Year: 2021
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: now capable of beinggenuinely human by thinkingright and acting appropriately;and that (ii) Rom 6.12-23 exhorts to the vocation to which human beingshave thus been liberated, and in particularhow they are to be producing signs of justice and holiness.Forth,wewill show how Romans 8.1-11 describes the recovery of genuine humanness in Christ through the Spirit,a nd how Rom 8.18 -30 describes the dynamic vocational relation to the cosmos in which the liberated human beingsfind themselves, as those through whom -in suffering and prayer -the signs of new creation come to birth.All of this will then provide ahighroad back to Rom 12.1-2( chapter 6).Before we go through these steps,h owever,t he following remarks are in order.T he first remark concerns the place of Rom 9 -11 in our treatment.W e will not discuss Rom 9 -11 in this chapter,b ecause it is not directlya bout genuine humanness in the senses we have explored, but about the problem of Jews who do not believet hat Jesus is the messiah of Israel.²This is not,o f course, to sayt hat Rom 9 -11 is not an integralp art of the letter.I ti s.Nor is the subjectm atter of Rom 9 -11 unrelated to the genuine humanness that has been made possible for Jews and Gentiles through the messiah, Jesus.It is preciselyt he rejection of Jesusa sm essiahb yt hose to whom he belongs τὸ κατὰ σάρκα (Rom 9.5), which givesr ise to the difficult question of how the election of Israel relatest ot he new wayo fb eing human inaugurated by its messiah.Paul even entertains the hope thatGentiles who are at last able to fulfil their genuine human vocation mayh aveapositive contribution (Rom 11.14).But this is onlyindirectlyrelated to the ancient philosophical traditions about genuine humanness thatp repare us for Rom 12.1,w hich is whyw eh avet ol eave out the dense scriptural argument of Rom 9 -11.The second remark is about salvation in Romans.In stating that Romans 1-8isabout genuine humanness, we are not saying that it is not about salvation.The traditionalsoteriological readingsare right about the emphasis Paul givesto rescue from sin.But they have largely screened out the important theme of genuine humanness, the story of how human beings, seen as chargedwith arole in the cosmos,h avebecome corrupted and the storyofhow they can be reclaimed for genuine humanness, and hence liberated to fulfil their proper task within a world dynamicallytransformed even as it is still marred by suffering.³Our read- ForPaul, as the work of Novenson (2012; cf.2017)shows, Χριστός does mean "messiah",and is not simplya" proper name".Wew ill sometimes speak of "messiah",but followingl inguistic custome stablished in New Testament scholarship, mostlyu se "Christ". This is not to suggest an alternative analysisofthe human plight in which "sin" does not feature.Rather,itistooffer adeeper understanding of what "sin" actuallymeans.Onthis point cf.Wright 2016. By "fresh synthesis" we aren ot suggestingt hat all he is doing is eclecticallyt akingb its of Jewish and Greco-Roman tradition and puttingt hem into an amalgam.Rather,h is understanding of the implicationsofthe Christ event puts him into aposition in which he can think through Jewish and Greek traditions about what it means to be human in an ew light and thus find the genuinelyhuman existencethat has become possible in Christ to fulfil not onlyJ ewish but also Greek aspirations. Cf.Theobald 2000,48w hose section title for Rom 5.12 -21 is "Zusammenfassung:A dam und Christus oder vergebliches und erfülltes Menschsein";c f. also Michel 1978,1 84 whose title is "Der neue Mensch und die neue Menschheit". Barclay2 015,494 speaks of a "bridge".5.1 Rom5 .12-21 is about an ew way of being human based on the messiah Cf.Luz1 969, 178n .44for al ist of terminological overlaps. Luz1 969, 179c alls this the "schwierigstea ller Fragen, die uns der Aufbaud es Römerbriefs stellt". We agreewith Wolter 2014,341,whenh eemphasises how the aspect of "through Christ" in 5.1-11 (especiallyi n5 .1-2and 5.11) is further developed in 5.12 -21 (especiallyi n5 .15[ἐ νχ ά ριτι τῇ τοῦἑ ν ὸ ςἀ νθρώπου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ]a nd the διά-formulations in 5.16 -19 and 5.21). We use the German terms for compactness of expression (cf.Wolter 2014,3 62). E. g.Dunn 1988a, 282; Käsemann 1980 Käsemann ,1 47,M ichel 1978,190.,190.5.1 Rom 5.12 -21 is about an ew way of being human basedo nt he messiah
Source: De Gruyter eBooks
Author: Simon Dürr
Language: English
Subfield: Religious studies
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4200218278