Romans, Letter to the

Paul's letter to the Romans is frequently characterized as the most theological and abstract of Paul's letters, but in fact it displays a rich variety of imagery and metaphor. The genre and rhetorical form of the letter have been widely investigated and debated. R. Jewett's identification of Romans as an "ambassadorial letter" is particularly suggestive.

Ambassadorial Letter. Jewett summarizes the scene: "An ambassador arrives in an alien court, states his credentials, and then advocates the interest of his sovereign or contituency. Similarly Paul introduces himself to the Roman churches he has not founded and then proceeds in a diplomatic fashion to provide a rationale for his forthcoming visit" (Jewett 1991, 266). Paul is addressing the various and competing house churches in Rome in an effort to unify them under the gospel and enlist their support for his coming missionary campaign to the western end of the world, Spain (Rom 15:24). The thesis, or rhetorical proposition, of the letter is stated in Romans 1:16–17: the gospel is "the power of God" for everyone who believes, an apocalyptic revelation of God's covenant faithfulness to Israel, a "righteousness of God" (NRSV) that reclaim Israel and through Israel his creation that has gone astray. This force has been unleashed in the world through the work of Christ, and Paul the servant of Christ Jesus is proclaiming the good news of Christ's lordship (Rom 10:9, 12–13) to the nations that they all might believe, obey and worship God (Rom 15:11; 16:27). From this ambassadorial perspective even the greetings of Romans 16 are not a postscript but a vital means of establishing personal ties and witnesses in Rome to the authenticity of Paul's apostolic gospel.

At various points in Romans 1:16–11:36 Paul employs the style of argumentation called "diatribe," in which a fictional interlocutor introduces objections or expresses erroneous views that Paul then answers or corrects. Or Paul simply addresses someone sitting in the front row, so to speak ("So when you, a mere man, pass judgment," Rom 2:3 NIV). This lends a dialogical air to much of the letter, evoking a lecture-hall setting in which attentive, intelligent and sometimes impertinent (Rom 9:20) listeners voice issues, and it allows Paul to project [735] himself as a masterful speaker, thinker and polemicist. These features lend credence to the view that Romans is imbued with the characteristics of the standard "speech of exhortation" (logos protreptikos) used by Hellenistic philosophers to win the minds of their listeners. The dialogical nature of Romans may in fact reflect material from Paul's own tested oral argumentation, now effectively adapted to give his letter the feel of an oral address that reaches across space and time from Corinth to Rome.

As an effective rhetorician who wishes to carry his audience along with him, Paul employs a number of images and metaphors in Romans and so "sets the scene before our eyes" (Aristotle Rhetoric 3.10.1). Romans deals extensively with the human predicament and the saving work of God in Christ (see SALVATION), and much of the imagery can be grouped under headings of predicament and solution. These groupings are not autonomous but complement and overlap each other in various ways.

Guilt and Justification. Paul evokes the scene of a law court, the judgment seat of God, where Jews and Gentiles will one day be arraigned and judged. The imagery of the law court is particularly concentrated in Romans 1:18–3:20, where the thrust of the argument is to show that all men and women, whether Jew or Gentile, stand under condemnation. The guilt of the Gentiles before God is displayed in a mosaic of egregious vices of the Gentile world—malice, gossip, slander, hatred of God and so forth (Rom 1:29–31). But even virtuous Gentiles find their consciences acting as witnesses, accusing or defending their very selves (Rom 2:15).

