CHAPTER THREE

"A DISOBEDIENT AND CONTRARY PEOPLE" IN ROMANS 9:30-10:21

Not all have believed the gospel, just as Isaiah says: "Lord, who has believed our message?" :16

THE CONTINUING INFLUENCE OF :9

In Romans 9:30-10:21, Paul traces the etiology of 's failure to embrace the gospel.! The apostle's segue from Isaiah's proclarnation of hope for the remnant/seed of Israel (Rom 9:27-29, citing Isa 10:22-23; Isa 1:9) to an analysis of Israel's prcsent disobedience (Rom 9:30) replicates the rhetorical move found in Isaiah 1:9-1 O. Despite the glimmer of hope offered in Isaiah 1:9, in the very next verse the prophet abruptly renews his fierce indictment of God's unfaith­ ful people. Although Isaiah has stopped short of equating 's fate with that of Sodom and Gomorrah (1:9), he immediately reemploys the analogy in a shocking address to his audience: "Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom. .. you people of Gomorrah" (1: 10). His call to "give heed to the law of God" (VO/loS; 8EOU) implies that they have missed the point of the Law. Their sacrifices, their holy days-evcn their prayers-are in vain, because of their wicked and unjust practices (1: 11-1 7). Like Isaiah, Paul claims that Israel has wrongly understood the purpose or 'tEAo~ of the Law. 2 Despite Israel's strenuous pursuit of the Law, their efforts have been in vain, for they have failed to recognize

I As elsewhere in Romans, a rhetorical question ("Wh at then shall we say?") sig­ nals a turn in the argument (3:1, 3b, 5c, 9, 27a, 31; 4:1, 9; 6:1, 15; 7:7, 13; 8:31; 9:14,19,30; 10:18-19; 11:1,7,11,19; cf. Boers 1981). 2 Many of Paul's quotations and allusions invoke the important Isaianic themes of hearing, seeing, and understanding, either explicitly or implicitly through the device of intertextual echo. The key text, of course, is Isaiah 6:9-10, from which numerous passages throughout Isaiah take their bearings. See elements 1985: I 01-1 04; Williamson 1994:30-56, esp. 46-51; Rendtorff 1989. 120 CHAPTER THREE that the 'tfAO~ of the Law-God's righteousness-is Christ, and that this righteousness is available to all solelyon the basis of 1tiO"'tt~ (10:4). Central to Paul's account of how Israel has missed the 'tfAO~ of the Law (while Gentile outsiders have attained it) is a scriptural cita­ tion (Rom 9:33) woven out of strands culled from : 16 and : 14.

STUMBLING IN MID-RAcE: ROMANS 9:30-10:4

Before examining this citation more closely, however, it is necessary to consider briefly the larger argument Paul is constructing in Romans 9:30-10:4. Although this section of Romans is fraught with exegetical stumbling-stones, as it were, I will forge ahead and offer a reading of these verses that will provide a context sufficient for understand­ ing Paul's quotations of Isaiah, without allowing the many other problems crying out for attention in this passage to impede our progress unduly. The test of my interpretation will be its ability to provide a coherent reading of Paul's argument in this section as a whole. The key to understanding Paul's intricate and compact argument is found in the complex interplay among several important terms­ Ot1cuwO"UVTJ, v6Ilo~, 1tiO"'tt~-within the overarching context of his extended metaphor of a footrace. 3 All three terms finish the contest together in Romans 10:4, and (perhaps surprisingly for those who cannot ignore Luther's vociferous cheering on the sidelines) they all end up on the winning team, thanks to the crucial addition of the star athlete and MVP, XptO"'t6~. To understand how Paul pulls off this theological (not to say metaphorical) tour de force requires that we track closely the numerous twists and turns in his reasoning, pay­ ing particular attention to the role played by the citation from Isaiah that an chors his entire argument. The language of "righteousness" (oucuwO"UVTJ) appears for the first time in Romans 9 in 9:30, but the concept has not been far from the surface in Paul's previous discussion of how God has called out a people for hirnself from among both and Gentiles. The term

3 Athletic imagery is a favorite item in Paul's rhetorical repertoire (see the sim­ ilar collection of terms in Phi 1 3:12-16). See further Pfitzner 1967. On the race metaphor in Romans 9-11, see the insightful discussion in Stowers 1994:303-306; 312-16.