Paul's References to Women in His Letter to the Romans and Their Function in the Argument of the Letter: A Modest Proposal

Paul's references to women in his letter to the Romans and their probable backdrop against the situation in Rome and Paul's own circumstances in the mid-fifties of the first century CE have rarely been examined. This article first addresses some of the methodological challenges involved in this quest and sketches the historical background. Discussion also includes Tacitus's account of a particularly unsettling event in Annales 11.12–38 and its conceivable bearing on Romans. It then discusses Paul's references to some women, to women in general, to named individual women and to female characteristics or activities in Romans 1:26, 4:19, 7:2–3, 8:22, 9:9–12, 16:1–2 and 16:3–15. While women occur in unqualified traditional roles in marriage, family and society when Paul makes general and abstract references in some passages, Paul also mentions women who fulfil new roles in specific and concrete references, where he wholeheartedly praises them.