Sold under Sin: Echoes of Exile in Romans 7.14-25

Abstract

Although Romans has been heavily mined for scriptural allusions in recent years, the influence of Isaiah 49–50 on Rom 7.14-25 has gone largely unnoticed. Building on Philonenko's work on the allusion to Isa 50.1 in the phrase ‘sold under sin’ (Rom 7.14), this study seeks to identify additional echoes from LXX Isa 49.24–50.2 in Rom 7.14-25 and to interpret Paul's discourse in the light of the sin–exile–restoration paradigm implied by both the source's original context and Paul's own strategic use of Isaiah in his portrayal of the plight of ἐγώ. The identification of these echoes, it is suggested, aids in interpreting the story of ἐγώ by connecting the allusions to Israel'searlyhistory in Rom 7.7-13 to images of the nation'slaterhistory in 7.14-25, thus showing the speaker's plight under sin to be analogous to Israel's own experiences of deception, death, and exile.

The Word of God Has Not Failed: God’s Faithfulness and Israel’s Salvation in Tobit 14:3-7 and Romans 9-11

“…49:24-50:2 and portray the speaker in a state of imprisonment under a foreign power (sin). 39 Concerning Romans 9-11, Wagner convincingly shows that Paul's copious use of Isaianic texts focusing on Israel's exile and eventual restoration supplies the narrative substructure for Paul's discussion of Israel. Wagner explains: 'With reference to the majority of his kinspeople, Paul draws on passages from Isaiah whose wider contexts portray Israel as idolatrous and unfaithful, suffering under God's discipline in the form of oppression or exile.'…”

The Concept of Exile in Late Second Temple Judaism: A Review of Recent Scholarship

“…If this thesis can be established, then significant portions of the nt can be understood as end-of-exile treatises—the new imaginative creation on the horizon of possibilities that Jesus and his followers generated out of the Jewish worldview. In fact, several scholars are already convinced of a pervasive Jewish self-consciousness of being in a state of exile, and have built upon the thesis for understanding the historical Jesus (Garnet 1980; Wright 1996; Evans 1997a//1997b; McKnight 1999; Pitre 2005; McComiskey 2008; 2010; Perrin 2010), the Q tradition (Allison 1998), (Paul Wright 1991: 137-56, 258-57; 2005; 2009; 2013; Scott 1993a; 1993b; 2001; Hafemann 1997; Goodrich 2013), the Synoptics (Charette 1992; Leske 1994; Watts 1997; Bauckham 2002: 92-98; Piotrowski 2013; 2015; 2016) and Acts (Pao 2000; Fuller 2006), (John Brunson 2003; Dennis 2006), (Peter Mbuvi 2007), and significant themes that pervade the entire nt (Scott 2002; Beale 2011). Scott (2002) even argues that ongoing exile is the starting point for nt theology, while Perrin says ‘the motif of exile is quietly rampant’ throughout the nt (2013: 26).…”