Q. P.109ff. I found the argument that what is being opposed is only adult circumcision in Rom. 2 doesn’t make sense to me when I consider what Paul is arguing against with his fellow Jewish Christians in Galatia, who want to circumcise Gentiles, regardless of age so they can become full-fledged Jews. Clearly Paul views circumcision as the sign of the Mosaic covenant just as baptism is the sign of the new covenant inaugurated by Christ. Put another way, circumcision... Read more
Q. I think part of the problem I have with the Paul within Judaism folks is that they either ignore or dismiss or selectively use the evidence in Acts, and then they misinterpret Paul at crucial junctures. This especially doesn’t work if in fact Luke was a sometime companion of Paul on his 2nd and 3rd missionary journeys and knew what he was talking about. The other problem is no matter how hard Nanos and Fredriksen and others try, they... Read more
O.K. I’m a bit late to the party. The movie came out while I was flying to Greece and leading a tour for two weeks. I believe I’ve seen all the previous iterations of this series, and I did not think that they could outdo some of the previous special effects, particularly with cars. I was mostly wrong. The central characters and the interaction of the ensemble I’ve enjoyed, as it’s in one sense a series about family, and in... Read more
Q. So far as I can see, Gentiles did not go around calling themselves Jews, even if they were God-fearers. Besides the general anti-Semitism of the Roman culture (see e.g. Juvenal’s satires), they were perfectly happy to just be called God-fearers. Consider for example this inscription from the theater in Miletus—– it reads. “τόπoς Ειουδέων τῶν καὶ Θεοσεβίον”the place for the Jews and the God–worshipers”. This inscription was surely made by Gentiles. So far as I can see the person... Read more
Q. Let’s talk about pistis, a word which certainly can be translated ‘trust’ but it can also be translated faith and even faithfulness, for instance in the phrase in Romans which refers to the pistis Theou, the faithfulness of God. Why do you not recognize the spectrum of possible ways Paul could have used this important word, and simply render it trust throughout the commentary? A. First of all it is better to keep to the one meaning consistently throughout... Read more
Q. I was a bit surprised by your take on Rom. 7.7-25. Speech in character, from a rhetorical point of view or prosopoeia requires that one be speaking as a well-known historical person recently mentioned, as Quintilian stresses. In this case the person in question is Adam, mentioned less than 5 minutes before Rom. 7 in the continuous reading of the text of Romans likely by Phoebe. Notice the change in verb tenses from 7.7-13 to 7.14-25. Also, only Adam... Read more
Q. I really find the argument of Neil Elliott as not compelling, trying to find anti-imperial rhetoric in Romans here there and everywhere. I think Rom. 13 cannot be explained that way at all. Rather I think Paul is sharing a rather typical Jewish reaction to paganism from Rom. 1 on. It requires a lot of assumptions to find Elliott’s argument compelling. For one thing, we do not know that the Christians in Rome are Romans or Roman citizens who... Read more
Q. In your exposition about Rom. 1.18-32 I was surprised that while you rightly emphasized the critique of pagan idolatry, you said nothing about pagan sexual immorality in the form of same sex sexual activity which it seems is clearly referred to in that context. It seems clear to me that Paul sees that as the fallenness pagans were given up to because of their idolatry. Yes? I realize his critique of homosexuality is perhaps less strident than say Philo’s... Read more
Q. You are right that not infrequently Paul uses the rhetorical device of diatribe and also the device of rhetorical questions to further his arguments. This however does not amount to alternating between diatribal sections and epistolary sections of the document. The non-diatribal material does not reflect epistolary anything, other than at the outset and conclusion of the document. Rather, we have a progressive series of arguments and they follow rhetorical not epistolary rules and categories. The need ito see... Read more
Not infrequently I’ve been asked, how (and why) I have written so many books. I wish I had known the warning of Edna St. Vincent Millay earlier in my publishing career. “A person who publishes a book willfully appears before the populace with his pants down…If it is a good book nothing can hurt him. If it is a bad book nothing can help him.” (cited in Cliff Black’s new volume on the Gospel of Mark, p. 76— to be... Read more
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