The Jews, on the other hand, are liable all the more because they possess God's law and yet continue to sin. A gallery of witnesses from the OT (Rom 3:10–18) bear witness to the charge that "Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin" (Rom 3:9 NIV), "imprisoned" in disobedience (Rom 11:32 NRSV). The weight of this indictment is that "every mouth may be silenced" in the eschatological law court of God (Rom 3:19 NIV). To those who would question the justice of the divine Judge, Paul maintains that God's judgment is based on truth (Rom 2:2), his judgments will prevail (Rom 3:4), and he alone is capable of judging the world (Rom 3:6). God is an impartial judge (Rom 3:21–22) who has demonstrated his forbearance in the past (Rom 3:25). In the end even Christians are not to judge each other, for all will stand before the judgment seat of God (Rom 14:10) and not one will escape (Rom 2:3) on the day when God judges people's secrets (Rom 2:16). God will give to each according to what they have done (Rom 2:5–6). In fact, as a counterpoint to the righteousness of God now being revealed in the gospel (Rom 1:17), the wrath of God is already being revealed from heaven (Rom 1:18) as godless and wicked men and women are being delivered over (Rom 1:24, 26, 28) as if to a three-member execution squad of sinful desire, shameful lust and depraved mind.

This would be a grim scene were it not for a remarkable fact. Prior to and in anticipation of that final day of judgment, God has already demonstrated his justice, his commitment to setting things right, in Christ, and he now "justifies" all those who trust in God's work in Christ (Rom 3:26). The divine verdict of the final judgment has already been rendered over sinners whose guilt has been exposed. But in a stunning transaction that has taken place outside the court, the guilt of sinners has been absolved as God through the death of his faithful Son has taken care of the dire consequences of that sin and guilt in a unique "sacrifice of atonement" (Rom 3:25 NIV). However we decide to translate the Greek word for this atoning sacrifice, hilasteœrion—whether "expiation" (an obliteration of sin), "propitiation" (satisfaction of wrath) or "mercy seat" (the place where God's mercy was symbolically manifested in God's sanctuary)—it covers even those sins previously committed by humankind and passed over in God's forbearance.

The force of this justification is not simply that a verdict is rendered and a certificate of eternal life issued to its recipients. Nor is it a legal fiction, an "as if" righteousness that does not truly describe its human subjects. Like all of God's speech, this is an effective word or, to use an older English term, a rightwising word that sets former sinners in a right (or righteous) relationship with God and anticipates a transforming divine work in their lives. This word is spoken by the same God who brought the creation into existence by his powerful word, the one "who calls into existence the things that do not exist" (Rom 4:17 NRSV).

It is a particular expression of the powerful and transforming "righteousness of God" (Rom 3:21–22 NRSV) that Paul speaks of in his thesis statement (Rom 1:16–17). The linguistic relationship between justify and righteousness is more evident in the Greek, where they are seen to share the same root (dik-) and initial vocalization: dikaiooœ ("to justify") and dikaiosyneœ ("righteousness"). In Christ's work God demonstrates his justice (Rom 3:25) and justifies the ungodly (Rom 3:24, 28, 30; 4:2; 5:1, 9; 8:30; 10:10).

Bondage and Liberation. The human plight can be viewed not only in terms of human guilt but also in the dynamic imagery of enslavement to an alien power. In this helpless state the only hope lies in rescue by someone mightier than the enslaving power. For Paul and other Jews the historical paradigm of bondage was found in Israel's enslavement in Egypt followed by their dramatic deliverance by God and his leading them into the land of promise (see PROMISED LAND). The imagery associated with this exodus story shapes the Bible's language of subsequent events of deliverance and leaves its imprint on Romans. Isaiah memorably speaks of Israel's future return from exile as if it were a second exodus (e.g., Is 40:3–5). First-century Jews in Palestine, however, experienced their life in the [736] land as a bitter irony: they had returned to the land of their ancestors, but they were under Roman domination, and their key symbols of Torah, temple, tribe and territory fell far short of their ideal expression. Israel longed for liberation, a true exodus and restoration. When in Romans 5–7 Paul speaks of humanity in bondage, the story line and formative imagery of Israel's narrative lies just beneath the surface. How will this human plight, dramatically enacted in Israel's historical dilemma, be resolved?

