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Paul’s Jewish Gospel and the Claims of Rome

Jacob C. Berg
May, 8, 2018
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Throughout his life, Paul was busy with creating a higher quality world. This was

attempted through letters, this one more specifically being the letter to the Romans. Paul covers

multiple issues that should be, and more than likely, need to be addressed with the Roman

Empire. The directions that Paul provides to point them in the right direction will, later on lead

them all to the salvation of God. Throughout his letter to the Romans, he sets them up for what

Paul believes is success for their entire race of people. Whether they be scattered about, or within

the city.

The letter Paul wrote to the Romans is the single most important piece of anti-imperial

reading compared to all of Paul’s letters he ever wrote. Paul, very straight forwardly attacks the

idolatry and other unjust principles that have either been start by the romans, or are in use from

the past people. Paul do not hold back, with informing them of how horrendous their

wrongdoings are. He is able to very easily lay out what he has been shown, by God, to be wrong

and stating the facts behind their practicing of these almost religious crimes. Paul is one of the

first people to not hold back, when discussing the terrible acts that are committed by the richer

side of the Roman people. All of the things that are able to happen are happening because the

nobles have put fear into the people to stop them from intervening in their affairs. It is then

mentioned that Paul is okay with the submission towards the rulers, but not in the way in which

the people of Rome have done for so long. Paul believes that rulers should be put into power to

ensure that good principle is conducted accordingly. Paul himself was mistreated and his people

persecuted under the hand of the Romans. Throughout this letter, Paul shows points in time

where to the untrained eye it might be contradicting. His thoughts sometimes offer a sense of

tension from one chapter to the next. If the letter is analyzed in the contextual version that looks
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at every aspect that might be affecting Paul’s thinking, only then can you move forward to being

able to grasp the pure meaning of his letters.

The second section of this article goes into depth about the fact that Paul addresses the

unfortunate focus on social status instead of the intensity of their faith to guide their every

decision. During this point in time Paul understands that the Romans learn best by example.

Therefore he uses the people of Israel to show them that it is possible, and that they need to

completely trust in the Lord. Going off of that, he starts to bring to light a very real trend. That

the people of Rome are not the chosen people of God and that the Jewish people are. From there

Paul goes on in the letter to the Romans to make sure that they are aware that they are second to

the Jewish people, that God has seen greatness amongst the people of Jerusalem:

“For in it is revealed the righteousness of God from faith the faith; as it is

written, the one who is righteous by faith will live. The wrath of God is indeed being

revealed from heaven against every impiety and wickedness of those who suppress the

truth by their wickedness.” (Romans 1:17-18 USCCB Bible)

The ways of the Romans are being discussed and how that even if they believe they are the true

people of God, their individual wickedness is blinding their true potential to be a holy people. All

of these particular statements are said to trigger the pride of the Romans to correct their

wrongdoings to attempt to become the “chosen people” of God. He then goes on to talk to them

about the covering over their eyes, by the wickedness that suppresses their truth. Throughout the

early chapters of Paul’s letter to the Romans, he portrays a sort of strict sense of disgust with the

lifestyle of the Romans. He brings to light the wickedness that he describes as more than just

their everyday mistakes that they make, but also the lifestyle choices they create to satisfy their

humanly needs.
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Moving forward with the later chapters of Paul’s letter to the Romans it is discussed

about the idea of divine judgment amongst the people of God. There are minor stipulations that

separate the Jews from the Romans. Throughout the letter, Paul talks about circumcision, which

is widely popular amongst the Jewish tradition unlike that of the Romans. All in all throughout

this entire letter Paul writes to the Romans, he sets out what they are doing wrong and how they

can fix it. There are moments in the letter where Paul plainly and very intensely explains what is

wrong. Whereas there are other times, where the plan of action and the wrongdoing are very

intricate and precise. He moves forward also with the bringing to light the actions of the Jews.

