THE PURPOSE OF ROMANS

Romans has long puzzled those concerned to pin down the occasion of Paul’s letters. In The Purpose of Romans: A Comparative Letter Structure Investigation (JSNTSup 55, JSOT Press [1991], £25.00/$42.50, subscr. £18.75/$32.00, pp. 187, ISBN 1-85075-304-0) L. Ann Jervis gives a fine survey of the debate thus far and proposes an important step forward. As her subtitle indicates, her study focuses on the formal structures of the letter, in particular its opening (1:1-7), its thanksgiving (1:8-15), the ’apostolic parousia’ section (15:14-32) and the conclusion (15:33-16:24). These are the parts of the letter which can be readily analysed form-critically, and comparison with their equivalents in other Pauline letters brings out in each case the peculiarity of Romans. Thus the opening puts particular stress on Paul’s apostolic commission to Gentiles and the thanksgiving shifts unusually into the hope that the Roman believers would hear his preaching of the gospel. The ’parousia’ section does not indicate any great concern for the Roman church and Jervis concludes that Paul was in fact much more concerned with his own apostolic mandate than with the doctrine or practice of his addressees. Unsure whether he would ever get to Rome, Pal uses this