Paul's analysis of the human plight, for both Jews and Gentiles, goes deeper than the historical realities of political power. He speaks of a trilateral spiritual power alliance opposed to the reign of God—sin, flesh and death—plus one unwilling but impotent accomplice, the law. It is a story of kingdoms in conflict, a battlefield and a mighty deliverer. Prior to the giving of the law to Israel, sin as a power had "entered the world," and with it came death (Rom 5:12 NIV, echoing the story of Adam and Eve's sin and consequent "death"). "Death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses" (Rom 5:14 NIV), but with the giving of the law—as Israel's story at Sinai amply attests (Ex 20–32)—sin multiplied (Rom 5:20; 7:8–10). Sin and death work together, with sin exercising its reign in death (Rom 5:21) and enslaving humankind (Rom 5:6, 14) through its ready foothold in fallen Adamic flesh (Rom 6:12; cf. Rom 8:6–7), where it finds ready weapons of wickedness (Rom 6:13). Sin is a hard taskmaster who pays his wages in death (Rom 6:23). The law, holy and good in itself (Rom 7:12), nevertheless is helpless before the manipulations of sin. Sin uses the law as a bridgehead (Rom 7:8) as it wages war (Rom 7:23) and takes its prisoners (Rom 7:23). Its hapless victims cry out in lament, calling for a powerful deliverer (Rom 7:24–25).

This deliverer is Jesus Christ (Rom 7:25), who enters the territory of sin "in the likeness of sinful flesh" (Rom 8:3 NRSV). But when sin and death press their claim upon this righteous One, the tables are turned. In Christ's condemnation of sin (Rom 8:2–3) there is a dramatic reversal and rescue of those held in bondage to "the law of sin and death" (Rom 8:2 NIV). Those who attach themselves by faith to this divine deliverer, like Israel in the exodus (Ex 4:22; Hos 11:1), become the "sons of God" (Rom 8:14–17 NIV). Even Israel, in its waywardness and hardened condition, will see the deliverer who "will come from Zion" and "turn godlessness away from Jacob" (Rom 11:26 NIV; cf. Is 59:20). The deliverance of these children of God is of cosmic significance, for death has extended its reign not only over the human family but over the entire created order, subjected to futility and decay (Rom 8:20–21) and groaning in pain (Rom 8:22) as it awaits its deliverance. The hope of creation's release lies in the revelation of the children of God, and it eagerly awaits this evidence of the defeat of death, the first light of the dawning of a new creation (Rom 8:19).

The story of Israel provides the substructure for this narrative of redemption. It is as if Paul says, "As Israel goes, so goes the world." Within Israel's story lies a finely articulated outline of the human situation, and from Israel's bosom there arises the only deliverer (Rom 1:3) who can rescue both Israel and the world.

Old Adam and New Adam. The awareness that we are not quite right, the longing to be made anew, seems etched on human consciousness. Paul's use of Adamic imagery is well developed in Romans and encompasses the contrasts of deformity—transformation (cf. Rom 12:2) and disobedience—obedience. When Paul says that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom 3:23 NIV), he is alluding to the psalmist's declaration that humans are created as persons crowned with glory and honor (Ps 8:5), and this in turn builds upon the idea of man and woman being made in the image of God (Gen 1:28). "Since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities … have been clearly seen" (Rom 1:20 NIV), but the descendants of Adam have "exchanged the glory of the immortal God," who is the fitting object of worship for those who bear the image of God, for images of mortal humans and beasts (Rom 1:23 NIV; cf. Ps 106:20). In this and in their degraded behavior and animal appetites, their divine image has become badly distorted and threatens to transmogrify into the beastliness of the objects of their worship (cf. Wis 11:15–19). Humanity is not alone in this situation, for the creation in its entirety has lost its original radiant glory and been subjected to futility and decay, though not of its own will (Rom 8:20–21).

Paul explicitly develops an aspect of this Adam typology in Romans 5:12–21, where he contrasts the reign of sin and death with the reign of grace, righteousness and eternal life. "Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned" (Rom 5:12 NIV). Adam is portrayed as a figure whose actions, as the father of all humanity, have an ongoing effect through subsequent generations. It is as if his disobedience allowed the entrance of an alien and hostile force into God's world, which all his descendants serve by their misdeeds. But if Adam's disobedience is the pattern and undoing of the many, Adam is also "a pattern of the one to come, … the one man, Jesus Christ" (Rom 5:14–15 NIV).

