Crabtree 1

Devan Crabtree

Exegesis

Dr. Dawsey

4/27/13

Holman Christian Standard

6 For I am not ashamed of the gospel,[k] because it is God’s power for

salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the

Greek. 17 For in it God’s righteousness is revealed from faith to

faith,[l] just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.

Historical Context

Around the year 49 A.D. Claudius the Emperor of Rome banished

the Jewish people from Rome. The reason for this expulsion was the

radical sect of the Jewish people: the followers of Christ (later to be

called the Christians). Claudius claimed that there were disturbances

made by a man named Christus whom one can take to be Christ. This

assumption can be made because the followers of Christ were the most

radical and well known sect of Judaism at the time. Fortunately for the

Jews, they were allowed back in Rome in the year 54 A.D. This is what

sets up the context for our verse. A people who were sent out of a city
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are being allowed to return and are now pushed underground and being

quiet about their faith.

It is my argument that Paul would use these verses as a subject

to the Church of Rome in a letter that spans the first the first eight

chapters of the book that is currently in the cannon. While the

persecution and excommunication in society was known by the Gentiles

who followed Christ, this was a different thing for the Jews whom were

followers of Christ. As it can be seen in Acts with the Gentile Stephen,

the Greek Christians were persecuted first since they were not

considered to be a sect of Judaism which was tolerated in the Roman

Empire. Unfortunately for the Jews, the Christian movement has now

been challenged by the Emperor. Thanks to this challenge the Christian

Jews are now being afraid to express their religious views. For the first

time the Jewish Christians have been pushed underground. And Paul is

expressing to them that they should not be ashamed of their faith.

Grammatical structure and word studies

When examining scripture in an exegetical work it is very

important to examine the grammatical structure of the verses at hand.

While it is impossible to fully study the grammatical structure without a

Greek scholar’s background, I have worked on a few word studies to

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make a Biblical scholar’s attempt. Since I cannot actually study the

structure of the passage I have instead focused my work on the word

studies within the passage and one phrase in particular.

The first (and perhaps the most important word study for my

exegesis, although it may not be the most important word in the

verses) is the word ashamed. As found throughout my studies, I have

concluded that the word ashamed is not how we find it to be in

American society today. As defined by dictionary.com, the word

ashamed means “feeling shame; distressed or embarrassed by feelings

of guilt, foolishness .” Today’s interpretation of the word focuses

significantly on the inward feeling or emotion of feeling ashamed. It is

significantly personal. And, while it can be said the meaning in

antiquity was personal, it took on a whole different meaning. To be

ashamed in the ancient world was a public punishment. When Paul was

saying he is not ashamed, he was saying he was not afraid of being put

at a lower social status. Paul was saying he was not afraid to be put in

the streets and made fun of. It was the social punishment that was

equal to being put in the stocks during the medieval times. When we

look at the word from the antiquity definition it gives it such a deeper

meaning. While it remains personal, we see that it means to not be

afraid to be publically humiliated.

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Another word study I did was on the word Gospel. While it is a

common misconception in modern Christianity that the word Gospel is

just associated with the Bible, which is not the case in the time Paul

was writing this letter. As we are reading the verses, it is important

that we remember the Gospels were not established as cannon at the

time. While it is possible that there were a couple of popular Gospels,

most of the stories were still oral tradition. Rather than talking about

scripture, Paul was talking about the “good news” of Christ. Or rather,

about how the Jewish scripture was fulfilled through the death of Christ.

So, while we are interested in the Gospel as a book, Paul was more

interested in the good news that the messiah had come. This is

because Paul realized the importance of getting his fellow Jewish and

Greek citizens to realize that Christ is the neww covenant and the only

way into enternal salvation.

The last word study that must be looked at is the study of the

word righteousness. As we see in other scripture, righteousness often

refers to the fulfillment of the law or doing what is right in the eyes of

God. However, one must ask that since Paul thought of Jews as being

free from the law, does righteousness take on an new meaning? The

answer is yes. It is my opinion, after many word studies, that Paul is

referring to one’s relationship with God. Paul points out that the one
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who lives by is the one that is righteous. This suggests that Paul is

saying that the righteous is one who relies on God.

Historical Meaning

Putting all of this together it can be concluded that we have the

historical meaning of the verses at hand. After discussing the Jewish

exile from Rome in the year 49 A.D., one can see the situation the

Christian Jews were put in. It was, after all, their fault the exile

occurred. After this happened, it would seem to be only logical that this

sect of Jews (whom had probably been separately identified by the time

they were allowed back) would lay low. Therefore, one can see the

situation that Paul was responding to in Rome.

