Denver Seminary > Articles > Introducing Romans: Critical Issues in Pauls Most Famous Letter

15.05.12 12:01

DENVER SEMINARY
Giving

Introducing Romans: Critical Issues in Pauls Most Famous Letter

Richard Longenecker
Apr 5, 2012
Series: Denver Journal Volume 15 - 2012
Richard N. Longenecker, Introducing Romans: Critical Issues in Pauls Most Famous Letter. Grand Rapids and Cambridge:
Eerdmans, 2011. $40.00 pap. xxvii + 490 pp. ISBN 978-0-8028-6619-6.
Richard Longenecker, professor emeritus of New Testament at Wycliffe College, University of Toronto, is one of North
Americas premier evangelical Pauline scholars. His magisterial New International Greek Testament Commentary on Romans,
soon to appear, will crown a long and distinguished career. This book serves as a more detailed introduction to that commentary
than the series itself would allow.
Longenecker begins with largely uncontested items. Today no serious scholar doubts that Paul wrote Romans or that he used
Tertius as his amanuensis (16:22). Since Harry Gambles 1977 work on The Textual History of Romans, there is an ever-growing
consensus on the integrity of the epistle. Older theories that chapter 16 originally belonged on the end of Ephesians have largely
been rejected, and the existence of a shorter text form ending at 14:23 is best explained as Origen did already toward the end of the
second-century, namely, due to Marcionite influence.
Scarcely more contested are the occasion and date. Paul is writing from Corinth (or its nearby port, Cenchrea) as he gets ready to
return to Jerusalem at the end of his third missionary journey and hopes afterwards to come to Rome and be helped by the Roman
churchs support to then go as far to the West as Spain. The date of composition is probably late 57.
What Longenecker labels two pivotal issues come nextaddressees and purpose. In each case he provides thorough surveys of
scholarly discussion and the major options. While agreeing with many that there may be a majority of Gentile Christians in the
Roman church, he plays down the significance of Claudius expulsion of the Jews in 49, doubting that all Jewish Christians left.
He also breaks from tradition by seeing the major tension in the church as not the Jew-Gentile ethnic divide but the theological
divide over a law-centered vs. law-free lifestyle, which he believes cut across Jew-Gentile divisions. He also does not find fullfledged Judaizing, as in Galatia, to be the problem, merely a form of Christian living with a distinctively Jewish flavor, traceable to
the first converts in the city, who were Jewish and perhaps even in attendance at Pentecost in Jerusalem in A.D. 30.
The two main purposes of the letter are those that emerge most explicitly from Pauls comments in the epistle itselfto impart a
spiritual gift to the Roman Christians and to seek their support for his ongoing ministry westward. The former is reflected in the
letter itself. Pauls detailed understanding of the gospel is the best gift he can give this church that he did not personally found.
Subordinate purposes include defending himself and his message against various misrepresentations, mediating the dispute
between the strong and the weak, and encouraging the payment of legitimate taxes especially in light of recent tax revolts
among some citizens after particularly rapacious practices by local officials.
Longenecker proceeds to an extremely detailed and helpful examination of the possible influence of Greco-Roman rhetoric on
Romans, along with Pauls use of more Jewish forms of writing, including his use of the Old Testament. He observes numerous
examples of oral patterns akin to what rhetors used in the delivery of speeches, while at the same time not running roughshod over
the differences between oral rhetoric and written epistles. Longenecker does not find Romans falling neatly into either forensic or
deliberative or epideictic rhetoric, and he thus refrains from outlining it according to categories such as exordium, narratio,
probatio, exhortatio, etc. Neither does he find some of the recent, highly specific identifications of a specific subgenre of letter all
that compelling. Instead, he is content to refer to Romans simply as protreptic or exhortational discourse.
A little-discussed observation with respect to Pauls use of the Old Testament is how seldom it appears in chapters 5-8 compared
to the rest of the theological body of the epistle. This notice will set Longenecker up for his final, lengthy section on the letters
outline, in which he argues that the letter body should be divided into four main sections1:16-4:25, 5:1-8:39, 9:1-11:36, and
12:1-15:13, with the most distinctive and emphatic section actually being chapters 5-8, written primarily for those in the church
overemphasizing a law-free Gospel. Here Paul hardly roots his remarks in the Hebrew Scriptures, at all, because they wont be as
http://www.denverseminary.edu/article/introducing-romans-critical-issues-in-pauls-most-famous-letter/

Seite 1 von 3

Denver Seminary > Articles > Introducing Romans: Critical Issues in Pauls Most Famous Letter

15.05.12 12:01

appreciated, especially among the Gentile Christians in this group.