As in many a human story, new beginnings recapitulate the pattern of old beginnings—but with a difference. The story of [737] the first Adam was a story of humans in relationship with God; the story of the second Adam is infused with divine grace and regenerative power as God uniquely embodies himself in the human story and transforms it. By the trespass of the first Adam a legacy of sin, judgment and condemnation was inherited by the many, both as a contagion and in imitation as each became his own Adam. Through the one act of righteousness the obedience of Christ, the second Adam, bestows a gift of grace—justification rather than judgment—which overflows to many (Rom 5:15). Whereas death reigned through the first Adam, holding his many descendants in its thrall, the many will themselves reign in life through the second Adam (Rom 5:17), sharing in the renewed Adamic splendor of dominion in a new creation (cf. Gen 1:28; Ps 8:6). Through the disobedience of the first Adam many were made sinners; through the obedience of the second, many will be made righteous (5:19). Behind the "one trespass" stands the disobedience of Adam in his eating from the forbidden tree; behind the "one act of righteousness" (Rom 5:18 NIV) lies the obedience of Christ in his death ("on a tree," as Paul says in Gal 3:13).

The progenitors of two humanities are contrasted, but the second is categorically different from and superior to the first in nature, action and effect. The dark and degenerative rule of death is overthrown by the radiant and generative rule of life. The malignant power of sin, accelerated by the law, is far overrun by the increase of grace through righteousness: "where sin increased, grace increased all the more" (Rom 5:20–21 NIV). Grace is neither niggling nor scheduled in its rewards.

Adam appears more covertly, but present nonetheless, beneath the argument of Romans 7:7–12. Here the picture is of sinful passions aroused by the law and bearing fruit for death. How so? "Had it not been for the law, I would not have known sin.… The law … said, 'You shall not covet.' But sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness.… The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me" (Rom 7:7–10 NRSV). Here speaks the voice of Israel, whose experience with the law followed precisely this pattern. But beneath the experience of Israel lies the prototypical story of Adam. Rabbinic interpretation understood the law to have existed prior to creation, and thus the commandment to Adam not to eat of the tree (Gen 2:17) was viewed as an expression of Torah. When Adam ate, the consequence was "death" and exclusion from the tree of life, the same pattern of action and consequence laid out by the law and enacted by Israel in its tragic history.

This pattern of first and second Adam, two humanities, sets Paul's gospel of redemption in a universal context that encompasses all—both Jew and Gentile—who would join by faith in service and worship to the one Lord. In joining this new humanity "our old self [Adam] is crucified with Christ" (Rom 6:6 NIV). The gospel joins people together as a new humanity in Christ. The corporate nature of this image carries over into the metaphor of the community as one body consisting of many members with complementary gifts and functions (Rom 12:4–8). By this overarching corporate imagery of a new humanity in Christ, the missionary objective of this letter is supported: "that all nations might believe and obey [God]" (Rom 16:26 NIV). Believing readers of Romans are invited to envision themselves as the corporate harbinger of a new society in a new world in which the old distinction between Jew and Gentile, Israel and the nations, is transcended.

Enmity and Reconciliation. The history of humanity is one of hostility, warfare and a longing for peace. But Paul identifies the most basic hostility as lodging in the human relationship with God. This was overcome through God's initiative at the cross. Christ is likened to a hero, but one who paradoxically dies not for his fatherland but for his enemies (Rom 5:6–8): "when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son" (Rom 5:10 NIV). Being justified, believers now have "peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom 5:1 NIV). The end result is the reconciliation of the world (11:15), and the diverse community shaped by the reconciling work is to "make every effort to do what leads to peace" (Rom 14:19 NIV), for God is a God of peace (Rom 15:33; 16:20). Those outside the community are also to be engaged peacefully. Even unbelieving Israelites, who are enemies of believers as far as the gospel is concerned, are to be regarded as beloved on account of their election and their ancestors (Rom 11:28). Enemies are not to be avenged but won over with acts of mercy (Rom 12:19–20).

