UNDERSTANDING THE LAW IN ROM. 7:1-6: AN ENTHYMEMIC ANALYSIS

Rom. 7:1-6 is an important passage for describing the relationship between be-lievers and the law, but contains various hermeneutical problems that cause difficulty in understanding. This article first argues that Paul is speaking to a mixed audience of Roman Christians rather than to purely Jewish or Gentile believers. Secondly, the literary genre of Rom. 7:1-3 is argued as analogy. A seemingly difference between the analogy proper and its conclusion is easily understood when we recognize Paul’s worldview, i.e., Paul as a Jew could never conceive of the law of God as being discarded. Furthermore, Earnshaw’s interpretation that the analogy must be viewed from the perspective of the two-staged marriage relation-ship between the believers and Christ is refuted. The view is also put forward that the marriage system Paul employs here comes from his Jewish worldview; thus it does not belong to the wider Greco-Roman system. On the grounds of these considerations I proceed to interpret our text using an enthymemic analysis, an important tool for unravelling Paul’s rhetoric in persuading his audience. The law here certainly has a wider concept than the Mosaic Law and the best option is the law of God mentioned in v. 22. Key Concepts: Romans 7, law, worldview Both Rom. 7 and the law in Paul’s letters are well-known for being difficult to understand. Both have been hotly debated among NT scholars and, until now, no consensus has been reached. In Rom. 7:1-6 we encounter many problems that cause us to stumble. Whom is Paul addressing in Romans 7? Is he speaking purely to Jewish Christians or to Gentile Christians or to a mixed group of Christians? Is Rom. 7:2-3 an allegory, illustration, or analogy? Does Paul lack imagination in his writing? What kind of marriage does Paul describe here: Jewish marriage or Greco-Roman marriage? In this article, the problems mentioned above will be dealt with and this will form an important step toward solving the problem of understanding the law and its relationship to the believers. In this process, an enthymemic analysis will be utilized