As a leader of the Christian people, it was important that Paul set

an example for the people. And, by this time, it was most likely well

known that Paul was a “trouble maker in society”. He was a leader of a

group that had been thrown out of the capital city of the Roman Empire

(A radical group that went against all laws of society since they were

defying the only other tolerated religion with in the Empire). He had

been arrested on several accounts, and was a bold man. Paul was

simply stating to the people a statement of his own boldness. In

current language I would state it to my colleagues as: “Hey guys I am

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not afraid to go in front of the common people kin the streets and be

publically humiliated. I walk the streets every day and I am hated for

my religious views. But, I am kind of use to it. I don’t care because

even though I am made fun of, at least I am proclaiming the good news

that the messiah has come, and I am working to get people on the right

path.” This is how I think Paul mean the “for I am not ashamed of the

Gospel…” part of the exegetical verses.

I believe that the second part of the verse can be explained in

modern day vernacular I would use with my colleagues as: “Guys, if

you believe and trust in God’s will for your life then God will help you.

The person who lives by faith and has a close relationship with God will

find favor with God.”

So, in a summary of what I believe Paul was trying to say to his

followers and brother in Christ in Rome was just a message of

encouragement. Paul realized that the Christian people there were

going through a rough phase of being scared to proclaim their religion

due to the fact of the previous Jewish exile. I believe this feeling is one

that Paul easily related to because he was most definitely not a very

popular man with the Roman officials. He was in short saying that

although things were looking rough, the Roman Christians should share

their faith even if it means public humiliation and punishment.

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Because, if all of that happened they were getting the good news of the

arrival and fulfillment of scripture of the messiah who was Jesus Christ.

And, further encouragement comes when Paul explains that trusting in

God and having that close relationship with God results in favor and a

healthy relationship with God.

Modern Interpretation of the Verse

Being a young Biblical scholar, I am invited to speak at many

youth events and to many youth groups. This particular section

(particularly these two verses) is a place that I commonly go to in order

to encourage young Christians. While, it is obvious that the verses

cannot be taken as it was in Rome during antiquity, the verse still has a

very similar meaning in modernity.

The Christian today (especially the young Christian) faces many

problems in society. We are living in a society that Christianity and

religion in any way is very unappealing to anyone. In American and

modern society the fundamentalist movement has been pushed. One

that focuses on the literal meaning of scripture and makes the Christian

faith seem as if it is one that relies heavily on rules. In my opinion,

this is the very thing that Paul and the leaders of the early church was

trying to get away from. Nevertheless, it has left the younger

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generation believing that Christianity is a faith focused on ruling out the

fun thing in life and only focusing on rules and what pleases God.

It is my theological view that God is a God that does, in fact, want

to be pleased. He (and I use this not to describe the sex of God but the

masculine use of a word gives it more authority in the English

language) is a God that wants a personal relationship with everyone.

But, it is also my theological view, that God wants us to have fun on

Earth, and as long as alcohol or other things of this world doesn’t

become idols in our life, then God isn’t upset with us and we haven’t

sinned.

Unfortunately, this is not how the secular world thinks of

Christianity and we are forced to deal with the view that it is a religion

that focuses on what one can and cannot do. That is why it is my view

that the verses that have been focused on in this exegetical work has a

very applicable meaning in today’s society.

Although we are not faced with the extreme persecution that the

early Church was subject to, we most certainly are persecuted as

individual in our own social circles. It becomes apparent that one can

say do not be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ (although ashamed is

viewed as an inward feeling today and Gospel is viewed as the cannon

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we have today) just because of the way that society views Christianity.

The second part of the exegetical work can be explained just as I have

thought that Paul meant it to be taken. I believe that this can also be

encouraging that if we seek that relationship with God and trust in him

during a time that the religion is becoming less and less faith based

then God will show us favor (as he does his people).

It is in these two verses that I believe modern Christians have the

opportunity to take back the religion. In this I mean that we can truly

go back to the old time religion of the church of Acts, and not the “old

time religion” and fundamentalist movement that found its way to

America in just the last century. If Christians take this verse and

actively use it as encouragement to share our religion, then I believe

that Christianity can take a major change. I believe that we can go

from being view in the secular world as a religion about what is right or

wrong to a religion of living, relationship with God, and forgiveness (by

the messiah) when one does happen to do wrong. We can go to the

religion that Paul meant Christianity to be.

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Works Cited

" The Anchor Bible Dictionary. Ed. David Noel Freedman. Vol. 3. New

York: Doubleday, 1992. Print.

"Blue Letter Bible." - Search Tools. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2013.

"Commentary on Romans (Luther Classic Commentaries)

[Paperback]." Commentary on Romans (Luther Classic

Commentaries): Martin Luther, J. Theodore Mueller:

9780825431203: Amazon.com: Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr.

2013.

Barrett, C.K. A Commentary on The Epistle to the Romans.

Vol. 7 Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, edited by Gerhar

Friedrich and Geoffrey W. Bromiley.