Jews and Gentiles. Perhaps the most prevalent but most easily overlooked pattern in Romans is the binary contrast between Jews/Israel and Greeks/Gentiles. There are more occurrences of the Greek word ethn≈, "Gentiles," in Romans than in any other Pauline letter (twenty-nine in Romans; ten, for example, in Galatians). A fundamental subtext of Romans is how this baseline division within humanity will be resolved in one new humanity in Christ and under one God (Rom 3:30). The culmination will be a community of doxological harmony, "one voice" glorifying the one "God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom 15:6 NRSV).

In Romans 1–3 Paul speaks of the "Jew" (Ioudaios) and then only twice uses the term in Romans 9–11 (Rom 9:24; 10:12). In contrast, Paul refers to "Israel" and "Israelite" only in Romans 9–11. "Jew" is frequently contrasted not with "Gentile" but with "Greek" (Rom 1:16; 2:9–10; 3:9; 10:12 account for all "Greek" references save one, Rom 1:14, where we find "Greeks and barbarians"). In Romans the two terms, Israel(ite) and Jew, suggest different aspects of the historic people of God. Paul's use of Jew generally evokes a public and forensic setting, one that is evaluative of the present identity and standing of Jews and Greeks under God. For the most part the identity of Jews was, by their distinctive ethnic and religious customs, plainly evident to the watching Roman world. But for Paul, who is a true Jew? God only knows. One may be outwardly "named" a Jew (Rom 2:17), but the true Jew is one who is a Jew on the inside, "hidden," not just outwardly identified, whose circumcision is of the heart rather than of the flesh alone (Rom 2:28–29).

Despite their privileges, the Jews have failings that are painfully evident. Their possession of the law, which instructs them in the very will of God (Rom 2:18), [738] convinces them that they are "a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants" (Rom 2:19–20 NIV). But this hubris can conceal the acquisitive sins of stealing, commiting adultery and robbing temples (Rom 2:21–22). The seemingly indelible mark of male circumcision, the outward symbol of ethnic membership, is not enough. The outward sign is worthless without an inner correspondence in the "circumcision of the heart" (Rom 2:29 NIV).

Despite their many advantages, such as being entrusted with the oracles of God (Rom 3:1–2), Jews join Greeks in standing guilty "under sin" (Rom 3:9), a verdict itself sealed with a chorus of scriptural oracles (Rom 3:10–18). Although the gospel comes to Jews "first" (Rom 1:16; 2:9, 10), God is not the God of the Jews alone but also of the Gentiles (Rom 3:29), for God is *one (Rom 3:30). This image of divine oneness reveals the fundamental reality coming to expression in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The one God is calling and creating one people from many. God transcends historic, temporal and ethnic distinctions between Jews and Gentiles and lays his singular claim of judgment and grace on all people. Thus Jews and also Gentiles are now "called" as people of God (Rom 9:24), for there is "no difference" in Christ (Rom 10:12 NIV). Romans displays an inexorable movement from the duality of Jew and Gentile—and the manifold plurality of Gentiles with their many gods—to a oneness in Christ under one God. This oneness breaks down a fundamental Jewish ordering of the world.

In contrast with Jew, the term Israel or Israelite evokes the election, privilege and heritage of the historic people of God. It is the language of Paul's heart, a familial term almost, by which he displays his love and hope for his own people and laments their present waywardness. More than that, the image of Israel is of a people who enjoys the status of a uniquely advantaged minority under God: "Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised!" (Rom 9:3–5 NIV). Here is an image calculated to puncture Gentile–Christian pride, a pride perhaps nurtured in the sustained absence of Jewish Christians who had been expelled from Rome under the emperor Claudius and were now returning to their homes and Christian communities. Paul reminds Gentile Christians of God's promises and long-term relationship with Israel. In the extended image of the olive tree (Rom 11:16–21), Israel makes up the root, trunk and branches of God's cultivated olive tree, and Gentiles are only wild branches grafted in. If God prunes some Israelite branches from this tree to make room for wild branches, the Creator God can just as well graft in the pruned branches at a later time.

