Romans Debate, Revised and Expanded Edition

by Karl P. Donfried (Editor)

Book by

Genres: New Testament, Biblical Studies, Theology

372 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1977

Reviews

[Randy Mccracken]

An important volume for every teacher of Romans to have in their library.

[Timothy Decker]

An important collection of scholarly works on Romans. Much to disagree with, but important for scholarship nonetheless.

[Spencer]

A strong collection of essays on the circumstances and theme of Romans. This book is the second edition and shows the evolution of thought from the late 20th century until now. Romans was largely thought of as a composite work or a work of multiple distributions (Jerusalem, Rome. e.g. Manson). But most commentators now see Rom 16 as part of the original letter and embrace its Roman destination.

Particularly valuable are the contributions by Jervell who suggests that Romans is not directed towards Rome but towards Jerusalem and was thus seeking Roman approval of his message. Francis Watson proposes the existence of two congregations (or perhaps better two categories of congregations) in Rome who were unable to worship together due to their scruples of weak and strong. Aune and Jewett make strong cases for reading Romans with a rhetorical structure. Dunn and others close out with a clarification of the New Perspective and its implications.