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More on Romans 12-16 Intertextuality: Channing Crisler Pt. 2

More on Romans 12-16 Intertextuality: Channing Crisler Pt. 2

Last updated on: September 18, 2026 at 11:16 pm by B. J. Oropeza

More on Romans 12-16 Intertextuality: Channing Crisler Pt. 2 2026-09-18T23:16:25-07:00 B. J. Oropeza

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We are back for some more insights on intertextuality in Romans 12–16! This is the concluding segment of my interview with Dr. Channing Crisler on his book, An Intertextual Commentary on Romans: Volume (Romans 12:1–16:27) (Eugene: Pickwick, 2026). This fourth and final volume was the topic of our interview the other week (click here to see pt. 1 of the interview).

For those who don’t know, Channing L. Crisler, Ph.D., is Professor of New Testament at Anderson University. He is author of several books, including the three previous volumes of An Intertextual Commentary on Romans. For my previous interviews with him on the three other volumes, click here: volume one, volume two (pts. 1,2, and 3) volume three (pts. 1 and 2).

And now here’s the conclusion of the interview!

The Interview with Channing Crisler: Romans 12–16 (Part 2)

Oropeza

Are there any Scriptures in the background to Paul’s metaphorical priestly service to the gospel in Romans 15:14-20? If so, how do these texts inform the passage?

Crisler

Paul keys himself to both prophets and priests in Romans. The latter characterizes the text here, a feature particularly evident in Rom 15:16. I did in fact identify a few pretexts that may contribute to the intertextual subtext here, which in turn illuminates our reading of Paul’s thought.

One of the loudest echoes may stem from Isaiah 61:6 and its larger context. Isa 61:1–11 envisions an agent whose saving activity includes some of the very things that Paul discusses throughout the letter as well as in Romans 15:

preaching the gospel (Isa 61:1–3/ Rom 1:16, 15:20)
encouraging the afflicted (Isa 61:1–3/ Rom 5:3–5)
inheriting the earth (Isa 61:7/ Rom 4:13), and
the revelation/“rise” of God’s righteousness before the nations (Isa 61:11/ Rom 1:17). This activity affects Jews and gentiles in intertwining ways in Isa 61:1-11 and thereby in Romans 15.

Isa 61:6 forecasts that God’s people would be “priests of the Lord” who would “consume the wealth of the nations” and in turn be marveled at by said nations.

Oropeza

Are the nations friends or foes of Israel in Isaiah 61?

Crisler

To be sure, the passage points to the vindication of God’s people before the nations. At the same, their priestly service is not ultimately punitive but potentially redemptive (Isa 61:10–11).

Paul participates in Isaiah’s priestly service by serving gentiles with the gospel for the purpose of making them an acceptable and sanctified offering to God (Rom 15:16). By carrying out this service, the gentiles are able to participate in the vindication that Isaiah envisioned for God’s people. They join in the praise which the prophet said would “rise up before all the nations” (Isa 61:11).

Oropeza

In Rom 15:24–32, Paul speaks of a money collection he will bring to Jerusalem from his gentile congregations, and he plans to go to Spain after visiting Rome. It so happens that Isaiah 60–66 speaks about the “wealth of the nations” coming into Zion (Jerusalem) (Isa 61:6). And some biblical interpreters suggest that Tarshish mentioned in Isaiah 60:9 and 66:19 refers to Spain. What are your thoughts about this?

Crisler

Your question, BJ, reminds me of something I have been reflecting on lately. Even after four volumes, I simply could not track down every possible pretext in Romans to the extent I had hoped. More on that in a moment. This is one of them.

I am somewhat leery of proposing such a specific geographical echo. That might sound strange coming from me. It may appear that I have never heard an echo I didn’t like.

Oropeza

Ha ha! For our audience, scholars of Paul who hear a lot of echoes of earlier texts in his writings are sometimes considered maximalists, and those who hear few echoes are considered minimalists.

Crisler

With that said, while Paul certainly relies on Isaiah for missional direction, as we have seen in Rom 15:21 (Isa 52:15), it seems there is a broader theological reliance. Isaiah provides him with a kind of missional “principle.”