The inverse relationship between the failure of Israel and the fortune of the Gentiles is only temporary. While the defeat of Israel has meant riches for Gentiles (Rom 11:12), these riches have aroused Israel's envy of believing Gentiles, and this envy will eventuate in the salvation of some Israelites as envy and desire give birth to discovery of the gift of salvation in Christ (Rom 10:19; 11:11, 14). God's fatherly rejection of Israel is only apparent, not real (Rom 11:1); it serves the larger purpose of the reconciliation of the world (Rom 11:15).

The image of Jew and Gentile becoming one shades into an abundance of familial images. The legacy of Israel's family—adoption, glory, temple, patriarchs and more—finds its climax in the one true Israelite, Christ, before spilling forth to those Israelites plus Gentiles who are truly the people of God in Christ. Believers are "adopted" as "sons" and "children" (Rom 8:16–17, 21) of God and address God as "Abba, Father" (Rom 8:15). Abraham, formerly regarded as the forefather of the Jews, is "our forefather" (Rom 4:1), the "father of us all" (Rom 4:16 NIV), the "father of many nations" (Rom 4:17–18 NIV), the "heir of the world" (Rom 4:13 NIV). Thus Isaac also becomes "our father" (Rom 9:10). The "seed" of this family is transferred by promise and not flesh (Rom 9:8). Christ is the preeminent "Son" in this family (Rom 1:4), but believers as newly adopted "children" in God's family are "joint heirs with Christ" (Rom 8:17 NRSV). Paul regards fellow believers as "brothers" (Rom 1:13) and sisters (Rom 16:1)—some of whom are relatives by natural ties (Rom 16:7, 11, 21)—and encourages them in "brotherly," or familial, love (Rom 12:10 NIV). Paul can even speak of one woman as "a mother to me" (Rom 16:13 NIV), and as in a large Roman household, we meet several "fellow workers" (Rom 16:3, 9, 21 NIV). Paul fosters the intimacy of this large family in encouraging the "holy kiss" (Rom 16:16) and protects the family's integrity with a warning against "those who cause divisions" (Rom 16:17 NIV). These images are grounded in the social reality of Paul's addressing various "house" churches of Rome (Rom 16:5, and implied throughout Rom 16:3–16), communities that needed their bonds strengthened and reinforced.

Other Images. The quantity and rich variety of images that appear throughout Romans fly in the face of the common notion that this is a ponderous and abstract epistle. Paul draws on a number of areas of life to make his points.

The workaday world of the laborer is evoked in images of wages and work (Rom 4:4), of potter and clay (Rom 9:20–21), of building up (Rom 14:19; 15:1) and yet not building on someone else's foundation (Rom 15:20). And the language of commerce is engaged to speak of carrying no outstanding debts except for love of one's neighbor (Rom 13:8–10).

The institution of marriage and its dissolution by death provides a metaphor (admittedly complex) for speaking of Israel's relationship to the law and [739] subsequent discharge from its obligations (Rom 7:1–4). Those who are united with Christ in his death "die to the law" (Rom 7:4) and are like a woman now freed from her marriage bonds and able to marry another without committing adultery.

The daily rhythms of night and day (Rom 13:12), darkness and light (Rom 13:12), sleeping and waking (Rom 13:11) are employed to speak of the transition from the "night" of pagan vice to the "day" of salvation. This blends into imagery suggesting soldiers who are instructed to lay off the "works of darkness" (Rom 13:12 NRSV), to give up nights on the town invested in carousing, partying and orgies (Rom 13:13) and to put on the "armor of light" (Rom 13:12 NRSV).

