6 - The social function of Romans: Rom. 2

Summary

A sociological approach to Rom. 1–11

The two sociological models developed earlier shed light on the situation in Rome, as outlined in the previous chapter.

(i) The Roman Jewish Christian congregation had begun as a reform-movement within the Roman Jewish community, as is implied by Suetonius' statement about the riots among Roman Jews caused by ‘Chrestus’. The evidence in Rom. 14 about the Jewish Christians' diet (abstention from all meat and wine) suggests that after the return to Rome which followed the expulsion by Claudius, they were forced to accept a certain degree of separation from the Roman Jewish community as a whole. It is not clear, however, that this separation can properly be regarded as ‘sectarian’. One of the key features of sectarianism is that the religious traditions of the wider community are reinterpreted by the sect in the light of the belief that its members are the sole legitimate possessors of these traditions; the wider community is thus deprived of its heritage. In Rom. 9–11, as we shall see, Paul defends himself against the charge that his gospel involves the complete repudiation of the Jewish people, and it seems likely that this hostile view of Paul was held by the Roman Jewish Christians, among others. We may therefore suppose that the Roman Jewish Christian congregation had not yet adopted an attitude of sectarian separation from non-Christian fellow-Jews.