Jacob P. B. Mortensen - Paul Among the Gentiles - A Radical Reading of Romans

In order to identify a stereotyping process – or its results – in Paul, we must be able to identify the ‘us’ and ‘them’ in Paul’s regime of representation. This means we must be able to identify how Paul distinguishes the inside from the outside, or the in-group from the out-group. Besides, and more importantly, we must pay close attention to the word ‘all’. The word ‘all’ (πᾶς) seldom – if ever – refers to some universal everyone or everything. Instead, ‘all’ usually distinguishes a discrete entity known from a social or literary context. This means that ‘all’ may sometimes refer to the out-group, the in-group, to all in Israel/the Jews, or to another discrete entity. Sometimes, the qualified group is specified, but usually it is not. This is the case in Rom 5:12-21, where Paul applies an unspecified ‘all’ (πάντες), and also an unspecified ‘the many’ (οἱ πολλοὶ). Thus, we must strive to determine whom or what this ‘all’ designates, from either the literary or social context.

Before turning to Paul, we must state that the simple activity of categorizing people as members of either an in-group or out-group produces social discrimination. Members of an in-group will favour fellow in-group members and discriminate against members of out-groups. This activity constitutes the continuous stereotyping or boundary-making that occurs in all Paul’s letters. Even though the boundaries of an in-group identity may be fluid, and Paul specifically regarded himself as addressing such liminal identities or threshold positions (sympathizers, God-fearers, proselytes), the feelings among in-group members are rooted in the perception of similarity to others. If you are of the same gender, age, family, extended family, neighbourhood, town, city, religion, or ethnic group, you are treated with loyalty, openness, solidarity, and support. An understanding of the reach of this in-group sympathy and solidarity is crucial when reading Romans, because Paul addressed his message to Gentiles who were perceived as part of the out-group from a stereotypical Jewish perspective, but had now somehow become in-group members. Generally speaking, from Paul’s perspective being a Gentile meant being a member of the out-group. But Paul reworked this perception, and somehow perceived these Gentiles as ‘no longer Gentiles’ ( e.g. 1 Cor 12:2).

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