Paul the Apostle of Obedience

Attention to Paul's use of obedience language in Romans (Rom 1:5ff) has been limited by focusing primarily on the Hebrew scriptures and the Jewish literature of the Second Temple period. A lacuna exists in understanding Paul's obedience language from the particular viewpoint of the Gentiles in the Roman audience. Therefore this monograph engages in an extensive study of how obedience language functions in the Greco-Roman world by surveying over 1,200 sources (text, coins, and inscriptions) and sheds light onto how Gentiles might have understood a call to obedience. The importance of obedience in the Greco-Roman world also raises the significance of obedience language in Romans which is a recurring theme of the discourse. This simultanesouly highlights the limited attention New Testament scholars have given to the theme of obedience in Romans. This work draws further attention to obedience as a recurring theme of the letter. The relevance of this work for readers is that allows us to more fully understand how some in Paul's audience may have understood the language of obedience and gives evidence of an important thematic purpose of Romans that up to this point has been largely neglected.