνεγκεν), which appears nowhere else in the Pauline corpus, has been poorly understood in this passage, with most modern interpreters seeming to have derived its sense from the nearby word for “long-suffering” or “patience” (μακροθυμια). While φερω often does mean something like “carry” or “bear” and, by extension, to “endure” something, it can also mean something closer to “fetch” or even “produce.” As a rule of thumb, when Paul’s vocabulary or syntax seem especially obscure, it is often a signal that he is alluding to or borrowing scriptural language, so it should not be surprising that the phrase with which so many have struggled is lifted directly from Jer 27:25 LXX (50:25 MT), which says God “has brought out the instruments of his wrath” with which he will destroy the land of the Chaldeans (Table 5.1).

 

Table 5.1 Vessels of wrath in LXX Jeremiah 27:25 and Romans 9:22

Jer 27:25 LXX (50:25 MT)

κυριος . . . εξηνεγκεν . . . τα σκευη οργης αυτου

Lord . . . brought out his vessels of wrath

Rom 9:22

ο θεος . . . ηνεγκεν . . . σκευη οργης

God . . . produced . . . vessels of wrath

 

On the basis of this intertextual reference, one could understand Rom 9:22 as referring to God “carrying” or “conveying” the vessels, which would conform closely to the sense in the source passage. But Paul has altered Jeremiah’s “bring out” by removing the prefix from the verb, which facilitates another meaning of the verb φερω better suited to the context of the formation of clay vessels: “produced” or “formed.” This reading makes significantly more sense in the context of the metaphor, as it represents the potter showing “much patience” in the process of producing vessels of wrath. That is, rather than passively waiting and enduring the clay, the potter is actively and patiently involved in the process of trying to change the clay’s shape. An active reading of God’s patient formation of the clay also corresponds nicely with Paul’s arguments about God’s justice elsewhere in Romans, where he has already declared that God’s “patience” is intended to lead to repentance. (Rom 2:4).

 

This understanding of divine patience in the process of the formation of these vessels helps shed light on the nuance of the final part of that clause, the phrase typically translated “made/prepared (καταριζω) for destruction” and interpreted as though it “expresses a nuance of predestination (damnation).” But if Paul intended to communicate that the potter had planned all along to make these vessels for destruction, it is curious that he uses a word that does not carry a nuance of predestination or planning, especially since he does just that in the parallel clause in verse 23, where the “vessels of mercy” are “prepared beforehand” (προητοιμσσεν). In contrast to the προ-prefix in verse 23, which clearly establishes a prospective sense, the κατα-prefix of καταριζω denotes the “completion of the action of a verbal idea.” In keeping with this sense, καταριζω typically means something closer to “mend,” “repair,” or “make good,” including every other Pauline occurrence, which as his exhortation that those who are spiritual “restore” anyone caught in trespass (Gal 6:1) or his desire to “fix” what is lacking in the faith of the Thessalonians (1 Thess 3:10).

 

Elsewhere in the New Testament, καταριζω is the term used to denote the disciples “fixing” their nets (Mark 1:19), a disciple becoming “fully trained” (Luke 6:40), and the final work of God to “establish” those who have “suffered for a little while” (1 Pet 5:10) or “equip” believers to do his will (Heb 13:21). The same nuances of restoration or repair emerge in other Greek corpora, including in the Septuagint and later Christian writings, and the Latin translation of Rom 9:22 (aptata) carries the same nuance of adjustment or adaptation, suggesting the ancient translator understood the Greek term in this sense. In contrast to the “vessels of mercy,” which have been shaped in accord with that was planned beforehand, the “vessels of wrath" have been patiently “fixed.” One set of vessels is prepared, the other is repaired. (Jason A. Staples, Paul and the Resurrection of Israel: Jews, Former Gentiles, Israelites [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024], 194-97)



 

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