Romans In Context: Biblical Manuscripts And The Epistle Of Romans

Reading Romans in Context is a collection of scholarly essays creating comparisons between extra biblical manuscripts and the Epistle of Romans. Each essay corresponds to a specific section of the apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans and a relevant non-scriptural document collected from Second Temple Jewish literature. With twenty essays in total, the book introduces particular historical Jewish texts, certain cultural distinctions, and religious beliefs to create a deeper understanding of the audience and the context of their historical framework.
The objective of Reading Romans in Context is to provide an evaluation of documents from outside of the standard canon of scripture to the Epistle of Romans. As the editors point out in the forward, most early church documentation was not a single book or neat collection of standard writings. Most early churches collected and operated from individual writings or collections. The editors’ goal is to present historic information and cultural material allowing the reader to gain a better grasp of early Jewish literature and history. Each chapter summarizes a selected historic document, a portion of the Epistle of Romans and then attempts to draw correlations and contradictions.
The compilation of
Compositions such as Sola Scriptura: The Protestant Position on the Bible or Ethics, Religion, and the Good Society: New Directions in a Pluralistic World may produce interesting topics and provide multiple viewpoints but most fail to offer the strict framework and logical flow found in Reading Romans in Context. Other works frequently provide a collection of common thought but lack in overarching structure. One of appealing aspects of Reading Romans in Context is its ability stay within its frame of reference and offer information in a logical constant manner almost giving it the impression that a single author had composed