Romans 9–16 (Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 38b | WBC)

von James D. G. Dunn

Verlag:

Word

, 1988

Overview

See Romans in the light of modern historical and cultural studies with this commentary from ground breaking scholar James D.G. Dunn. Dunn maintains that it is imperative to grasp the coherence of Paul’s thought as it moves with sustained logic and consistent rigor from the opening announcement of God’s righteousness revealed in Christ and the gospel through each interlocking section of this epistle. He insists that the letter must be read and understood within a specific historical and cultural context. Paul’s background in Judaism, his perception of the role of the law as a marker of national Jewish identity, God’s saving actions in Christ both in continuity with the past and as a decisive new chapter in salvation and world history, and the ongoing eschatological tension between the “already” and the “not yet”–clues that inform a penetrating and moving piece of commentary writing.

The Word Biblical Commentary delivers the best in biblical scholarship, from the leading scholars of our day who share a commitment to Scripture as divine revelation. This series emphasizes a thorough analysis of textual, linguistic, structural, and theological evidence. The result is judicious and balanced insight into the meanings of the text in the framework of biblical theology. These widely acclaimed commentaries serve as exceptional resources for the professional theologian and instructor, the seminary or university student, the working minister, and everyone concerned with building theological understanding from a solid base of biblical scholarship.

Contents

Top Highlights

“The sacrifice God looks for is no longer that of beast or bird in temple, but the daily commitment of life lived within the constraints and relationships of this bodily world. The boundary of cultic ritual is transposed from actual cultic practices to the life of every day and transformed into nonritual expression, into the much more demanding work of human relationships in an everyday world.” (Page 717)

“The point to be emphasized, however, is that σῶμα denotes not just the person, but the person in his corporeality, in his concrete relationships within this world; it is because he is body that man can experience the world and relate to others (Käsemann; Grabner-Haider, 122–27; Schlier; Wilckens; Ortkemper, 23–24). It is not to be thought of in contrast to an ‘inner consecration’ (cf. Gundry, Soma, 35; Deidun, 98–99), but as the physical embodiment of the individual’s consecration in the concrete realities of daily life (Seidensticker, 258; Schrage, 49), a ‘somatizing’ rather than a spiritualizing (Radl, 62; see also on 6:6). It is as part of the world and within the world that Christian worship is to be offered by the Christian (cf. Bindemann, 102–3).” (Page 709)

“There is no mind/body dualism in Paul; ‘renewal of mind’ is bound up with ‘presenting of bodies’ (v 1).” (Page 714)

“The liberty of the Christian assembly should be able to embrace divergent views and practices without a feeling that they must be resolved or that a common mind must be achieved on every point of disagreement.” (Page 799)

“So to confess someone as ‘lord’ denotes an attitude of subserviency and sense of belonging or devotion to the one so named. And if the confession here was used in baptism, as again is widely agreed to be very likely, it would also indicate a transfer of allegiance, a change in acknowledged ownership.” (Page 608)

About James D. G. Dunn

James D.G. Dunn is Emeritus Lightfoot Professor of Divinity at the University of Durham and is a leading British New Testament scholar. Dunn is a significant proponent of the New Perspective on Paul, and became only the third British scholar to be made the president of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas. He is the author of numerous books, including Did the First Christians Worship Jesus? The New Testament Evidence, The Epistles to Colossians and Philemon: New International Greek Testament Commentary, Jesus, Paul, and the Gospels, and The Oral Gospel Tradition.