Paul and the Apocalyptic Imagination

by Ben C Blackwell

  That last statement may suggest an artificial distinction between Paul’s identification with Christ and his identification with Israel. I am not suggesting that Paul has ceased to be a Jew or that he has ceased to think of himself as a Jew. What I want to show instead is that, for Paul, the priority lies with Christ: Paul reads Israel—past, present, and future—through God’s action in Jesus Christ.[11]

  After this strong introductory assertion of concern about his kinfolk, Paul identifies them as “the Israelites,” and then clarifies that term with a list of descriptors. Theirs are “the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the law and the worship and the promises.” The list continues with “theirs are the patriarchs and from them is the Christ, physically speaking.”

  Space precludes a full exploration of this list, but its beginning and ending are especially important. As Erin Heim has observed in her recent dissertation on the metaphor of adoption in Paul’s letters, each of the other items in the list can be correlated with a specific historical moment (or moments), but “adoption” cannot.[12] Commentators routinely concede that the term υἱοθεσία does not appear in the LXX, but nonetheless, they also insist that, with this term, Paul is invoking the “concept” of Israel as God’s “son” (as, e.g., in Exod. 4:22–23; Deut. 14:1–2; Hos. 11:1. Mal. 1:6; 2:10).[13] Paul does not, however, refer to Israel here as God’s υἱοί or τέκνα, and his choice of terms may be particularly important in light of the discussion of 8:12–39.

  In 8:15, Paul declares that “you received a spirit of adoption,” and he then proceeds to speak of “us” as God’s τέκνα and of the longed-for apocalypse of God’s υἱοί. In 8:29, he identifies Jesus as ὁ πρωτότοκός, the “first born” of many brothers and sisters. This is the only place in the undisputed Pauline letters where Christ is referred to as the firstborn (although see Col. 1:15, 18), and it undoubtedly signals Christ’s priority. Christians (the “we” of this passage) are connected with Christ as their brother, but he is the first born (8:29). It is because of him that these brothers and sisters are chosen in advance, called, made right, and glorified.

  Reading across the white space, then, suggests that identifying the Israelites as recipients of adoption is a complex matter. It does, to be sure, call to mind the historic relationship between God and Israel, especially in light of the remainder of 9:4–5. The people and events brought to mind in 9:4–5 tersely rehearse God’s unilateral and unmerited action in the case of this particular people. God’s adoption of Israel is crucial and, as will become clear at least in 11:29, it has no termination.

  But the apocalypse of Jesus Christ prompts a rethinking of what that historic relationship means. Specifically, the argument of 8:18–39 implies that Israel is not the only child. The Israelites are not the only people whom God has adopted. Israel shares standing with the “we” of 8:15, the ones who have received the gift of the Spirit and who cry out to God as their father, the ones who are Christ’s own heirs (8:17), Christ’s own brothers and sisters (8:29). In addition, it is Christ who occupies the place of first born (8:29), so that all these children enter the family—metaphorically speaking—after Christ. That is to say: Christ interprets Israel rather than Israel interpreting Christ.

  This primary role of Christ is reinforced at the end of v. 5, where the reference to Christ bookends the list of God’s actions on behalf of Israel.[14] The symmetry of the list in v. 4 is disrupted when Paul resumes the ὧν that introduces the list and follows it with οἱ πατέρες καὶ ἐξ ὧν ὁ Χριστὸς τὸ κατὰ σάρκα. Setting apart “the fathers” and “the Christ” with separate phrases draws attention to them.[15] As he introduces “the Christ,” however, the phrasing is distinctive. It is not ὧν ὁ Χριστός but ἐξ ὧν ὁ Χριστός and also ὁ Χριστὸς τὸ κατὰ σάρκα. Scholars often suggest that Paul is here polemicizing against those Jews who do not recognize Jesus as the Christ of Israel with his use of language that both separates (Christ is “from” the Israelites but not “of” them) and limits (the relationship is fleshly only).[16] However, the description here both separates and connects. Christ is (and remains) an Israelite in a bodily sense (as Paul affirms his own fleshly connection in v. 3).[17] Yet, Christ is not only an Israelite, a powerful successor to the fathers; he is also ὁ ὤν ἐπὶ πάντων.

