Richard N.

Longenecker, Introducing Romans: Critical Issues in Paul’s Most

Famous Letter. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2011.

Every commentary, if it’s worth the effort of reading, is based on serious, honest,
diligent, in depth exegetical and historical work. To be sure, not everything done in
the ‘workshop’ of scholarship needs to be put on display in the ‘window’ of the final
publication. But all that hard work does show up in the fruits of comprehensibility
and clarity. Muddled ‘workshopping’ equals muddled presentation. And poor
presentation can generally be traced back to poor preparation.

I say all that to say that here Longenecker has demonstrated here the depth and
thoroughness of his learning as he prepares his own commentary on Paul’s letter to
the Romans. His examination of the ‘critical’ (or perhaps better, ‘essential’) issues
behind Paul’s work are – if I may – an open window on the workshop of a true
craftsman. He will not be accused of poor preparation by anyone who makes the
effort to work through the vast Amazonian forest of this volume where, around every
turn and under every rock and behind every tree there are new sights and old
combined in majestic order.

Here, in part one, L. discusses ‘Important Matters Largely Uncontested Today’ like
authorship, integrity, occasion, and date. Part two he calls ‘Two Pivotal Issues’ which
are addressees and purpose. Part three, ‘Conventions, Procedures and Themes’ is
more technically oriented than the previous two parts and is organized around Greco-
Roman rhetorical and literary conventions and Jewish and Jewish Christian
procedures and themes. Part four returns to more general territory with L. describing
issues related to text and textual history and, most interestingly (at least to me), major
interpretive approaches prominent today.

This latter subsection deserves a bit more explanation, since here L. enters into the
debate on such matters as ‘the righteousness of God’ and ‘righteousness’; justification
and faith; ‘in Christ’ and ‘Christ by his spirit in us’; the constantly raised and still
unsettled ‘πιστις ιησου χριστου’ question; the so called ‘new perspective’ on Palestinian
Judaism and Paul; ‘honor’ and ‘shame’ [apparently in honor of the ‘Context Group’];
and ‘reconciliation’ and ‘peace’. If all that sounds like rather a lot, it is.

The final section of L. incredibly useful volume is devoted to a look at the focus,
structure and argument of Romans.

The tome concludes with a brief bibliography (brief in the sense that it only includes a
tiny fraction of the materials that have been written about this biblical book), and
indices.
L. ‘knows his stuff’ (but that won’t come as a surprise to anyone who has encountered
him before). And here he really shows how much he knows. His honesty is
refreshing and while he happily admits where others get it right, he isn’t afraid to say
that they’ve gotten it wrong as well. For example (and this is just one of hundreds) he
writes

… I believe both Sanders and Dunn have twisted the

evidence in support of an alien thesis in arguing (1) that
Paul’s disparaging remarks about ‘works of the law’ and
‘works’ probably came about because he was under some
type of foreign influence… when he wrote those words (as
does Sanders), or (2) that Paul was using ‘works of the law’
and ‘works’ with reference only to Jewish legislation on
circumcision, Sabbath laws, and certain dietary matters,
which some Jews of that day were using in a nationalistic
fashion as their ‘identity markers’ and ‘boundary markers’
and not to any form of Jewish ‘legalism’ as usually
understood (as does Dunn) (pp. 329-330).

Longenecker’s work is nothing short, then, of a ‘Wirkungsgeschichte’ of the letter to the

Romans. This sort of ‘Reception History’ is very popular these days and L. is a very
fine practitioner.

Persons intrigued by the issues which L. addresses will be very interested in this
volume and will want to read it. Persons assuming that N.T. Wright has said the last
and definitive word on Paul in general and Romans in particular must read it.

Jim West
Quartz Hill School of Theology