We start this section from v. Paul admonishes them not to place a stumbling-block proskomma or hindrance skandalon in the way of a brother. In the context of , the brother is a Jewish Christian. It is noteworthy that in the NT, proskomma and skandalon are linked together only in three cases Rm. From a detailed personae analysis of this passage see the complete paper on the website , it appears that in b, Paul explicitly directs his exhortation only to the Gentile Christians.
The Jewish Christians are hidden in the background. Paul brings the discussion of the observance of the Jewish food laws to a different dimension. He asks the Gentile Christians not to make this issue a test of faith for the Jewish Christians. A Jew can become a Christian and maintain his observance of the Jewish food laws.
In other words, Paul admonishes the Gentile Christians not to put the Jewish Christians in danger of becoming either Jewish or Christian apostates. Furthermore, although Paul endorses the Gentile Christians' understanding of the lacking of final validity of the Jewish food laws, he admonishes them to restrict their freedom in eating meat and drinking wine for the sake of building up a peaceful and close relationship with the Jewish Christians in Rome.
Paul probably even suggests that it would be good if the Gentile Christians could change their practice of eating and drinking probably on specific occasions when they have a communal meal with the Jewish Christians. This would mean that when the Jewish Christians participate in the communal meal held at a Gentile Christian house church, not only the Jewish Christians would eat solely vegetables, but the Gentile Christians may also do the same.
Cranfield rightly describes the situation as "the strong Christian who 'has the faith to eat any food' has more room in which to manoeuvre than the weak Christian who 'eats only vegetables'. He has the inner freedom not only to eat flesh but also equally to refrain from eating it. So for him to refrain for his weak brother's sake is assuredly good" [54].
Therefore, if the Gentile Christians are willing to change their practice when eating in the presence of Jewish Christians in their own house church, it would open up the chance for the Gentile Christians to follow the practice of the Jewish Christians on specific occasions when they participate in a communal meal held at the house church of the Jewish Christians.
As will be shown below, this seems to be the issue discussed in Nevertheless, although in 13b only the Gentile Christians are addressed, the message is surely overheard by the Jewish Christians as well. On the one hand, they also have to understand the observance of the Jewish food laws from the perspective of Jesus Christ, the principle of love and the kingdom of God; on the other hand, they should know that Paul understands their dilemma and sympathizes with them. However, as for Paul, the most important thing is not to let the issue of practicing Jewish food laws, which is related to an ethnic-religio-cultural practice, become a stumbling block or hindrance in building up a peaceful and close relationship between the Jewish and the Gentile Christians in Rome.
This is an exhortation that Paul wishes to direct to both groups. This section is the climax of Paul's exhortation directed to the strong which starts from The other most significant point is that Paul uses the clause h8meis hoi dunatoi to identify himself most explicitly with the 'strong'. In fact, in this passage, the first person singular verb, second person singular verb and the second person plural pronouns and verbs are all missing.
The only occurrence of the first person singular pronoun and the second person singular pronoun are in an OT quotation v. However, the first person plural pronoun occurs twice in vv. Thus the only 'person' that occurs in this passage is 'we' which denotes Paul and the strong.
I Cor. Paul's suggestion does not contradict his position stated in Gal. In Galatians, the issue at stake is whether the Gentile Christians should live fully according to the Jewish way of life. Paul is strongly against this position. However, in Rm. The issue at stake is that the observance of the Jewish way when eating a meal on specific occasions by the Gentile Christians would contribute to the unity of the Jewish and the Gentile Christians in Rome.
In fact, this suggestion is in line with Paul's exhortation that the Gentile Christians who have the freedom of the Gospel should not only eat meat and drink wine but equally refrain from eating and drinking them Furthermore, by using the first person plural pronoun h8meis to identify himself with the Gentile Christians in Rome , Paul is probably also thinking of his missionary principle which not only shapes his missionary work but probably also shapes the aspirations and the very style of his life: [59].
To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews; to those under the law, I became as one under the law-- though not being myself under the law -- that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law, I became as one outside the law -- not being without law toward God but under the law of Christ -- that I might win those outside the law. To the weak asthen8s , I became weak that I might win the weak.
I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. If that is the case, there are three possible conditions on which the Jewish and Gentile Christians can participate in worship and communal meals held at one anothers' house churches as revealed in Paul's exhortations from They should accept each other's diversified practice of the Jewish food laws and hold their unity in serving the Lord a.
Their freedom in the Gospel should allow them to change their practice of eating and drinking to bring it in line with that of the Jewish Christians when the Jewish Christians participate in the communal meal held at a Gentile Christian house church 13b They should please the Jewish Christians by following the Jewish way of eating meal on the specific occasion when they participate in the communal meal held at a Jewish Christian house church Thus the agreements Paul expected to be made between the Jewish and the Gentile Christians in Rome are probably as follows:.
The only essential requirement for God's people is faith in Christ. Whenever they have meals with the Jewish Christians, they could follow the Jewish way of eating meal. As far as the first two concessions are concerned, it is difficult to judge whether a greater concession is demanded of the Jewish or the Gentile Christians. In fact, the above concessions brought the Jewish Christians no difficulty in their own practice of Judaism.
Since Judaism is a religion concerning 'orthopraxy' rather than 'orthodoxy', it is quite probable that by these concessions the Jewish Christians were able to retain their relationship with the non-Christian synagogues and also with the Gentile Christian house churches.
As far as the social intercourse between the Gentile Christians and their pagan environment is concerned, the concession does not seem to cause much difficulty. Nevertheless, one thing crystal clear is that Paul was very conscious of the danger of apostasy by the Jewish Christians and he admonishes the Gentile Christians not to put them in such a position. In , Paul expresses his wish that the Jewish Christians could maintain both Jewish and Christian identities.