  Verse 5 is a notorious crux interpretum,[18] and the constraints of space preclude a review of the issues at stake. For the present, I simply stipulate the likelihood that ὁ ὢν ἐπὶ πάντων refers back to Christ.[19] Christ is simultaneously a descendent of Israel, separate from Israel, and is “over all.” This interpretation of Christ is consistent with what Paul has said of him at 8:34–39 and what he will say in 14:9. To say that Christ is at God’s right hand, and especially, to say that Christ is lord of the “dead and the living,” is, in effect, to say that he is “over all.” Even if the concluding ascription of praise to θεός does not refer to ὁ Χριστός, the language and ordering closely associate the two.

  These opening verses, 9:1–5, are far more than an introduction to a problem about which Paul has deep personal anguish. Indeed, the question of Israel’s “faith” or “obedience” is nowhere mentioned and remains suppressed until chapter 10. Instead, Paul puts front and center the advent of Jesus Christ, and that arrival requires a rethinking of Israel.[20] Israel is God’s adopted and gifted child, but that adoption has already been said to apply to “us” (gentile and Jewish Christians) as well. And Israel is the Christ’s physical family of origin, yet Christ is the firstborn and the one “over all.” As chapters 9–11 unfold, Paul continues this retelling of Israel’s story. Although cast in the form of history, at least at the outset, and significant elements in Israel’s history are at play throughout, this is not an account of Israel generated from Abraham forward. Instead, it is an account generated backward, beginning from the Christ-event.

  What follows in 9:6–11:36 is an argument in three movements. First, Paul narrates God’s creative justice in the case of Israel, culminating in the threat of destruction (9:6–29); second, in 9:30–10:21, he depicts God’s tripping of Israel on the “rock” that proves to be, not the Law but Christ; and finally, in 11:1–36, he contends that God is acting through Israel’s temporary division to redeem the entire cosmos. At every turning point, he shows God’s action, holding God responsible.

  The Creation of Israel and the Strange Justice of God:

  Romans 9:6–29

  Implicit in 9:4–5 is God’s unilateral, unmerited bestowal of gifts upon the people Israel, and that implicit claim comes to the foreground in 9:6a with the assertion that God’s “word” has not failed.[21] Verse 6b explicates with the cryptic statement: οὐ γὰρ πάντες οἱ ἐξ Ἰσραὴλ οὗτοι Ἱσραήλ. Translations of this statement frequently (and wrongly) supply the word “truly” or “really” in order to distinguish those who are part of Israel “spiritually” from those who belong “merely” to physical Israel.[22] Along similar lines, C. E. B. Cranfield explains that this is “the company of those who are willing, obedient, grateful witnesses to . . . grace and truth.”[23]

  Yet, the peculiar account of Israel that follows has nothing whatsoever to do with human willing or obedience or gratitude and everything to do with God’s unilateral actions. To begin with, Paul insists that God brought Israel into being by providing Abraham and Sarah with a son.[24] Later still, God chose Jacob rather than his twin, Esau. Both Jewish and later Christian texts eagerly supply reasons for God’s decisions.[25] Paul, however, is not simply silent on that question; he adamantly insists that the choice took place before they were born, before they could do anything at all, precisely so that decision (ἡ κατ᾽ἐκλογὴν πρόθεσις) would remain with God (vv. 11–13). What 9:6b means, therefore, is that Israel is constituted by God’s creative action rather than by physical descent.

  The same insistence on God’s unilateral a
ctions, albeit cast in negative terms, pertains to Pharaoh. To be sure, Scripture claims that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, but Scripture also says that Pharaoh hardened his own heart (Exod. 8:28; 9:34; 13:15; and see 1 Sam. 6:6). Paul recalls only the divine side of this action (anticipating 11:7–10). Pharaoh is as little responsible for his hardening as Isaac and Jacob are for their births and vocations.

