“Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus…”
Romans 1.1-6 says a lot about how Paul self-identified. This section is one long sentence (NA27 and SBL GNT place a period after v. 7 and it seems most English translations do the same) where Paul sends his greetings to the church in Rome. Paul introduces himself with a long list of nominatives that modify his name as well as genitives that inform us about some of these nominatives. We learn that Paul is:
a slave of Christ Jesus
δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ
a called apostle
κλητὸς ἀπόστολος
separated unto the gospel of God
ἀφωρισμένος εἰς εὐαγγέλιον θεοῦ (“gospel” is in the accusative as the direct object)
This is Paul: a slave, a called apostle, and one who has been set aside or separated for a special purpose. His identity is in Messiah Jesus and his the gospel of God.
This gospel unto which Paul has been separated has some additional modifiers as well. The gospel is that which:
[God] foretold through his prophets
ὃ προεπηγγείλατο
through his prophets
διὰ τῶν προφητῶν αὐτοῦ
in holy scripture
ἐν γραφαῖς ἁγίαις
about his Son
περὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ
the one born of the seed of David
τοῦ γενομένου ἐκ σπέρματος Δαυὶδ
according to the flesh
κατὰ σάρκα
who was declared the Son of God
τοῦ ὁρισθέντος υἱοῦ θεοῦ
with power
ἐν δυνάμει
according to the Spirit of holiness
κατὰ πνεῦμα ἁγιωσύνης
raised from the dead
ἐξ ἀναστάσεως νεκρῶν
Jesus Christ
Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ
our Lord
τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν
through whom we receive
διʼ οὗ ἐλάβομεν
grace and apostleship
χάριν καὶ ἀποστολὴν
unto the obedience of faith
εἰς ὑπακοὴν πίστεως
among all the nations
ἐν πᾶσιν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν
for the sake of his name
ὑπὲρ τοῦ ὀνόματος αὐτοῦ
among whom also are you
ἐν οἷς ἐστε καὶ ὑμεῖς
called
κλητοὶ
of Jesus Christ
Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ
The gospel was (1) foretold, (2) through the prophets, (3) in holy scripture. It is about the Son of God. The Son of God is the one who is a descendant of King David “according to the flesh.” The Son of God is declared to be the Son of God “with power” through the Holy Spirit who raised him from the dead.
This Son of God is Jesus Christ of whom Paul is said to be a slave. This Jesus is “Lord.” Jesus is the source of grace and apostleship for Paul. The apostleship is for the purpose of bringing all the nations to the obedience of faith for the sake/reputation of the God of Israel.
The Romans to whom he is writing are part of the nations to which Paul is an apostle. Paul called himself “called” and he tells the Romans that they are “called” as well. As with Paul, it is Jesus Christ who is the source of this calling.
Paul uses this long sentence to explain who he is and to explain what he is doing. Once he explains who he is in the gospel and in his relationship with Jesus the Messiah he must unpack the meaning of the gospel and the identity of Jesus.
August 23, 2012 at 7:38 am
It’s nice how you’ve laid out your exegesis for your readers.
It’s bold (but correct) to take δοῦλος as ‘slave’ (some say bond-servant). To take it as ‘servant’ makes Paul’s claim ‘gentler’ to modern sensibilities – yet to present it as ‘slave’ as Paul seems to has shock value.
This raises two questions:
1. Did it have the same shock value on Paul’s audience. Many say ‘no’ but there’s some reason to believe it did.
2. Why is it such an affront to modern sensibilities to freely admit to being a slave to Lord Jesus?
Speculating, the glory of Rome was to award ‘citizenship’ (meaning freedom) so willingly becoming a slave went against the worldly norm (of the Roman Empire).
Given the argument above that it had the same effect on ancient audiences as modern ones that may not have been for the same reason. American history had slavery but the impact on non-Americans is the same so it has to be something else. One thought may be that if Paul’s description of worldly people is correct [2 Tim 3:2] , giving complete obedience to Jesus, acknowledging His authority with him the Lord, and we the slaves, directly confronts our tendency to be ‘swollen with conceit’.
Yet this very thing would appear to be Christlike. The same word δοῦλος is used in:
“Have this mind amongst yourselves, which is yours in the Messiah Yehshua, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself NOTHING, taking the form of a δοῦλος (slave) being born in the likeness of men. [Phil 2:5-7].
Nice post.
August 23, 2012 at 9:32 am
Andrew
I think you are correct that Paul’s claim to be a slave would have had some shock value. It would have been odd to hear someone claim to be an apostle/royal emissary and a slave of a dead Jewish man who claimed to be King and whose followers claim him to be alive again.
I haven’t thought about it being an affront to modern sensibilities.
August 24, 2012 at 3:15 am
“the purpose of bringing all the nations to the obedience of faith ” – I don’t know of anyone who has adopted Paul’s mission statement. Today our purpose seems a bit more acheivable. Less bold, like; “make disciples” or “make Christ known”
August 24, 2012 at 12:55 pm
Jeff,
Not from an eschatological view. I think Paul sees all the nations, all of them and all in them, saved by faith. That’s controversial.
There’s more to this narrative than what we’ve traditionally believed. IF Paul believed only after he saw the glorified risen Christ, is there at least a chance all humanity gets the same option? I think so myself.
August 24, 2012 at 1:25 pm
Jeff
We do sometimes create a false dichotomy between the relational nature of discipleship and the proclamatory nature of evangelism. The way Luke presents Paul in Acts seems to indicate that Paul was not remembered as seeing a difference between the two. We know he had disciples and made disciples (e.g., Acts 19) yet he spends his days traveling and proclaiming Christ.
August 24, 2012 at 6:56 pm
We shouldn’t simply assume we appreciate the scope of ‘all nations’ simply because it seems evident to us.
Paul goes on to immediately place a scope on the ‘amongst all the nations’ with ‘including you who are called to belong to YEHSHUA the Messiah’. The Greek language here ( ἐν οἷς ἐστε καὶ ὑμεῖς ) is a distributive conjunction, meaning that the ‘who are called’ applies to those he is addressing as well as ‘the nations’ he’s speaking about (that’s the distributive part, whereas the ‘amongst whom also’ is the conjunction).
The language here does not support a universal ‘all’ in ‘all nations’ but one scoped by ‘who are called’. Clearly not all nations are ‘called’ (nations! not individuals!)
August 24, 2012 at 6:59 pm
[Isa 43:1][Isa 48:12] etc.
August 25, 2012 at 8:51 am
Brian,Patrick,Andrew,
I appreciate your thoughts. I am feeling the need to reread Romans with his mission statement in mind. Also, wondering if it is okay to celebrate Islam when we see them working for the same purpose “of bringing all the nations to the obedience of faith for the sake/reputation of the God of Israel.” I don’t think I want to help convert all nations to Christianity. Not sure if that was what Paul was up to.