Abstract
In Romans 15:22−33 (the concluding section of Paul’s last written letter) ‘the apostle for the gentiles’ motivates his financial contribution (diakonia) to the poor (ptōchous) in Jerusalem in terms of his mission to the nations (ta ethnē). The aim of this article is to argue that Paul’s notion, ‘the righteousness of God’ (diakaiosunē tou theou), mentioned for example in Romans 1:18−3:20, not only accentuates God’s saving act (a vertical dimension) but also God’s intervention on behalf of the poor and other outcasts through the apostolic mission (the horizontal dimension). The article explains Paul’s use of the concept righteousness as a ‘virtue’ by focusing on both the Hellenistic moral philosophy and the occurrence of the term zedaqah in the Old Testament. For Paul, the revelation of God is the revelation of the righteousness of God (Rm 1:17) in, among others, the Law (e.g. Ex 22:21−24), the Prophets (e.g., Zch 7:9−10) and the Writings (e.g. Job 24:9). Those affected, are the poor without patrons, women without patriarchs, children without parentage and foreigners without a paterfamilias. The pilgrimage to the nations includes all four groups of marginalized people. Blending the concepts ‘the righteousness of God’, ‘begging for the poor’ and Paul’s apostolic mission helps us to understand why the end of Romans (15:22−33) and its beginning (1:18−2:20) come to full circle. The vertical dimension of God’s saving act merges with the horizontal dimension of God’s saving act.
Highlights
Note: Paper presented at the Prestige FOCUS Conference on Mission and Ethics program, 14−16 September 2011, University of Pretoria, South Africa
As someone who has focused strongly on Matthew’s gospel during my active academic career, I have to admit that the lack of nuance in the way in which both Pauline and Matthean commentators compare Paul’s use of diakaiosunē with the occurrence of this notion in Matthew has always left me with a sense of unease
It is difficult to accept that righteousness would mean something totally different to the ‘Hellenist Jew’ Paul, than it means to Matthew, another ‘Hellenist Jew’ – even if the current trend in some circles within Matthean scholarship, that considers Matthew’s intentional message as combating an inheritance of a socalled ‘law-free’ gospel, which originated in Pauline circles in formative Christianity, is taken into account
Summary
The righteousness of God, begging for the poor and Paul’s apostolic mission according to his Letter to the Romans. How to cite this article: Van Aarde, A.G., 2012, ‘The righteousness of God, begging for the poor and Paul’s apostolic mission according to his Letter to the Romans’, HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 68(1), Art. The aim of this article is to argue that Paul’s notion, ‘the righteousness of God’ (diakaiosunē tou theou), mentioned for example in Romans 1:18−3:20, accentuates God’s saving act (a vertical dimension) and God’s intervention on behalf of the poor and other outcasts through the apostolic mission (the horizontal dimension). As someone who has focused strongly on Matthew’s gospel during my active academic career, I have to admit that the lack of nuance in the way in which both Pauline and Matthean commentators compare Paul’s use of diakaiosunē (righteousness) with the occurrence of this notion in Matthew has always left me with a sense of unease. Paul has his own ‘kinsmen by race’ (suggenōn mou kata sarka) in mind, in other words, ‘Israelites’ (Israēlitai) (Rm 9:3−4), who pursue a diakaiosunē, which is not God’s righteousness (that is a righteousness established through faith), but a zeal for a righteousness of their own (idian dikaiosunēn) (Rm 10:3)
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