From: Harold R. Holmyard III (hholmyard@ont.com)
Date: Sun Jan 28 2001 - 20:55:58 EST
Dear Moon,
You write:
>my question can be answered without taking position on the addresses of
>Romans.
Unless I misunderstand something, you are theorizing that the phrase "you
are not under law" refers to the Gentiles.
You say:
>Incidentally, for my experimental re-reading of Romans, I tentatively
>assume that Romans was written primarily for Gentiles and deals with
>the issues they had in Jewish environment. But that is not an issue here.
But it is an issue here, unless I misunderstand you. For I understand you
to suppose that Paul is speaking to the Gentiles in 6:14, as opposed to the
Jews.
Actually, the subject of the plural "you" in Rom 6:14 seems to be the same
as the plural "you" in 6:11. The "you" in 6:11 is included in the "we" that
dominates 6:4-8. For that "we" relates to the plural "you" in 6:3: "or are
you ignorant." The "you" of "are you ignorant" is part of the "we" that
begins at 6:1. And Paul defines that "we" in verse 3 as "as many of us as
were baptized into Jesus Christ, we were baptized into His death." Thus it
includes all baptized believers.
Therefore, to narrow the focus to Gentiles in 6:14 requires a basis for
doing so. There were Jews that Paul addressed in his letter as Christians,
according to 2:17. I do not think that 2:17-27 can be dismissed as a
rhetorical flourish that does not actually address Jewish Christians. So
Paul addressed both Jews and Gentiles at Rome. If Paul switched from all
baptized believers in 6:1-13, as seems to be the case, to Gentiles in 6:14,
he must have signaled the change of reference in some way. That is what I
do not see.
Yours,
Harold Holmyard
Dallas, TX
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