Paul's Letter to the Romans may well be the most influential book in Christian history. In this Romans commentary Colin Kruse shows how Paul expounds the gospel against the background of God's sovereign action as creator, judge, and redeemer of the world. Valuable "additional notes" on important theological themes and difficult texts -- such as Paul's discussion of same-sex relationships, the salvation of "all Israel," and the woman Junia, who was "well known among the apostles" -- further connect Romans to contemporary issues. Throughout his commentary Kruse expertly guides readers through the plethora of interpretations of Romans, providing a reliable exposition of this foundational epistle.

Paul's Letter to the Romans

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Adam's Dust and Adam's Glory: Rethinking Anthropogony and Theology in the Hodayot and the Letters of Paul

Mark Forman explores the extent to which Paul's concept of 'inheritance' in Romans, and its associated imagery, logic and arguments, served to evoke socio-political expectations that were different to those which prevailed in contemporary Roman imperial discourse. Forman explores how Paul deploys the idea of inheritance in Romans and analyses the sources which inform and overlap with this concept. Coins, literature and architecture are all examined in order to understand the purpose, hopes and expectations of first-century society. This book contributes to recent studies covering Paul and politics by arguing that Paul's concept of inheritance subverts and challenges first-century Roman ideologies.

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The Politics of Inheritance in Romans

This work employs a comparative study of the theologies of Genesis 3:14–20 and Romans 8:18–25 as it relates to the problem of ecological imbalance. It attempts to re-interpret from a Christian theological point of view the primary and the secondary causes of decay from Genesis and the implications of those for the ecosystem, identifies Paul’s eschatological theology of restoration, and then re-reads the import of his eschatological hope in Romans for the restoration of the creation. By inter-acting the curse theology of Genesis 3 with the restorative theology of Romans 8, the work shows the drift of the ‘very good’ world from its initial, harmonious state to its present state of chaos and the challenge to redress the contemporary ecological imbalance.

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From primordial curse to eschatological restoration: Ecological challenges from Genesis 3:14–20 and Romans 8:18–25

This dissertation answers two distinct questions. First, is Paul trinitarian? Second, would the original recipients of Romans understand Paul as being trinitarian? In order to answer these questions, this work examines the discrete unit of Romans 8 and the first-century Roman theological landscape in order to ascertain the answers to these questions. Chapter 2 surveys Roman religious life, taking a few specific cults as examples. Special attention is paid to Jupiter, Isis, Mithras, and the Imperial Cult. Within the analysis of each cult, issues of salvation and the structure of the belief are explored. The Imperial Cult evinces the tendency of Romans to accept that humans are or can become gods. Romans 8 is the sample of Paul’s writings used to answer the above questions since it speaks of the Holy Spirit while also discussing God and Jesus. In Romans 8, Paul answers the problem of sin found in Romans 7 and also discusses how the law fits into the equation. He does not attack the law but rather the flesh as the problem, since the flesh accedes to the demands of sin just as the law was perverted by sin. Therefore, Paul discusses the role of God, Jesus, and the Spirit in overcoming the problem of sin in terms of salvation and in terms of the ongoing life of those who believe. Paul explicitly describes the actions of God, paying special attention to the importance of adoption and the renewal of creation (recreation). God uses the Son and the Spirit as agents in causing salvation. The interrelations and congruent functions of the Son and Spirit point toward a unity not found in Roman religion, since when Roman gods coincide functionally, one god assimilates or eliminates the other. The thesis this dissertation defends is that when taking into account his Jewish background and the Roman context into which he was writing, Paul communicates the Father, Son, and Spirit as a triunity to his readers in Romans 8. He I would like to dedicate this project to my wife Sarah and our two boys, James and John. The Lord has richly blessed me in your patience and love. May this work show the same amount of dedication to the Lord that you have displayed every day of our lives together ponou/ntej a;cqomen ponh,santej cai,romen

Father, Son and Spirit in Romans 8: Paul's Understanding of God with Special Reference to the Roman Recipients

There has been much discussion in recent articles on the significance of the Spirit's ‘groaning’ in Rom 8.26. What has not been adequately treated is the OT background to v. 22. That verse reads as follows: οΪδαμeν γ⋯ρ ἵτι π⋯σα ⋯ κτ⋯στe σƲσΤeƲάζeι κα⋯ συνωδ⋯νeι ἄχρι το⋯ ν⋯ν and can be translated literally as follows:We know that the whole creation groans together and travails together until now.

D. T. Tsumura

Papers

An OT background to Rom 8.22