Engaging Scripture Book Club
If you want to follow along, I am reviewing Dr. Beverly Gaventa’s new Romans commentary (New Testament Library, Westminster John Knox).
If you want to learn about the book and the club details, click HERE.
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Romans 9-10 (NRSV)
God’s Election of Israel
Rom. 9:1 I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience confirms it by the Holy Spirit— 2 I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people,a my kindred according to the flesh. 4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; 5 to them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Messiah,a who is over all, God blessed forever.b Amen.
Rom. 9:6 It is not as though the word of God had failed. For not all Israelites truly belong to Israel, 7 and not all of Abraham’s children are his true descendants; but “It is through Isaac that descendants shall be named for you.” 8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants. 9 For this is what the promise said, “About this time I will return and Sarah shall have a son.” 10 Nor is that all; something similar happened to Rebecca when she had conceived children by one husband, our ancestor Isaac. 11 Even before they had been born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose of election might continue, 12 not by works but by his call) she was told, “The elder shall serve the younger.” 13 As it is written,
“I have loved Jacob,
but I have hated Esau.”
Rom. 9:14 What then are we to say? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses,
“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
16 So it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who shows mercy. 17 For the scripture says to Pharaoh, “I have raised you up for the very purpose of showing my power in you, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he chooses, and he hardens the heart of whomever he chooses.
God’s Wrath and Mercy
Rom. 9:19 You will say to me then, “Why then does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 But who indeed are you, a human being, to argue with God? Will what is molded say to the one who molds it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one object for special use and another for ordinary use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath that are made for destruction; 23 and what if he has done so in order to make known the riches of his glory for the objects of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— 24 including us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? 25 As indeed he says in Hosea,
“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’
and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”
26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
there they shall be called children of the living God.”
Rom. 9:27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “Though the number of the children of Israel were like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved; 28 for the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth quickly and decisively.”a 29 And as Isaiah predicted,
“If the Lord of hosts had not left survivorsa to us,
we would have fared like Sodom
and been made like Gomorrah.”
Israel’s Unbelief
Rom. 9:30 What then are we to say? Gentiles, who did not strive for righteousness, have attained it, that is, righteousness through faith; 31 but Israel, who did strive for the righteousness that is based on the law, did not succeed in fulfilling that law. 32 Why not? Because they did not strive for it on the basis of faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33 as it is written,
“See, I am laying in Zion a stone that will make people stumble, a rock that will make them fall,
and whoever believes in hima will not be put to shame.”
Rom. 10:1 Brothers and sisters,a my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. 2 I can testify that they have a zeal for God, but it is not enlightened. 3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they have not submitted to God’s righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.
Salvation Is for All
Rom. 10:5 Moses writes concerning the righteousness that comes from the law, that “the person who does these things will live by them.” 6 But the righteousness that comes from faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say?
“The word is near you,
on your lips and in your heart”
(that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 becausea if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. 11 The scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. 13 For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Rom. 10:14 But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? 15 And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” 16 But not all have obeyed the good news;a for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” 17 So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.a
18 But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have; for
“Their voice has gone out to all the earth,
and their words to the ends of the world.”
19 Again I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says,
“I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation;
with a foolish nation I will make you angry.”
20 Then Isaiah is so bold as to say,
“I have been found by those who did not seek me;
I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.”
21 But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”
Gaventa on Romans 9-10
We are now into the back half of Romans! Gaventa raises the important question of how Romans 9-11 fits into Paul’s letter as a whole. Many scholars have noted that you could take Romans 9-11 out of the text (and connect 8 to 12) and it would read pretty smoothly. It appears as if Romans 9-11 is a long sidebar. But Gaventa argues that Paul was setting it up at the end of chapter 8, when he argues that nothing can separate God’s love from his people. Gaventa wonders if Paul was inspired to reflect on the status of Israel as he prepared for his big visit to Jerusalem (Rom 15:30-32).
When we consider the main issue of Romans 9-11, Gaventa mentions numerous options:
“Is it the fact that most Jews do not recognize in Jesus of Nazareth the Messiah of God?
Or is it instead the impossibility that God has proven fickle with respect to the promises of God?” (265)
Or “with the arrogance of gentile Christians who condescend to Israel” (265);
or “with the false claim to understand God’s mind?” (265);
Ultimately, Gaventa argues that what Paul is really interested in is “where Israel belongs in God’s eschatological victory” (265). Paul has his eye on the relationship between the “word of God” (Scripture) and the “urgent apocalyptic ‘word’ of the Christ event” (266). Rhetorically, Paul leads them to the brink of the notion that Israel has been rejected, “only to reject that conviction out of hand” (266). Looking at chapters 9-10 specifically, she explains Paul’s goal as “placing Christ at the center of the relationship between God and Israel” (299).
It should not be surprising that much of what Gaventa argues in these chapters affirms her apocalyptic approach to Paul, with a deep sense of the providential sovereignty and care of God who has no rivals and is not fickle. Looking at 9:14-18, she sums up: “God’s action has nothing to do with human planning or human exertion but only with God, who is here named as God-who-has-mercy” (280).
As we have pointed out before, Gaventa is keenly sensitive to avoiding anti-semitic interpretations that vilify Jews or the Law. So, I was especially interested in her take on 10:4 (Christ the telos of the Law). Here is what she writes: “Christ is the law’s telos in that Christ is bringing about righteousness for everyone who believes” (293). Gaventa is saying that Paul was not condemning the law, here or elsewhere in 9-11.
[next reading for week of Sept 9: Romans 11:1-36 (300-331)]
My Critical Reflections
Overall, I found her work on Romans 9-10 very articulate and insightful. One of my continual frustrations is that I always want more! I want to know more about where she is coming from and why she reads passages in certain ways. But the good news is, she has published numerous articles and essays on Romans with extensive detail, some of these on Romans 9-11; so if you have the book, I encourage you to follow up. Here I will look at a couple of issues: the definition of “Israel” (9:6) and her interpretation of faith language throughout these chapters…
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