But before he gets that far, Longenecker intersperses less directly related topics: textual-critical issues more generally and key
theological debates. In the latter category, he argues for righteousness of God as both attributive and communicative, for a
basically Reformation understanding of justification by faith, for a partially mystical understanding of in Christ, for pistis
I!sou/Christou as containing a subjective genitive, and for an approach to the new perspective that agrees more with its
interpretation of first-century Palestinian Judaism than with its understanding of Pauline theology.
Thorough bibliographies appear at the end of each chapter. Longenecker has unquestionably mastered an enormous secondary
literature and evaluates it very judiciously. Still, it is stunning to see N. T. Wrights commentary on Romans altogether absent and
only three references to his work in the entire volume, with only one (in a footnote) in the section on the new perspective. If one
didnt know any better, one would come away thinking that only E. P. Sanders and J. D. G. Dunn were the major players in this
important fresh analysis of Pauls background and message.
There is a lot of repetition in detail among chapters whose contents overlap, at times even down to the verbatim reproduction of
entire sentences or the better parts of entire paragraphs. Presumably, Longenecker envisions a significant number of individuals
reading only selected sections of his book, but it is still surprising to find so much verbal repetition rather than cross-references to
an earlier treatment of a topic. I am also not as convinced as Longenecker that Robert Jewetts identification of Romans as an
ambassadorial letter is a poor fit for genre nor that as much detail on textual criticism in general (completely apart from application
to Romans) is as necessary in this kind of introduction.
Longenecker himself recognizes that numerous positions he stakes out require the fuller defense that only his forthcoming
commentary can generate, and he acknowledges this point repeatedly. So we look forward with great eagerness to what will
undoubtedly be a milestone in publishing at several levelsfor the NIGTC series, for commentaries on Romans, and for
Longeneckers own scholarly vita.
Craig L. Blomberg, Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor of New Testament
Denver Seminary
April 2012
Comments(0)

Comments:
Login to post comments (https://ssl.monkdev.com/loginMCMS.php?
siteid=683&cmstype=CMS&cmscode=EKK&server=http://www.denverseminary.edu/article/introducing-romans-critical-issues-in-pauls-most-famousletter/&from=popup&cartsessid=&KeepThis=true&TB_iframe=true&height=400&width=400)

Go Home (/)
Become a Student (/become-a-student)
Current Students (/current-students)
Alumni (/alumni)
Friends (/friends)
Mentors (/mentors)
Resources (/resources)
About (/about-us)
News & Events (/news-events)
Contact (/contact-us)
Degree Programs (/degree-programs)
6399 South Santa Fe Drive, Littleton, CO, USA 80120 | 800-922-3040 | info@denverseminary.edu (mailto:info@denverseminary.edu)
Copyright 2010 Denver Seminary. | Privacy Policy (/about-us/legal-disclosures-and-other-notices/privacy-statement/) | Business Hours
(http://www.denverseminary.edu/contact-us/#seminaryhours) : 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Powered by Academia 360 (http://www.academia360.com/) College CMS (http://www.ekklesia360.com/academia360-college-university-website-cms/)

http://www.denverseminary.edu/article/introducing-romans-critical-issues-in-pauls-most-famous-letter/

Seite 2 von 3

Denver Seminary > Articles > Introducing Romans: Critical Issues in Pauls Most Famous Letter

15.05.12 12:01

Become a fan (http://www.facebook.com/denverseminary) Follow us on Twitter

(http://www.twitter.com/denverseminary)

http://www.denverseminary.edu/article/introducing-romans-critical-issues-in-pauls-most-famous-letter/

Seite 3 von 3