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1 2 Martinus C. de Boer 1 Paul’s Mythologizing Program in Romans 5–8 My title contains an obvious allusion to Rudolf Bultmann’s well-known program of demythologization.1 I want to argue in this paper that Paul’s concern in Romans 5–8 is not demythologization but mythologization, if the word can be allowed. One of the main reasons Paul programmatically mythologizes in these chapters is to explain why the Law is not, or no longer, a viable option for those who have come to believe in Christ. Paul’s concern with the Law is evident throughout the first eight chapters, indeed the first ten chapters (e.g., esp. 2:12-17; 3:19-31; 4:125 ; 5:13, 20; 6:14-15; 7:1–8:4; 9:31–10:5; 13:8-10). This focus on the Law in Romans reflects its unique occasion. Briefly, the letter appears to have a triple occasion: (1) Paul has received information about differences , even conflicts, among believers in Rome (evident especially in chapters 14–15); (2) as Christ’s apostle to the Gentiles, Paul has made plans to go on to new missionary territory in Spain by way of Rome (15:20, 24-25, 28); and (3) before going to Rome, he plans to go to Jerusalem with a collection of funds from the Gentile churches he had founded (15:23-33). Paul hopes that this collection will be accepted by “the saints” (15:31) in Jerusalem, and he fears that he will receive a hostile reception there from those he calls “the unbelievers 1 See Rudolf Bultmann, “New Testament and Mythology: The Problem of Demythologizing the New Testament Proclamation,” in New Testament and Mythology and Other Basic Writings (ed. S. M. Ogden; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984), 1–43. The essay was first published in 1941 in Germany during World War II! 2 Martinus C. de Boer in Judea” (15:31). At issue for Paul on all three fronts are the status and the role of the Law now that Christ has come on the human scene. Closely related to the issue of the Law is the question of “the righteousness of God” and justification. Again, this theme pervades much of Romans (cf. 1:17; 2:12; 3:4-30; 4:1-25; 5:1-21; 6:7, 13-20; 8:10, 30, 33; 9:30–10:10; 14:17), especially the first four chapters, but also chapter 5 (and chapters 9–10). In my view, one of Paul’s major aims in this letter is to remind the believers in Rome that they are not “under the Law” (ὑπὸ νόμον)2 but “under grace” (ὑπὸ χάριν), as he puts it in 6:14 (cf. 6:15). “The Law” and “grace” constitute the overarching polarity in Romans 5–8. The other major polarities in these chapters—sin and righteousness, death and life, flesh and spirit—are largely brought into the service of explaining the fundamental polarity of the Law and grace. Paul wants to bring out the implications and advantages of being under grace rather than being under the Law. One of these implications is to see the world as it really is now that Christ has appeared on the human scene, and another is to redefine the status and the role of the Law in the light of this event. It will also be relevant to take note here of the broader context of chapters 5–8. In chapters 9–11, Paul’s concern is explicitly with unbelieving Israel—put otherwise, with a form of Judaism in which Christ has no place, whether that be in Jerusalem or in Rome. In these chapters Paul returns to the issues of justification and the Law (especially in chapters 9 and 10) that were prominent in the first four chapters, using similar terminology and formulations. In that light, it seems to me probable that in chapters 1–4 Paul also has unbelieving Israel in view. That is to say, Paul is here in dialogue with a form of contemporary Judaism embracing a certain understanding of sin and justification and the Law, one in which Christ has no place. It will be my working assumption that the apocalypses of 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch are representative of the views with which Paul is in dialogue in the opening chapters of Romans, including chapter 5.3 Both works stem from the late first or early second century, it is true, but...

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