A very long time ago I invited my old friend to write a substantive commentary for the New Cambridge Commentary Series on Romans. But he had already written 1 or 2 such commentaries at a more lay friendly level, and was not inclined to accept my offer. Here in this commentary on one crucial chapter of Romans, certainly one of the most crucial chapters in all of the Pauline corpus he gives us a sense of what a large Roman commentary by him would have looked like. This one chapter is expounded in about 225 pages, and if we were to multiply that times 16, you would see that it would take several volumes for Tom to do justice to his take on Romans. On the Amazon website, and in the book’s Preface he explains what prompted this particular volume–““Between 2010 and 2020, I found myself working on biblical themes I had not previously thought through, particularly to do with the Temple-theme and its retrieval by the early Christians, and also the early Christian emphasis on Jesus as the image-bearing human being, as in Genesis 1 and Psalm 8. In this, I was spurred on by some of my doctoral students [who] worked specifically in these areas and challenged me to rethink some of my previous readings…. All this, to my surprise, has nudged me into quite a different reading of Romans 8 from the one I grew up with, which is still reflected in the commentaries from twenty years or so ago. I hope the new points of view will commend themselves to readers, however much of a shift in mindset this may require for some.” In particular, as we shall see, Tom has changed his mind about Rom. 8.28ff. somewhat, and he also continues to stress that Paul’s theology is not merely about an individual’s salvation, and it’s certainly not about how one manages to end up in heaven, having been saved. Paul’s eschatology is not focused on dying and going to heaven, and I would say that there is only one passage in Paul where the subject is actually mentioned in passing— 2 Cor. 5, where we hear about being absent from the body and at home with the Lord.
I am going to take my time on this review, doing quite a few posts, not just because the book is a good stimulus for theological discussion but also because it is well written and already a significant influence on many in the church. It deserves a thorough examination and critique.
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