In a list of denials of what can separate believers from the love of God, Paul invokes images of hardship, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword (Rom 8:35). These find their fount in Deuteronomy 28:53, 55, 57 and Leviticus 26:25, 33, which set out in advance the terrors that will befall unfaithful Israel (Thielman, 183). But while these sufferings were the result of divine abandonment and defeat for Israel, they are not to be so interpreted for those who are "more than conquerors through him who loved us" (Rom 8:37 NIV). Salvation does not guarantee escape from sufferings in this life.

Images of eating or not eating cluster around the equally evocative images of the "strong" and the "weak" in Romans 14. The strong are able to eat all sorts of food and drink, and the weak, who at Rome were probably vegetarians, abstain from meat and wine (Rom 14:1–6, 14–15, 20–23). But "the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking" (Rom 14:17 NIV), and the strong ones' insistence on the freedom to eat any food should not become a stumbling block to others. Elsewhere we hear that appetites of any type are not to be served (Rom 16:18). And when David is cited as saying "Let their table become a snare and a trap" (Rom 11:9 NRSV), Paul probably understands it as a reference to Israel's sacrificial cult and Pharisaic cultic purity that had trammeled Israel. Paul is convinced that "no food is unclean in itself" but is so only because one regards it as unclean (Rom 14:14 NIV). On the other hand, enemies (who epitomize uncleanness for the Jews) who hunger or thirst should be given food and drink as they require, with the result that burning coals will be heaped on their head (Rom 12:20). This puzzling image is taken from Proverbs 25:21–22, and while the burning shame of having one's hostility met with love comes first to mind, there is evidence that the image may originally have been derived from an Egyptian ritual signifying genuine repentance (Dunn, 751).

Images of feet are evident in the graphic picture of Satan being crushed under the messianic foot (Rom 16:20; cf. Gen 3:15) and the "beautiful feet" (Rom 11:15; cf. Is 52:7) of the heralds who bring the good news of salvation. The true sign of a person of God is not circumcision but walking "in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised" (Rom 4:12 NIV). But footsteps are not always sure, and stumbling feet are a hazard on the spiritual pathway. A "stumbling stone"—Christ—is laid for Israel in Zion (Rom 9:32–33; cf. Is 8:14), and Israel's own cultic rituals are also a source of stumbling (Rom 11:9). But Israel has not "stumbled so as to fall," and "through their stumbling salvation has come to the Gentiles" (Rom 11:11 NRSV). Still, within the community of faith there is no place for stumbling stones (Rom 14:20–21), and the community must be on the watch for those who put obstacles in their way (Rom 16:17).

The imagery of foot and path finds affinity with the imagery of pursuit. Israel "pursued a law of righteousness" and failed to obtain it, for in their pursuit they stumbled over the stone laid in Zion (Rom 9:30–32 NIV). Christ, the goal (telos, Rom 10:4) of the law, became for Israel not the finish marker of their race but a stone that caused them to stumble. In Romans 15:30 we encounter athletic imagery from another arena. Paul calls on the Romans to "wrestle together" (synagoœnizomai) with him in prayer (not against God but against opponents) so that he might be "rescued from the unbelievers in Judea."

Images of the mouth are a vehicle for portraying the desired harmony of the inner and outer person. The Mosaic reminder that the word of law is near, "in your mouth and in your heart" (Rom 10:8 NIV; Deut 30:14), finds its gospel correspondence in confessing with the mouth and believing in the heart (Rom 10:9). Likewise the believing community is to praise God "with one mind [homothumadon] and one mouth [heni stomati]" (Rom 15:6). In contrast, the hearts of those who bring dissension and false teaching are masked with "smooth talk" (chreœstologia) and "flattery" (eulogia, Rom 16:18 NIV).

