Saturday July 16: Romans 1:7-17 – ‘To Whom?’

So – we’re picking up the pace already! To whom was Paul writing, according to these bits?

What difference does it make to be residents of Rome in the first century after Jesus – or residents of New York, Washington, London or Paris in our time? Empire is based here, and communications and trade and power of every kind flows through the capital.

Is Paul trying to appeal to a purely Jewish audience? Does this sound like an anti-Semitic rant directed against Jews? How about a mixed crowd by ethnicity, education and wealth? How many names for groups of people can you count?

Is he coming on all pompous, ‘Let me tell you’? How do you like the rhetoric of apologizing for hot coming sooner, and of proposing to listen, learn, share, and mutually encourage, as he says he always does?

Reading Romans in Thornhill, there is an ethical key for us in a community with many ethnicities and varieties of Christians and Jews, among other peoples. Does Paul write to ex-Jews who join a replacement religion, or affirm Judaism while extending the circle to Gentiles and Jews and barbarians like us?

The reading closes with a set of words that seem familiar: gospel, salvation, faith, righteousness to replace the demographic distinctions above. Perhaps they are less familiar than we think – if translated ‘trust’, ‘putting people right’, acts of faith, or other terms: ‘faithfulness of God’, not belief or ‘faith in God’.


Text of Romans 1:7-17