Reading Romans Backwards: A Book Reflection

In this second Book Reflection of 2024, I'm shifting gears a bit and looking at a popular-level theological work on a book of the Bible dear to many--Romans. The book? Reading Romans Backwards by Scot McKnight. As a reminder, here's the general outline of this post: I will . . .

1. Contextualize the author's writings as a whole (bibliography)
2. Bring the author's major ideas to the present day
3. Comment on major sections of the book, or important chapters, depending on organization

What Else did Scot Write?

A prolific scholar, McKnight has written papers, presentations, and books whether single- or co-authored. I'm focusing here on his single-authored books. Sorted by major topics and including subtitles where clarifying and interesting, he has written about...

• Gospel and the kingdom of God
• The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited
• The Jesus Creed: Loving God, Loving Others
• Kingdom Conspiracy: Returning to the Radical Mission of the Local Church
• The Heaven Promise
• Specific non-Jesus people in Scripture
• Junia is Not Alone
• The Real Mary: Why Evangelicals Can Embrace the Mother of Jesus
• Pastor Paul: Nurturing a Culture of Christoformity in the Church
• Commentaries and commentary-like books
• Reading Romans Backwards: A Gospel of Peace in the Midst of Empire
• The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible
• 1 Peter; Galatians (NIV Application Commentaries)
• The Letter of James; The Letter to Philemon (New International Commentary on the New Testament)
• Other biblical topics
• Christian community
• A Fellowship of Differents
• Praying with the Church
• It Takes a Church to Baptize
• Open to the Spirit: God In Us, God With Us, God Transforming Us
• The Hum of Angels: Listening for the Messengers of God Around Us
• Christian lifestyle
• A Long Faithfulness
• Embracing Grace
• 40 Days Living the Jesus Creed

Contextualizing McKnight's Major Ideas

Biographically, McKnight is a current New Testament scholar, born in 1953 and currently faculty at Northern Seminary. His education took place in the University of Nottingham, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and Cornerstone College. According to one source, he has Anabaptist views.

McKnight is also a proponent of the New Perspective on Paul, which impacts his interpretation of Romans. An Evangelical Hungarian theologian, Adam Szabados, wrote a paper summarizing major adherents to and variants of the Old and New Perspectives. Briefly, "Old-Perspective" and "New-Perspective" scholars differ on (1) what Judaism focused on (works-based vs grace-based religion) and (2) what exactly Paul meant by "works of the law" in his epistles. N. T. Wright, one scholar whom McKnight has read for his perspective, wrote at least one essay explaining the New Perspective.

Another major idea in Reading Romans Backwards is its ecclesiological, pastoral approach. Several book reviews are helpful to elaborate on how this approach is somewhat unique when it comes to Romans.

• Christianity Today - notes that the book has a study guide now to make it even more accessible; Scot's approach reduces "Romans fatigue" and emphasizes its pastoral theology. The recommended order for reading the chapters is 12-16, 9-11, 1-4, then 5-8. Reformed theologians are likely to critique the book the most due to different emphases and his view on Phoebe and Junia (elevating women's roles in the church, including Junia-as-apostle).
• Church Times (UK) - starts with context of the epistle. McKnight's "Strong" and "Weak" are central characters whom he takes time to define; "refreshingly unacademic" style which might be too casual for some to understand; and the discussion has an uneven pace.
• Society of Biblical Literature (of which McKnight is a member) - the book uses an ecclesial (church-related) rather than a traditional soteriological (salvation-related) approach and contrasts with almost all traditional interpretations. The reviewer's take is that McKnight doesn't carefully distinguish among Weak and Strong, and overstates the differences between his view and traditional views.

Book Walk-Through

I'll sort my takeaways by McKnight's major sections. My favorite quote from the introduction (p. xv) may help to explain the irregular pace of the book: "At times, Paul jumps topics as if he were turning his head from one person at the party to another, and then he shifts his feet a bit and butts in on another conversation with a zinger or two, returning back to the original conversation with utter fluency."

Chapters 12-16

Phoebe is cast as the reader of this epistle to the house churches in Rome, the Christians of whom Paul had not yet met. The Junia-as-apostle debate may yet be unsettled; McKnight is in favor of this. The ACNA, of note, leaves the question of women's ordination to the diaconate and/or priesthood to each diocese within it (in no case are there to be women bishops). Reading these chapters first highlights the human side of Romans. Systematic theology as a discipline likely didn't appear till centuries later.

A central issue in this part is identifying who the "Strong" and who the "Weak" likely are. A summary statement on p. 18:

"What clinches the ethnic core to the Weak [Jewish] and the Strong [Gentile] label is that specific issues that the Weak have are naturally translated into typical halakhic topics and rulings."

Chapters 9-11

This section has always felt the least "relevant" whenever I read through Romans previously. Given the conceptualization in the first section (chs. 12-16) on who the "strong" and the "weak" were in the Roman congregation, this time around the chapters seemed more personal and pastoral.

Cementing McKnight's New-Perspective orientation (with phrasing very similar to N. T. Wright, whose scholarship he read prior to developing this book) is a quote on p. 72 (emphasis in original):

"Even more, there is wisdom in reading 'works' as boundary markers because of what follows in Romans. Paul turns immediately from 'faith not works,' not to human pride and human efforts, but to the Messiah. The Messiah, to echo E. P. Sanders, reveals the gospel, and that gospel reveals the inadequacy of the Torah as the path of redemption, transformation, and ecclesiastical welcome."

Chapters 1-4

Once the Strong and Weak have been discussed, and a bit of the Greek in chapter 1 analyzed in the context of the Wisdom of Solomon with which Paul was undoubtedly familiar, it becomes apparent that chapter 1 isn't so much about Gentiles . . . but about Jews first.

A fascinating commentary on 1:18-32 is summarized on p. 103 (emphasis original): 

"Romans 1:18-32 is a biblically rooted judgment on gentile sinfulness. Thus, Psalm 79:6 reads, 'Pour out your anger on the nations.' But it is more than biblically rooted. The words in Romans 1 are a standard Jewish stereotype of the godless, idolatrous gentiles of the diaspora. Romans 1:18-32 does not descibe all humans."

Chapters 5-8

These chapters are lovely and refreshing no matter who is writing about them. I found not as much new insight from McKnight as from Wright, one of whose favorite chapters is Romans 8.

Romans 5:12 is freshly interesting to me these days, due to several books I've been reading on the debate around the historical Adam and mode of creation. Page 150 asserts that Paul likely had an archetypal interpretation of Adam in mind:

"Romans 5:12 has generated a history of theology by itself, a history that made a mistake early when the Vulgate translated eph'ho as 'in whom.' Instead, it needs to be translated with 'because all have sinned' (NRSV) or, better yet, 'all sinned' (NIV, ESV) or 'with the result that all sinned' (CEB). . . . What he says is that Adam sinned, sin and death entered the world as agents, all die, and all die because all sin/sinned. Paul does not say that all die because all sinned when Adam sinned or in Adam's sin (original guilt). Oroginal sin has its importance in Christian theology, but some of its particulars should not be assumed for Paul, since he does not state them and since that view is so unusual in his Jewish world [see 2 Baruch 54:19]."

Did you learn anything new about Romans? It is indeed interesting to give the "backwards" reading strategy a try!