Wednesday, January 17, 2024

Stanely K. Stowers on the Rhetoric of Romans 1:18-3:26

  

[The] concept of the fullness of sin, and not the Adamic nature, is central to the arguments and rhetoric of Rom 1:18-3:26. Insight comes by noticing that in this concept God’s patience and his holding back of punishment are negative and have dire consequences for the wicked. Thus, Paul warns the Gentile that his refusal to repent and accept God’s mercy means that he is “storing up wrath for the day of wrath.” Sam Williams has argued persuasively that 3:25b-26 contains the idea of God—through Christ—taking care of the accumulated Gentile sins that he had overlooked. I translate it as follows, “This was to demonstrate God’s righteousness because he passed over over previous [Gentile] sins when he held back punishment; it was to demonstrate his own righteousness at this time in history so as to be righteous himself and to make righteous the person who lives on the basis of Jesus’ faithfulness.” In my reading, Paul is specifically giving an account here of how the Gentiles are being saved. As 3:9-20 shows, the Jews are also sinners in need of God’s mercy, but it is the Gentiles who have had their sin passed over. The punishment by bondage to passion does not satisfy God’s judgment that they deserve death (1:32) and God has allowed their sins to accumulate. In a discussion with an imaginary Jewish teacher of Gentiles (2:17-3:8), Paul forecasts chaps. 9-11 by suggesting that Jews have failed to accept Christ and fulfill their mission of being a light to the Gentiles (3:1-8; 2:19-24). God is therefore just in exercising his wrath against them (3:5-7). (Stanely K. Stowers, “Paul’s Four Discourses about Sin,” in Celebrating Paul: Festschrift in Honor of Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, O.P. and Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J., ed. Peter Spitaler [The Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series 48; Eugene, Oreg.: Wipf and Stock, 2012], 120-21)