Reading and Study Guide for Romans 1-8

Read Romans 1-8 itself first quickly. Use the annotations in the New Oxford Annotated Bible to help (Note the annotations themselves offer a sort of interpretation with which you may agree or disagree).  Then read the Barr chapter on Romans. Barr raises important literary, rhetorical, philosophical/theological, and historical/social questions about Romans.  Below are questions to help you to reread and examine portions of Romans 1-8, make some comparisons to I Corinthians and Galatians.

1. Note Paul's use of the diatribe form, Outline at least two specific examples of " (1) the use of an imaginary partner, (2) the raising of objections, and (3) the inferring of false conclusions (Barr, pp. 152-53)."

2. Paul uses an Adam/Christ typology in Romans 5: 12-21 and I Corinthians 15. What is a "typology"?  List the comparisons and contrasts made between Adam and Christ in each letter.  What does Paul mean when he says that Christ is a second or last Adam? How does the Adam/Christ typology contribute to Paul's argument in Romans 5? (See especially Barr's discussion on pp. 164-65 and 179-80)

3. Make a list of the similarities and differences between Paul's discussion of "law" and "justification" in Romans 1-4, 7-8 and Galatians 3-4. Note: Barr has a discussion of some comparisons between Romans and Galatians on pp. 153-55. Abraham is discussed in both places.  What do you learn from the similarities and differences?

4.   What do we know about the church in Rome in Paul's day?  What seems to be the historical and social context for the letter to the Romans?  What do Paul's purposes for writing to the Romans seem to be?  (See especially Barr, pp. 155-61)