William S. Campbell’s Romans— Part Four

Last updated on: April 29, 2023 at 1:18 am by Ben Witherington

William S. Campbell’s Romans— Part Four 2023-04-13T12:16:13-04:00 Ben Witherington

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

While Bill Campbell and I agree that Paul is trying to inculcate a super-ordinate identity for his audience, one that goes beyond just being a Gentile for instance, or a Roman Gentile, I don’t agree with him that actually Paul is an advocate for two kinds of related super-ordinate identities, namely being part of Israel, or being part of the Gentile Christ followers, with some overlap between the two for Jewish followers of Christ like Paul himself. No, in my view the superordinate identity Paul is trying to inculcate for all Christ followers is Jew and Gentile united in Christ, and no he does not limit the term ekklesia to just assemblies of Gentile Christians.

Does Paul always distinguish Jew from non-Jew? No he does not. Gal. 3.28 says plainly there is neither Jew nor Gentile in Christ but all are one. Is Paul calling the meeting in Rome in the house of Aquila and Priscilla an ekklesia because it’s a meeting of only Gentiles? Obviously not since it’s in the home of two Jews! And frankly, most of the people that Paul names in much of Rom. 16 are Jews. It is entirely an argument from silence to suggest that since Paul only mentions ‘ekklesia’ once there must not be other ones in Rome, and that otherwise the Jewish Christians must be meeting in the synagogue. I agree that probably Jewish Christians were meeting separately from Gentile ones in Rome in various cases, but Rome does not involve house churches Paul himself established, which involved Jew and Gentile united in Christ, as for instance in Corinth. The discussion about the weak and the strong, or the persons with too many scruples about food etc. and those without surely involves Jews and Gentile followers of Christ both in 1 Corinthians and in Romans.

What about the notion that the terminology ‘ekklesia’ applied to the Christians in Judaea is Luke being anachronistic? This does not make sense in light of the fact that Paul in Galatians 1, referring to the pre-Christian persecution of Christ followers by himself clearly says he persecuted the church of God, which has to refer to Jews in Judaea!

For Paul the superordinate identity that he seeks to inculcate is not either being in Israel as an observant Jew or being the ethne in Christ, but rather a shared identity of Jew and Gentile—- being ‘in Christ’. Over 50 times in Paul’s letters do we have the phrase ‘en christo’ as the ultimate identity marker for both Jews like Paul and Gentiles like Titus in Christ. Paul believes that ultimately and finally when Christ returns he will turn away the impiety of Jacob=the rejection of the Jewish messiah by Jews, and they too will be saved by grace through faith in their messiah. In other words, Paul’s is definitely not a two track, two peoples of God model, especially not when for Paul God involves not just the Father but also the Son, and not just the Son but also the person of the Holy Spirit. The goal is not just everyone worshipping God the Father, the goal is Jew and Gentile redeemed by Christ and including Jesus the Lord within their worship, as Phil. 2.5-11 and also 1 Cor. 8.4-6 suggest. This is because Paul believes, in his modification of the Shema in 1 Cor. 8 that Christ the Lord is worthy of what only God is worthy of— worship of the one God of the Bible. Take for example Paul’s use of the phrase ‘in Christ’ in Rom. 12.5— clearly enough, it includes Paul himself, a Jew, since he says ‘we’ and it also includes his audience, predominantly Gentiles, but also some Jews. The division of apostolic labor between Paul and Peter did not exclude Paul from addressing some Jews in or outside the synagogue though his focus was on converting Gentiles, nor did it prevent Peter from evangelizing some Gentiles. The goal was that there be one body of Christ involving both Jews and Gentiles, even if currently Gentiles and Jewish Christians were mostly meeting separately in Rome. Rom. 3.24 is clear enough that salvation/ redemption happens for all persons ‘in Christ Jesus’ and not elsewhere. Also note, in 1 Cor. 1 tells us Paul baptized both Jews and Gentiles into this new corporate personality, something further explained in Rom. 6 to mean that the old self is dead and buried with Christ in baptism so that one could become a new creature in Christ.

History and Religion

Education and Religion

Uncategorized

Roaming through Romans

Previous Post

April 28, 2023

William S. Campbell's Romans-- Part Three

Next Post

April 30, 2023 William S. Campbell's Romans-- Part Five

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz