The Death of the Soul in Romans 7
Sin, Death, and the Law in Light of Hellenistic Moral Psychology
by Emma Wasserman
The monologue of Romans 7 has proved central to the Christian West, where interpreters such as Augustine and Martin Luther have made the text into a paradigm for the plight of mankind, torn between the demands of God’s goodness and its own sinful nature. Emma Wasserman argues that the monologue can be better contextualized within certain intellectual discourses alive in Paul’s day. In light of certain Platonic traditions about the soul, the monologue emerges as the voice of reason or mind describing its defeat at the hands of passions and desires represented as sin. Especially as developed by Philo of Alexandria, Platonic traditions of representing extreme cases of immorality account for a number of difficult features of the text. Such traditions can account for the metaphors of enslavement, imprisonment, warfare, and death; the representation of the passions as sin and the association with the body, members, and flesh; the Platonic language about mind and the speaker’s role in reasoning, reflecting, and judging; the problem of the law in the first part of the monologue (verses 7-13) and the plight of self-contradiction in the second (14-25). The reading thus finds that the speaker is reason or mind, recounting its discovery that it cannot put any of its good judgments into action because of the dominance of the passions.
Emma Wasserman, Born 1975; 2005 PhD from Yale University; 2006-2008 visiting assistant professor of Religious Studies at Brown University and Reed College; from fall 2008 assistant professor of Religion at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey.
- By (author) Emma Wasserman
Other Titles in this Series
Jesaja 53 als theologische Mitte der Apostelgeschichte
Studien zu ihrer Christologie und Ekklesiologie im Anschluss an Apg 8,26-40
Volume 398
Luke-Acts and Jewish Historiography
A Study on the Theology, Literature, and Ideology of Luke-Acts
Volume 366
The Birth and Death of the PreMarkan Passion Narrative
A History of Form Criticism's Most Assured Result
Volume 608
Das unschuldige Blut im Matthausevangelium
Zur geschichtstheologischen Deutung des Todes Jesu
Volume 578
Virtue Ethics in the Letter to Titus
An Interdisciplinary Study. Kontexte und Normen neutestamentlicher Ethik / Contexts and Norms of New Testament Ethics. Volume XII
Volume 560
Emotion, Narration und Ethik
Zur ethischen Relevanz antizipatorischer Emotionen in Parabeln des Matthaus-Evangeliums. Kontexte und Normen neutestamentlicher Ethik / Contexts and Norms of New Testament Ethics. Band XI
Volume 498
The Historical Jesus’ Death as ‘Forgiveness of Sins’
A Comparative Study of Paul and Matthew
Volume 467
Peter – Apocalyptic Seer
The Influence of the Apocalypse Genre on Matthew's Portrayal of Peter
Volume 348
Spirits and the Proclamation of Christ
1 Peter 3:18-22 in Light of Sin and Punishment Traditions in Early Jewish and Christian Literature
Volume 305
Der Kolosserbrief im Kontext des paulinischen Erbes
Eine intertextuelle Studie zur Auslegung und Fortschreibung der Paulustradition
Volume 271
Jesus’ Death and the Gathering of True Israel
The Johannine Appropriation of Restoration Theology in the Light of John 11.47-52
Volume 217
Christusbeziehung und Christuserkenntnis im Johannesevangelium
Die narrative Entwicklung der Jüngerinnen und Jünger und ihre hermeneutischen Voraussetzungen im vierten Evangelium
Die Wundererzählungen im Markusevangelium
Eine narratologische Analyse zur Erschließung eines soteriologischen Erzählprinzips
Angels Associated with Israel in the Dead Sea Scrolls
Angelology and Sectarian Identity at Qumran
Volume 509
Aspekte der Seelsorge in den paulinischen Gemeinden
Eine exegetische Untersuchung anhand des 1. Thessalonicherbriefes
Volume 443
The Divine Voice in Paul’s Letters
The Use of Scripture as Theopoiesis and Paul’s Characterization of God
Similar Books
Cyril of Alexandria’s Christological Exegesis
Explorations of Partitive Exegesis in the Dialogues on the Trinity
Volume 70
Reformed Covenantal Eudaimonism
Wilhelmus à Brakel (1635–1711) on Highest Good, Virtue, and Law
Volume 87
The Biblical Tale of Judah and Tamar in Fourteenth-Century Iran
A Judeo-Persian Versified Account by Shāhīn with Scholarly Edition, Annotated Translation and Persian Transliteration
Volume 94, 951
The Therapeutae as the Best Paradigm for the Contemplative Life
A Contextual Reading of Philo of Alexandria's De Vita Contemplativa
De Moïse à Jésus: une messianité en discussion
Une interprétation de Jean 6 à partir de la section narrative (vv. 1-25a)
Volume 244
Die Sprache der Psalmen
Skizzierung eines lyrischen Prototyps der hebräischen Psalmen mithilfe von gattungs- und lyriktheoretischen Ansätzen
Volume 440
Makrothymia im Neuen Testament
Semantik und Ethik einer vergessenen ethischen Norm. Kontexte und Normen neutestamentlicher Ethik / Contexts and Norms of New Testament Ethics. Band XV
Parola di Dio, di uomo e di Re
L'assoluta verità della Bibbia nella dottrina cattolica di Bacchisio Raimondo Motzo
Breaking New Ground in John
Imagery, Parables, Characters, Christology, and Ethics in the Fourth Gospel
Volume 531
But the Wise Shall Understand
Reuse of Prophecies, Chronotope, and Merging of Eschatological Horizons in Daniel 10-12
Creation Concepts and Creation Care
Perspectives from Early Judaism, Early Christianity, and Beyond. Kontexte und Normen neutestamentlicher Ethik / Contexts and Norms of New Testament Ethics XVII
De-colonising the Biblical Narrative. Volume 4
The Colonial Worldview of the Book of Joshua
Volume 4
Personified Mountains in Ancient Canonical Narratives
Spatial and Mythic Studies of Mesopotamian, Greek, and Hebrew Bible Landscapes
Volume 62