He does not try to persuade the Jewish Christians to abandon the Jewish ceremonial laws, but rather defend and protect them for their practice. As far as the 'persons' in this passage are concerned, humin occurs in v. As these verses are the concluding part of , it is obvious that Paul is addressing all the Christians in Rome, both Jewish and Gentile Christians alike. From a detailed personae analysis of see the complete paper on the website , it indicates that Paul directs his exhortation explicitly to the Gentile Christians cf.
The Jewish Christians are addressed only as individuals , 10, 10 or together with the Gentile Christians as the whole Roman Christian community a; This is clearly shown by the fact that Paul uses all the second person plural pronouns and verbs in to address only the Gentile Christians.
However, Paul's message to the Gentile Christians would be overheard by the Jewish Christians and is relevant to them. The Jewish Christians would understand Paul's view on the food laws, his sympathy with their dilemma and his exhortation to the Gentile Christians for the sake of their difficulties.
Nevertheless, it is clear that Paul admonishes both the Jewish and the Gentile Christians to change their attitude to one another, but he admonishes only the Gentile Christians to change their practice in eating whenever they have a communal meal with the Jewish Christians.
The Jewish Christians are not asked to change their observance of Jewish ceremonial laws, even though their understanding is not in accord with Christian belief. The occurrence of the second person plural imperative proslambanesthe here certainly connects with However, while in , the second person plural is addressed to the 'strong', it is here addressed to the Christian community in Rome as a whole which is composed of the 'strong' and the 'weak'.
The phrase to "welcome one another" probably indicates the climax of the whole passage which has been built up from the exhortation in and the prayer wish in : i let us no more pass judgement on one another a ; ii let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual all8lous upbuilding ; and iii may God grant you to live in such harmony with one another In , Paul concludes his exhortation by admonishing the Gentile and the Jewish Christians to recognize and accept one another even though they have different attitudes towards the Jewish ceremonial laws and the fact that they belong to different house churches.
The reason why they must accept one another is the model of Christ cf. From a detailed personae analysis of the passage see the complete paper on the website , it appears that in , Paul addresses the Christian community in Rome as a whole. In it, he not only refers to his exhortation to the Jewish and the Gentile Christians in about their mutual recognition and acceptance in the communal meal held at their different house churches, but also refers to God's covenant faithfulness to the Jews 8; cf.
From our detailed personae analysis of Rm. They were organized into different house churches when the Jewish Christians returned to Rome after the death of Claudius. Since the Jewish Christians maintained their observance of Jewish ceremonial laws, they would probably have no difficulty in building up their relationship with the synagogues of the Roman Jewish community.
However, the bitter experience of the Jewish Christians who had participated in the communal meal held in the Gentile Christian house had caused a tense relationship between the Jewish and the Gentile Christians. Paul understood the situation and wrote the letter to both the Jewish and the Gentile Christians in Rome in order to persuade them to build up a peaceful and close relationship between their house churches.
In , Paul admonished both groups to change their attitude towards one another, but explicitly asked the Gentile Christians to consider the dilemma faced by the Jewish Christians. Paul admonished the Gentile Christians to change their practice in the communal meal and to follow the Jewish way of eating a meal whenever Jewish Christians were present. Paul desired that the Gentile Christians would welcome the Jewish Christians to participate in the communal meals held in their house churches, thus recognizing the significance of the ministry of Christ among the Jews.
On the other hand, Paul wished the Jewish Christians to welcome the Gentile Christians to the communal meals held in their house churches, thus recognizing the legitimacy of the Gentile mission and the ministry of Christ among the Gentiles. In his exhortation, Paul was fully aware of the danger of apostasy by the Jewish Christians.
Paul explicitly asked the Gentile Christians not to put the Jewish Christians into such a position. Paul's purpose was probably to build up a Roman Christian community net-work among the Jewish and the Gentile Christian house churches, and at the same time to let the Jewish house churches Jewish Christian synagogues retain their relations with the Roman Jewish community. In other words, Paul neither demanded the Jewish Christians to give up their connection with the non-Christian Jews, nor asked the Gentile Christians to become Jews.
This could happen if:. From the evidence of , we find that Paul addressed explicitly the first,. We suggest that Paul may have addressed these two conditions specifically in the first eleven chapters of Romans. We agree with Watson that the main issue s were concerned with the question of the relationship between the Jewish and the Gentile Christians , and also that between Christians Jewish and Gentile and Jews Christian and non-Christian. We disagree with him critically on Paul's attitude towards these relationships.
In Romans , we find that:. Jewish Christians. Like this: Like Loading Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:.
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During the winter of 57 — 58 a. Like most New Testament letters, this letter is known by the name of the recipients, the Romans. For instance, 1 Corinthians was written to reprove the Christian community in Corinth for its internal divisions and for its immoral sexual practices.
But Romans is remarkably devoid of this kind of specificity, addressing broad questions of theology rather than specific questions of contemporary practice. Whereas other Pauline letters— 2 Corinthians, for instance—are full of impassioned rhetoric and personal pleas, Romans is written in a solemn and restrained tone.
But it is also true that, as opposed to the Corinthian church, the Roman church was not founded by Paul himself. At the time when he wrote Romans, Paul had never visited Rome, although Chapter 16 of Romans does indicate that he had acquaintances there. Writing to a community largely composed of strangers, then, Paul may have felt compelled to use the restrained and magisterial declarations of Roman style, rather than the impassioned pleas and parental sternness that permeate his letters to the churches at Corinth.
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