  This insistence on God’s gracious action in the case of miraculous births and hardening in the case of the despised Pharaoh already recasts Israel’s history in a peculiar way,[26] but things take an especially strange turn in 9:24–25 with the insistence that among those who are “called,” who are “children of God,” there are now gentiles.[27] Hosea’s “not my people” now includes those who really are “not my people.” And Isaiah’s laments introduce the hopeful note of “remnant” and “seed,” while simultaneously claiming the near extinction of Israel. In both cases, the action lies with God, who “works his decision” on the earth (v. 28) and who nonetheless “left for us a seed.”

  The question of v. 14, “Is there injustice/wrong-doing with God?” is answered with the emphatic μὴ γένοιτο, yet Paul’s account of God’s actions scarcely demonstrates a standard of justice that would be recognized in any human court. God’s judgments here are based, not on impartiality (contrast 2:5–11[28]), but on God’s prerogatives as creator. Just as the potter decides what to do with the pot, God decides what is to be the use of God’s creations.

  Within this peculiar history, not of a people but of God’s actions with a people, there are several recollections of the account of God’s apocalyptic action in chapters 1–8. First, as he draws on the LXX of Exod. 9:16, Paul (apparently? intentionally?) makes two slight modifications that are revealing. First, instead of the διατηρήθης in Exodus, Paul writes ἐξήγειρα, suggesting not simply that God has kept Pharaoh alive for a purpose, but that God brought Pharaoh into being for a specific reason. Paul also substitutes δύναμις for the LXX ἰσχύς, a slight change that has the effect of connecting the citation more closely with the discourse about divine power in the opening lines of Romans (1:4, 16–17) as well as the language about conflicting powers in 8:38–39. Second, vv. 22–23 not only re-introduce the language of divine power, but that of “wrath” and “glory” found earlier in 2:1–11. All these elements serve to connect Paul’s argument back to the apocalyptic account of God’s deliverance of all humanity from Sin and Death in chapters 1–8.[29]

  God Rigs a Race: Romans 9:30–10:21

  Despite the fact that numerous discussions of Rom. 9:30–10:21 characterize it as addressing Israel’s “failure” or “disbelief” or “rejection,” here also, God’s activity remains dominant.[30] The section opens by contrasting gentiles, who win a race they never entered, with Israel, which enters but is tripped before reaching the finish line. To be sure, the gentiles are said to arrive ἐκ πίστεως, which might suggest their own action of trust or belief, were it not for the assertion that these gentiles were not even registered for the race, as well as the emphatic claims immediately preceding which attribute gentile inclusion to God’s calling (vv. 22–26).[31]

  Unlike the gentiles, Israel did run, and Israel ran in pursuit of the “law under the power of rectification,” that is, God’s own rectification.[32] Although Israel ran a good race, Israel did not arrive at the finish line because, in the elliptical language of v. 32a: “not from faith but from works,” not based on faith generated by God in Jesus Christ (as in v. 30), but based on “works.” These are not “works of the law,” a phrase which last appears in 3:28. Instead, these are the “works” referred to 9:10–12, namely, human effort in general. Israel undertakes the good race of arriving at divine rectification, but is tripped by none other than the God of Israel: ἰδοὺ τίθημι.[33] Further, the stumbling stone turns out to be none other than Christ (see 10:13), even if the identity of that stone remains unclear in 9:33. Israel’s “problem,” then, is christological and it is generated by God.

  With 10:2, Paul recasts his comment about Israel’s race: Israel has zeal for God, but that zeal is uninformed. Verse 3 explains: they attempted to substitute their own δικαιοσύνη for that of God, because they did not know God’s δικαιοσύνη. Israel does not understand what God has done. Paul thereby leaves open the possibility that will emerge in 11:7–10, namely, that it is God who has closed Israel’s mind (at least temporarily). This is a significant thread in the remainder of chapter 10, where confession of the name of Christ depends on hearing, which in turn, depends on preaching, which in turn, depends on being sent, which in turn, depends on God’s initiative. To be sure, 10:21 depicts Israel as disobedient, but that statement is preceded by the claim that God is the one who causes Israel to be jealous and angry: ἐγὼ παραζηλώσω ὑμᾶς . . . παροργῖω ὑμᾶς.

