Paul's View on God, Israel and the Gentiles in Romans 9-11: An Intertextual Thematic Analysis of Romans 9-11

Abstract

<p> Romans 9-11 has been investigated through varied methods during the past two decades. One of the most prominent approaches is an intertextual reading of Rom 9-11. However, most discussions of intertextual studies do not adequately treat the discourse in Rom 9-11 by closely investigating Paul's discourse patterns and that of his Jewish contemporaries regarding God, Israel, and the Gentiles due to lack of an appropriate intertextual methodological control. Therefore, this study adapts Lemke's linguistic intertextual thematic theory as a methodological control to analyze Paul's intertextual discourse patterns in Rom 9-11. Paul's unique way of using Scripture as one part of his discourse pattern will be investigated as well. Through the intertextual thematic study of Paul's discourse in Rom 9-11, we demonstrate the divergence of Paul's viewpoints on some typical Jewish issues, which suggests that the discontinuities between Paul and his Jewish contemporaries are obvious and-sometimes-radical.</p> <p> We conclude the findings of our investigation of Rom 9-11 as follows: First, we have adjusted Lemke's intertextual thematic analysis, as an indispensable tool, to analyze Paul's viewpoints of the relationships of God, Israel and the Gentiles in Rom 9-11 within the backdrop of Second Temple Literature. Second, Paul re-contextualizes the Jewish discourse patterns regarding the topics of intercession, Israel, God's promise, God's people, righteousness and law. It can be seen that Paul's discourse patterns share some continuity with his Jewish contemporaries, but the core of his value regarding how to include the Gentiles as God's people stands in a discontinuous relationship with contemporary Judaism(s). Third, this study has demonstrated that although Paul uses Jewish styles of scriptural hermeneutics, and though his discourse patterns resemble some Jewish literature in important aspects, Paul's viewpoint on the relationship of God, Israel and the Gentiles in Rom 9-11 is dissociated from his Jewish contemporaries in key ways. In other words, the core value of early Christian discourse has been embedded in Rom 9- 11. Paul's viewpoint on the relationship of God, Israel and the Gentiles takes a divergent stance away from his Jewish contemporaries since Gentile inclusion is rooted in the Gospel of Christ. Finally, Rom 9-11 not only provides Paul's self-presentation as a Mosaic prophet figure, but also its overall discourse patterns appears as a prophetic discourse: In each section (Rom 9:1-29; 9:30-10:4; 11:1-36) Paul designates his identity or his concerns of lsrael (Rom 9:1-3, 10:1; 11:1-2) before he enters into the argumentation, which demonstrates the relation between Paul's self-understanding and his message in these three chapters; also, the overall discourse pattern in Rom 9-11 resembles a prophetic discourse pattern, which expresses the idea that Paul's self-understanding as a prophetic figure serves to confirm that his word comes from divine authority.</p>