Paul understands that how the Roman Empire is set up, it is done so in a way where people are

set up to follow. Leaders are very strongly identified and every other person is to follow, by their

example. Therefore, Paul gives them examples on how to better themselves and what to change

to become closer to God.

Paul explains that all of the male on male sexual relations, and even the impure sexual

relations with females goes against everything God has wanted. Earlier it was mentioned that

Paul had discussed the idol worshipping that was going on amongst the people of Rome. The

Romans strayed away from the Power of the eternal God. The Greeks focused on Gods, and

animals that people would worship other than that of The God. He made note that they need to

be put back on the righteous path and to follow the word of the One God. The Roman people

have gone from the eternal God and focused on idols that are not immortal, and as Paul

suggested, more than likely do not exist. In Pauls’ eyes this is an outrageous tradition to make a

normal every day practice amongst the common person of Rome.

Throughout these sections that break down the chapters of the letter, it is made apparent

that Paul had underlying clues meant for specifically the common man. He was able to distract
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the nobles of Rome with these claims of being less superior to that of the Jewish population.

Then he was able to get the common man’s attention in the face of creating a more complete law

system. Paul took the focus from that of the strict Roman law to a more extensive combination of

using faith to point the lawmakers in the right direction, that direction being towards the

immortal God. Specifically, Paul discusses that the Roman leaders are more like Adam in their

sin and death. This would erase the thought that they are separate from the people, simply

because they have all of the wealth. In Romans 5:12-21 it discusses the ideology behind the

whole is affected by one persons’ action. Going off of that, the leaders in Rome were looked at to

provide holy and just judgment for whatever direction was to be taken. Paul shows them that

they were not brought to power to simply grow their personal wealth, they were brought to

power in the hope they would lead their people to peace and to strengthen the faith of all under

them.

In the later chapters, it is discussed that there are moments in time where Paul addresses

the Jewish population as being adopted with the glory of God. That even though they may not

have followed the laws that God placed to dictate their lives with angelic perfection, they were

able to change their ways and make a better life for themselves. Paul also tends to hang onto the

boasting method of encouragement for the Romans. Paul refers to himself as the Israelite, and

that he is in fact a direct decedent of Abraham. Going off of this, Rome sees themselves as the

master of all nations during this period of time. Paul quite honestly refers to the exact opposite.

He discusses the meaningful plan for all of the nations to join up under Israel and become the

people of God. This obviously was difficult for the people of Rome to comprehend, which is not

very difficult to understand. At this time they were the powerhouse of the world, they were if not

in control, would soon be in control of most of the world. They would take this claim to power
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from Paul with heavy heart and lengthy consideration. Paul also discusses in the letter that the

Gentiles, are key to uniting the people of the world to come under one God. Paul is only able to

make these claims, because of the power he has behind his every word. Paul is extremely well

respected, and even though something as outlandish as this was mentioned in his letter to the

Romans. The Romans are going to have to take this sort of serious constructive criticism in every

facet of the word.

Paul then moves forward and after showing the Romans the path they are to take to

become closer to God. Through this journey, they will eventually be forgiven for their sins.

Throughout Rome there is a wide array of religion that make up the population of this ever

increasing population. Directly in his letter he asks the stronger Catholics to sacrifice for their

weaker neighbor. This is important to bring the entire community of Rome up from the ruins of

their so called faith they believe in. The reasoning behind discussing this type of support for one

another is to solidify the unstable presence of community. Paul is very well aware that the

community of Rome is made up of divisions amongst the people, not only for money, but also

for something as simple as their family tree. These divisions cannot exist in the world that

worships the immortal God. Paul makes mention that God does not separate people based on

earthly categories that are created by the works of the sinful flesh.

Earlier Paul brought to light his thoughts on the Roman government. He did not go into

much depth with it, but later on he is able to fully construct his idea surrounding. He explains

that the Government of Rome is set up for the failure of the lower class. The upper class has set

up the government of Rome for their personal gain, which Paul very bluntly identifies as the

extremely bad choice on their part. The largest part of Paul’s letter to the Romans is that he is not

only using the Roman ideology to fix their current structure of law and government. Paul was
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able to input his Jewish ideals into this letter to give the Romans another viewpoint of a people

who have succeeded in becoming closer to God through letting go of their worldly pleasures to

embrace the religion holistically.

