Protestant Benjamin Schliesser, in his monograph on Romans 4 and Abraham's faith, wrote the following about Paul using Psa 32 (LXX: Psa 31) and King David. He argues (correctly) that Paul is using King David himself as a second example of justification:
From the Genesis
quotation, Paul concludes that righteousness was counted to Abraham not on the
basis of a claim, but of grace (Rom 4:4). That λογιζεσθαι in actuality is
about the counting of righteousness χωρις εργων (4:6), is affirmed by the Psalm-verse by
means of the gezerah shavah. Paul draws on LXX Ps 31:1-2 via
negationis, since the Psalmist does not use the respective verb positively,
but negatively: The non-reckoning of sins is the forgiveness of sins.
Thus, apart from
the patriarch Abraham, also the king David is appealed to, and his function
might be to comply with another rabbinic rule that requires two witnesses for a
debate: David witnesses for God’s dealing with Abraham. Also, it was not
uncommon in rabbinic theology to support a Torah-verse with a quote from the
prophets or Ketubim. By bringing together the two Old Testament passages, “counting
of righteousness” and “non-counting of sins,” Paul says in effect:
Justification is also forgiveness.
In the next
paragraph, according to Jeremias, Paul conversely explains LXX Ps 31:1-2 from
Gen 15:6, raising the question of the beneficiary of the “blessedness (μακαρισμος)”: Is it the
circumcised or also the uncircumcised (Rom 4:9)? Again, he argues with the help
of the “conclusion of analogy,” again with the keyword λογιζεσθαι, though
in this case the reader/hearer has to complement the logic: Abraham was
reckoned righteousness as an uncircumcised, i.e., as a Gentile (4:10);
therefore – that is what one needs to supplement – even the λογιζεσθαι of the Psalm passage
refers to the Gentiles as well. As D.-A. Kock points out, this obvious
conclusion is reached on the basis Hillel’s seventh rule, by “inference from
the context.” On the basis of the temporal gap between the events of Gen 15:6
and 17:10-11, Paul arrives at his thesis and the consequences of Gen 15:6 and
by implication of LXX Ps 31:2 concern both περιτομη and ακαροβυστια. Hence, Abraham
became the father of all believing Gentiles (Rom 4:11) and the father of all
believing Jews (4:12). (Benjamin Schliesser, Abraham’s Faith in Romans 4:
Paul’s Concept of Faith in Light of the History of Reception of Genesis 15:6
[Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2. Reihe 224; Tübingen:
Mohr Siebeck, 2007], 314-15, emphasis added)
David, the author of
the Psalm, considers his personal experiences as a lawless and ungodly man, who
however upon confession of his sins was forgiven, as typical and
turns them into a general phrase (31:1-2). Therefore, Paul can use David as
type for those who are under the reality of the law, who are in the covenant,
but who are in fact without works (χωρις εργων) and find themselves cut off from the law
and from God. Yet even they will be forgiven through their trusting and
throwing themselves unto God’s mercy, since God’s steadfast love is unconditional;
it surrounds those who trust him. But now, even though David clearly represents
primarily those under the law, the general conclusion about God’s merciful
dealing comprises also non-Jews: Characteristically, they are labelled “lawless,”
“ungodly,” and “sinners,” which are precisely the terms that David attributes
to himself. Hence, there is no distinction between Jews and Gentiles (cf. Rom
3:22-23; 10:12); they all have sinned, and God shows no partiality, whether they
have sinned apart from the law or under the law (cf. 2:11-12). (Ibid., 352,
emphasis added)
The connection of LXX
Gen 15:6 and Ps 31:1-2 is by no means an arbitrary or forced harmonization of
distant ideas, but a unique and powerful support of his argumentation based on
formal and contextual criteria: (1) As we have seen, out of the wide range of λογιζεσθαι-occurrences
in the Septuagint, only LXX Ps 31:1-2 concurs meaningfully with Paul’s
argumentative intentions. Also, the two quotations describe what God does count
and what God does not count, and hence embrace descriptively God’s
action from both ends. (2) Another intriguing feature of Paul’s gezerah
shavah is that it features both Abraham, the first patriarch and Israel’s
figure of identification, and David, the Messianic king and image for Israel’s
strength and unit. Thereby, Paul makes use of a typically Jewish “remembrance”
motif, which [is] also encountered in Sirah 44, 4QMMT, and 1 Maccabees 2. At
the same time, appealing to Abraham and David enables Paul to daw on authoritative
verses representing the Scriptures as a whole: Both Torah and Ketubim have
their say. (3) Paul accomplishes to incorporate yet another characteristic of a
gezerah shavah, namely to apply one principle to two different situations:
Abraham is first and foremost the representative of the uncircumcised, who are
not )yet) under the law, while David’s situation is primarily that of the
circumcised who are under the law. But Paul levels out these categorical
differences, first by generalizing the Genesis quote on Abraham in Rom 4:4-5,
then by applying the situation of David to all humans in 4:6. For Paul – and this
is indeed revolutionary – God’s dealing with humankind is no longer a matter of
Jew or non-Jew.
Paul
shows that neither Abraham or David have anything to present to God but are
totally dependent on God’s activity: Their existence takes place outside of any
relationship with God (ασεβεια), apart from the law (ανομια) and
from works (χωρις εργων), and is marked by the dominion of sin (αμαρτια). From
God’s perspective, this means damnation, non-existence, death (5:12-21). The
provocation of this view lies in its contrast to Jewish interpretation
according to which Abraham fulfilled the (still unwritten) Torah perfectly and
David likewise accomplished deeds of righteousness (cf. 4QMMT C 24-25; Sir
49,4). Nevertheless, for Paul both are equally typoi for all humans
prior to and apart from faith; all are separated from God, ungodly sinners.
This “spatial” distance to God can only be bridged by God himself, who elects
prior to any deeds and discloses, in a salvation-historical sense, the
possibility for faith, enabling an individual appropriation of it. In and through
faith the fatal distance to God is removed (forgiveness of sin) and a salvific
relationship with God established (justification). (Ibid., 354-56, emphasis
added)