  This charge that Israel does not know what God has done reintroduces the important epistemological motif of 1:18–32. It also coheres with concerns about perception that appear in chapters 12–16 (e.g., 12:2, 3, 16; 13:11). And it recalls the important strand of epistemological concerns in the Corinthian correspondence (especially 1 Cor. 1:18–25; 2 Cor. 5:16–17).[34] In Paul’s interpretation, particularly in 1 and 2 Corinthians, the epistemological divide—between those who see what God has done and those who do not—derives from the apocalyptic event of the cross. Only in light of God’s apocalypse can the cross be understood as power and wisdom rather than scandal and foolishness, and that understanding comes only to those who are called (1 Cor. 1:23–24).

  Space allows only the most cursory remark about the convoluted argument in 10:4–13. Whatever judgment is made about the statement in v. 4 that Christ is the law’s τέλος, by the end of v. 13, Christ has, in effect, displaced the law. It is Christ who is near, Christ who is proclaimed and who is lord of all. In addition, this is the only part of chapters 9–11 that takes up the Mosaic law, suggesting that, whatever Paul is saying about Israel, Israel is not understood in light of the law. Confirming the observations above about 9:1–5, Israel’s identity is discussed in relationship to the God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead—not in relationship to the law.[35]

  “All Israel Will Be Saved”: Romans 11:1–36

  The rhetorical question that opens chapter 11 may represent the attitude of some gentile Christians, as is suggested by the strong language of 11:18. Elements of the preceding argument would seem to reinforce that conclusion, and both 9:27–29 and 10:21 would seem to align Paul with such a view. That impression appears to be confirmed by the way 9:30–10:21 speaks of Israel as a whole, as if all of Israel were among the disobedient. Yet, Paul immediately rejects the question with another μὴ γένοιτο. Indeed, Paul’s disposition betrays itself when he asks in 11:1: “Has God rejected his people?” rather than “this” people or “that people” or “disobedient Israel.” With “his people,” the relationship between God and Israel that is emphatically asserted in 11:25–32 already comes into view.

  Before taking up the eschatological future, however, there is more to say about the present, specifically, about what God is doing in the present. God has introduced a fissure into Israel. There is a remnant, consisting of the part of Israel that is ἡ ἐκλογή as a result of divine grace (11:2–7). And there are οἱ λοιποί, those who have been hardened (11:7). The passive ἐπωρώθησαν suggests divine agency at work (as earlier with the hardening of Pharaoh), and that divine agency comes to explicit expression in v. 8: It is God who gave them a “spirit of stupefaction, eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear” (cf. 9:16–18). Here again, the epistemological factor comes into play. The remainder do not respond to the gospel because God has, at present, rendered them unable to do so.

  This division is not the last word, however. To such a conclusion, Paul responds again with μὴ γένοιτο. The division has as its purpose nothing less than the salvation of the gentiles and the jealousy of “my flesh.” Roman
s 11:15 contrasts the present and future state of οἱ λοιποί in cosmic terms. Since their present rejection means reconciliation of the cosmos, their future acceptance is nothing less than life out of death. The stumble of the remainder is not something that can be repaired by human repentance.[36] Instead, Paul reverts to the language of reconciliation from 5:1–11, where it implies reconciliation between warring parties. What Israel’s οἱ λοιποί need is more than reconciliation; it is “life from the dead,” which is resurrection if not re-creation. Linebaugh rightly draws attention to the christological implications: this reading of Israel’s story is only possible in the light of the Christ-event.[37]

  What is anticipated with “life from the dead” Paul announces directly in 11:25–32, the salvation of “all Israel.” The divinely created division between “the elect” and “the rest” will be divinely healed. Paul identifies this assertion as τὸ μυστήριον τοῦτο, using technical terminology for the disclosure of divinely revealed information.[38] With the remainder of vv. 25–32, Paul explains what he understands about the mystery. Israel’s double-standing at present is part of God’s action. Israel’s rescue is meant for the world’s deliverance: God has confined all to disobedience that God might have mercy on all.