Throughout the lengthy amount of time we spent on the letter to the Romans, we were

able to discuss in class the different ideas that Paul wanted to portray. In class it was discussed

mainly that Paul was much more aggressive in his creation of a strict plan for the Romans to

follow. Paul goes into detail throughout chapter eight in the letter discussing the law of the spirit

of life. We are able to clearly see that Paul wrote this to show the Romans that God can, and is

willing to forgive them of their sins of the flesh. That is, if they are willing to uphold the law of

the spirit, of the Lord:

“For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed you from the law of sin

and death. For what the law, weakened by the flesh, was powerless to do, this God has done: by

sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for the sake of sin, he condemned sin in

the flesh.” (Romans 8:2-3 USCCB Bible)

We discussed that Paul was disgusted with how Rome dictated themselves, in the fact

that most often the laws of man ruled over the laws of the spirit. They, as a civilization were so

focused in on the personal wealth and gains of the individual human. They did not care for one

another, as long as the person below them, helped to generate the one above him money. Paul

also realized to be able to address this, and to keep their attention throughout the lengthy reading

of this letter, he would have to bring up topics that were otherwise sensitive. Paul also knew that

he would have to do so, firmly and with a strong sense of self. If Paul were to leave any doubt in

himself, the people of Rome would turn their cheek to him and his words. This approach is

extremely different compared to a couple of his other letters. In Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians
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he took a much more relaxed approach to their problems. Paul felt a sense of relief more often

when he was writing to the Thessalonians, and also to the Corinthians. These other letters give

you a sense of relation when reading them. Paul was able to take the mood of these letters and

switch it to a meaningful family approach. It was discussed in class that Paul at times could seem

fatherly, then in a blink of an eye he could switch to a strict and aggressive person of power. This

was the face he had to use with the Romans, more often than he did with anyone else. That being

that the Romans at one time, persecuted the Jewish people.

There is a distinct difference amongst the letters that were previously mentioned. The

first two, being compared to the letter to the Romans, are more of a conversation between Paul

and the Thessalonians and the Corinthians. Whereas the letter to the Romans is Paul very intently

delivering instructions for them to better themselves. He is seemingly more upset in the letter to

the Romans, than he is with the other two letters. The entire class discussed that this is an

evidently prominent difference between the letters. Paul makes for a very good writer to the

people in this time period, simply for the forms he is able to take through his writing.

Throughout the entirely of all of the three letters that have been mentioned, you are able to get a

wide sense of the difficulties that the entire world faced. Paul was the apostle who was tasked

with bringing the world together to create a united gathering under the one immortal God. He did

this by showing each country what they were doing wrong, and he was able to give them the

correct type of instruction to create the best possible outcome for their specific problems. These

problems often varied from nation to nation. Overall there were similarities for each nation,

where Paul was able to address these problems and give them a choice.
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These letters that Paul painstakingly wrote, over the course of his life were very

important. He did not just throw out random quotes to create a positive sounding letter for the

people to read. Paul had a unique ability to inspire the people of many nations to better

themselves, the more important part was that Paul was able to do so according to their best

response. That being the way in which they handle their criticism, for at this time many nations

had many different problems. For Paul these were not just letters to fix medial problems, these

were letters for the people of many nations to read and follow. These were the instructions to

better themselves as a whole so that when the day came for them to move on to the forgiveness

and answering of their sins, they would be able to do so with a pure and just heart.
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Works Cited

Stenschke, C. W. (2012). Paul's Jewish Gospel and the Claims of Rome in Paul's Epistle

to the Romans. Neotestamentica, 46(2), 338-378. Retrieved May 10, 2018, from

http://www.jstor.org/stable/43049202