PROBLEM PASSAGES IN ROMANS

Some of you who have been following my posts may probably wonder if I am not too fixated on the question of the literary arrangement of the books in the Bible. But as an added demonstration of the value of that tool, below are some passages in Romans which are disputed by some scholars as seemingly displaced in their current settings and therefore should either be relocated to elsewhere in the epistle or omitted entirely as being from another hand than Paul's.

The defense of these “problem children” is necessary since Childs has stated that in addition to the notorious textual difficulties encountered in this epistle, “the interpretation of the letter to the Romans involves some of the most difficult problems within the New Testament.” For reference, my own proposal for the organization of this epistle is shown below and defended in the post “Romans: Introduction to the Literary Structure.”

Figure 1: The Structure of Romans

I. Greetings (1:1-7)

II. Gospel as the Power of God (1:8-17)

III. Gentiles do not Honor God (1:18-32)

IV. Judging Those Outside the Body (2:1-16)

V. Doing the Law (2:17-24)

VI. Present Position of the Jews (2:25-4:25)

VII. Justification by Faith (chs. 5-6)

A. Christ’s Death (ch. 5)

B. United With Christ (ch. 6)

VII'. New Life (chs. 7-8)

B. Dying to the Law (ch. 7)

A. Life in the Spirit (ch. 8)

VI'. Future Position of the Jews (chs. 9-11)

V'. Living in the Spirit (chs. 12-13)

IV'. Judging Those Within the Body (14:1-15:6)

III'. Gentiles Glorify God (15:7-13)

II'. Gospel Preached by the Power of the Holy Spirit (15:14-33)

I'. Greetings (ch. 16)

Romans 2:24

Morris notes that the quotation in this verse ends with “as it is written” instead of this phrase preceding the quote as elsewhere in Paul’s writings. One possible explanation is that this reversed order appearing in Section V provides a mirror image to the only appearance of “it is written” (appearing in normal order) in the parallel Section V', at 12:19. This results in the following symmetrical arrangement:

    A. “as it is written” (2:24a)

            B. Old Testament quotation (2:24b)

            B'. Old Testament quotation (12:19a)

    A'. “as it is written” (12:19b)

Both passages deal with the problem of a believer’s unchristian actions being observed by outsiders and perhaps leading to a poor view of God.

Romans 3:25-26

These verses are held to be a gloss by some scholars, according to Guthrie. If they were eliminated from the text, there would be no major disruption in the book’s literary structure. However, there is an unusual phrase occurring in verse 26, “at the present time,” which appears in Romans again only in 11:5, a parallel passage according to the structural scheme of Fig. 1 (see Sections VI and VI'). This is a possible indication of its authenticity.

Romans 7:7-25

As Morris notes, there is “enormous controversy” regarding these verses. Is Paul concerned only with his personal spiritual journey or with that of others in addition? And if it is the latter, which “others” is he speaking to? A consideration of this passage within the context of the combined chs. 6 and 7 (see Fig. 1) gives some direction. The pronouns mainly utilized in the various literary units of these two chapters show an interesting progression, moving from the personal “we” of 6:1-10 to the “you” of 6:11-23 on to the impersonal “she” of 7:1-3, back to “you” and “we” in 7:4-6 and ending with the “I” of 7:7-25. The most reasonable accounting of this phenomenon is that in these combined center sections of Romans, Paul wished to strongly identify himself with his audience, most prominently at the beginning (6:1-10) and end (7:7-25) of the discourse. Since the former passage clearly addresses all those who have died and been raised with Christ, it seems logical to assume that 7:7-25 addresses this same audience.

Romans 8:1-7

Guthrie notes that some scholars have expressed doubts regarding the authenticity of these verses since they interrupt the flow of argument. This view ignores the possibility, as shown in Figure 1, that ch. 8 is designed as a paired contrast to ch. 7, therefore purposely beginning a new perspective. In addition, of the ten key words that Section VIIA holds in common with its parallel section VII'A, three of them (“peace,” “judgment” and “condemnation”) appear only in 8:1-7. This fact strengthens the probability that this latter passage is authentic.

Romans 9:5

Morris wonders at Paul’s strange use of “Amen” at the close of his own words in this verse. The reason probably lies in its providing an exact verbal parallel to the “Amen” at the close of ch. 11, thus unifying the whole of Section VI'.

Romans 13:1-7

The unusual nature of these verses dealing with civil authority and their weak connection to the surrounding verses have been the source of discussion regarding their authenticity, as Morris points out. The structural analysis of Section V' containing 13:1-7 identifies it as the C' unit in a chiasm with the form:

A. Be transformed (12:1-2)

B. Love within the body (12:3-13)

C. Attitude toward enemies (12:14-21)

                                    C'. Attitude toward authorities (13:1-7)

B'. Love for neighbor (13:8-10)

A'. Put on Christ (13:11-14)

It is thus formally parallel to Romans 12:14-21 dealing with relations to enemies, although it must be admitted that the two units share no common language. If vv. 13:1-7 were removed from the text, the above chiasm would merely shrink to an ABCB'A' form and retain its integrity as a symmetrical organization. Thus, structural considerations alone are of no use in deciding this issue.

Romans 14:1-15:13

Kasemann ponders the question of why Paul presented the Special Exhortation of 14:1-15:13 after the General Exhortation of chs. 12-13 in contrast to his usual order in other Pauline epistles. A look at Fig. 1 reveals that this order was necessary to preserve the desired mirror image arrangement.

Another general question arises regarding these verses: Who are the weak and the strong? Morris summarizes the options and concludes that there are no concrete historical referents intended by Paul. Confirmatory evidence for this view is provided by the overall structure of Romans in which the parallel passage 2:1-11 is specifically addressed to “O man, whoever you are.”

Romans 16:17-20

The suspicion has been voiced that these verses represent a non-Pauline interpolation into the text.

A. Commendation and greetings (16:1-16)

B. Warning against dissenters (16:17-20)

           A'. Greetings (16:21-23)

The three-part analysis of Rom. 16:1-23 presented above shows this dubious verses as the central unit in which greetings constitute the two “A” units. The first “A” unit (or at least vv. 3-16) represents Paul’s greetings to specific people at Rome while vv. 21-23 emphasize others besides Paul from whom greetings are given. The exception to this generalization is the greeting from “all the churches” in v. 16b, which looks like it more properly belongs with vv. 21-23. This would seem to indicate that the intervening verses were a later addition to an originally continuous list of greetings.

However, Murray, who notes this same phenomenon, explains Paul’s grouping of v. 16a with the previous verses as follows: “His solidarity with the church universal governs his consciousness and as apostle of the Gentiles he represents all the Gentile churches in the conveyance of his greetings.” A lack of understanding of this typical ABA pattern above is one reason that commentators such as Jewett delete the center unit as disrupting the flow of Paul's argument.