Images of unsearchable wisdom and failed quest reveal the paradoxes of life before God. Israel earnestly seeks but does not obtain (Rom 11:7), while the Gentiles do not seek but find (Rom 10:20). The riches and wisdom and knowledge of God are unsearchable (Rom 11:33), and it is his way to keep mysteries hidden for ages and then finally to reveal them (Rom 16:25–26). No one can know God's mind, nor does anyone serve as his counselor (Rom 11:34). It is futile and unneccessary to launch a spiritual quest to ascend to heaven to bring Christ down or to descend into the abyss to bring Christ up from the dead. In the mystery of God's ways the crucified and risen Christ is as near as the confession of the lips and belief of the heart (Rom 10:6–9).

Paul puts several images of hardness and disability to good work. Pharaoh's heart is hardened (Rom 9:16–18), and he becomes an object of divine wrath and destruction. Israel was also hardened (Rom 11:7), though partially (Rom 11:25). Hardening of the heart suggests a retrenchment of mind and being before God and others, a stubborn lack of repentance (Rom 2:5), an impenetrability at the very point [740] where a person should be receptive and vulnerable to God and others. In the field of biblical imagery it seems to be a malignant condition that invades and impairs the organs of sight and hearing. Israel was given a "sluggish spirit, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear" (Rom 11:8 NRSV; cf. Deut 29:4). The image of backs "forever bent" (Rom 11:10 NRSV) is graphic, though the precise meaning is opaque. Whether we should see Israel as oppressed under the burden of slavery, or laboring under a burden of grief or forever hunched over from a life of hard toil and unable to lift their gaze we cannot be sure. But it is clearly a deformed condition for creatures who have been granted the dignity of walking upright, and it suggests an inability to meet others in the eye, or to gaze into the past or future, or to fully engage in the actions of worship.

Paul can invoke priestly or cultic imagery to speak of the death of Christ as a sacrifice of atonement (Rom 3:25 NIV) or the Christian community offering themselves as a "living sacrifice" which is their "acceptable service [latreia]" (Rom 12:1). When he speaks of gaining "access … into this grace" (prosagoœgeœ, Rom 5:2 NIV), the image is of Israelite and priestly access to the presence of God in the inner temple courts or holy of holies. And we read that "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord"—an image of worship—"will be saved" (Rom 10:13 NIV). But the most sustained flourish of priestly imagery comes when Paul speaks of his own mission to the Gentiles. Ultimately Paul's mission is all about worship, or service. The Gentiles, who "worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator" (Rom 1:25 NRSV), now have Paul as their "minister of Christ Jesus" (leitourgos, Rom 15:16 NRSV) to direct them to the true object of their worship so that "every knee shall bow" and "every tongue shall give praise to God" (Rom 14:11 NRSV; cf. Is 45:23). He serves "the gospel of God" as a priest and fulfills his duty by making an acceptable offering of the Gentiles (Rom 15:16). He is on his way to the holy city Jerusalem to be of service (Rom 15:25), and he is taking a contribution from the Gentiles (Rom 15:26–27) that recalls Isaiah's eschatological vision of the wealth of nations being brought to Jerusalem. The Romans are to pray that his service will be acceptable (Rom 15:31).

As we have already seen, Paul's use of plant imagery prominently features his picture of Israel as an olive tree. But the image of the root should not be missed: "If the root is holy, so are the branches," says Paul (Rom 11:16 NIV). The life of the Gentiles in this family tree of faith is dependent on the root in Israel's ancestry which received the promises. The same point is made from an image drawn from the intersection of agriculture and hearth: "if the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy" (Rom 11:16 NIV). The image of root takes a peculiarly activist posture when it is said that "the Root of Jesse will spring up" (Rom 15:12 NIV)—presumably once cut off and now surging forth to flourish as a full-grown tree—and will exercise its messianic rule over the nations (cf. Is 11:10).

In the end every image is enlisted in the progress of the power of the gospel (Rom 1:16–17) as it makes its way into the lost world, driving forward toward its redemptive unity in Christ. Paul's mission rides the cusp of this divine mission, and the ultimate outcome will be all nations' believing and obeying God, giving him praise and glory (Rom 16:26–27).

See also ADAM; BONDAGE AND FREEDOM; LEGAL IMAGES; REUNION/RECONCILIATION.