However, for specific locations, Paul seems to have relied upon prayer and the Spirit’s direction (Rom 1:11–12). I am not sure if we can establish that Paul wished to make his way to Spain due to his reading of “Tarshish” in Isaiah 60:9 and 66:19. Moreover, there seems to be some uncertainty of Tarshish’s precise location in the ancient Mediterranean. Of course, I could be wrong and have missed an echo. It would not be the only one.

Oropeza

There are those who connect Tarshish with Tartessos, Spain, and those who connect it with Tarsus in Cilicia (southeast Asia Minor), Paul’s childhood home. Both refer to ancient sources for support of their position.* It appears that ancient authors might have had their own disagreements about its location.

Anyway, now that you have completed all four volumes of An Intertextual Commentary on Romans, what would you consider some of your most significant findings?

Crisler

There is much to be said here. I will limit myself to five brief observations.

First, as with countless others, I am humbled by the text of Romans itself and fear I have not done justice to it.

Second, the secondary (scholarly) material related to Romans and intertextuality is overwhelming. I am not even sure of whether A.I. could locate, collate, and summarize all the relevant sources!

Third, I think we underestimate the degree to which Scripture saturated Paul’s mind. While we can debate maximalist and minimalist views with respect to Pauline audiences, Romans demonstrates that its author is a scriptural savant.

Fourth, my study has drawn me back to something Richard Hays suggested in his seminal work almost forty years ago. He wrote, “. . . later readers will rightly grasp meanings of the figures that may have been veiled from Paul himself. Scripture generates through Paul new figurations; The Righteousness from Faith finds in Paul a new voice; The Righteousness from Faith finds in Paul a new voice” (Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul, 33). Paul’s language is so immersed in Scripture that we may recognize Old Testament influences on his thought that he was not entirely conscious of in the moment. It seems that those influences would still offer something instructive for understanding Paul’s text.

Fifth and finally, on a personal note, I have experienced firsthand what Paul asserted in Romans 15:4, namely that the Scriptures give us hope in the righteousness of God revealed in the crucified and risen Christ.

Oropeza

Amen to that! Thank you, Channing, for this wonderful last volume to your series. The four volumes together, I believe, will become very influential for discerning Paul’s use of Scripture in Romans.

Intertextual Commentary on Romans

All four volumes of An Intertextual Commentary on Romans by Channing Crisler

Note

* On Tarshish as Tartessos, Spain, see Robert Jewett, Romans, Hermenia (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007), 924. On Tarshish as Tarsus, see A. Andrew Das, “Paul of Tarshish? Isaiah 66.9 and the Spanish Mission of Romans 15.24, 29,” New Testament Studies 54 (2008) 60–73. Currently, I think Jewett and his sources make the better case. All the same, I think it implausible that Paul expected his Roman auditors to hear Spain being echoed through the “Tarshish” texts of Isaiah, even if that’s the way he interpreted those texts.

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About B. J. Oropeza

B. J. Oropeza, Ph.D., Durham University (England), is Professor Emeritus of Biblical and Religious Studies at Azusa Pacific University and Seminary. Among his many publications include The Gospel of Paul (Eerdmans, forthcoming), Perspectives on Paul: Five Views (Baker Academic), Practicing Intertextuality (Cascade), The Gospel of Paul (Eerdmans, forthcoming), and editor and contributor to the Scripture, Texts, and Tracings series (Fortress Academic): 1 Corinthians (vol. 1), Romans (vol. 2), 2 Corinthians & Philippians (vol. 3); and Galatians & 1 Thessalonians (vol. 4). He participated on Bible translation teams for the NRSV (updated edition), Common English Bible (CEB), and Lexham English Septuagint (LES). He also has commentaries on 1 Corinthians (New Covenant commentary series: Cascade) and 2 Corinthians (longer work—Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity: SBL Press; shorter work—Wesley One-Volume Commentary). His current specialties include Romans, intertextuality, and Perspectives on Paul. He can be followed on X-Twitter (@bjoropeza1) and Instagram (@bjoropeza1). You can read more about the author here.

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