Studying Pauls Letters by Joseph A. Marchal

Finally-and this connects to the author’s view of the temporal and geographical provenance for the letter, Cassidy believes that Paul’s situation in Rome after a long period of imprisonment has given the apostle an inside view, by way of his proximity to the imperial guard, of Nero’s atrocious character and also the horrible situation of slaves in the Roman world. Next, Cassidy intriguingly claims that Paul’s intention in “magnifying Christ” through his upcoming Roman trial (Phil 1:20) is to press for Jesus’s acquittal (from his past, wrongful execution), rather than to push for the apostle’s own acquittal from the crime of maiestas (“treason”) for which he himself is on trial (p. Ascough argues for somewhere around twenty-“Response: Broadening the Socioeconomic and Religious Context at Philippi,” in People Beside Paul, edited by Joseph A.

This seems to go against the tide of scholars positing a much more meager and slight depiction of the number of Christ adherents in this community (Richard S. First of all, Cassidy draws on Philippians 1:14, in conjunction with evidence from Pliny’s letters about a neighboring Macedonian town, to claim that the community of Christ-followers at Philippi is growing “in epidemic-like fashion” at the time that Paul writes to them (p. But if we can get past this lack of a total engagement with Philippians, then we can indeed marvel at the provocative claims offered in Cassidy’s volume.Ī couple of particularly unique (and one might say radical) claims about the letter emerge early on in the commentary. Hence, the value of Cassidy’s contribution really does remain solely in his fronting of the Roman elements of the letter (as is indicated in the title of the volume, where one should pay close attention to the “Roman” adjective modifying what otherwise might be considered a full “Commentary”), particularly the twin issues of the Roman imperial system and the Roman slave system. The problem is that Cassidy’s overall treatment of the letter lacks consistent engagement and leaves wide swaths of Paul’s statements untouched apart from the slimmest of interaction. At many points in the work, Cassidy’s insights are astute and provocative, so there is much to be admired in the present volume. Unfortunately, Cassidy’s Roman Commentary doesn’t quite rise to meet those expectations. Still, a full-scale treatment of the epistle from Cassidy’s unique and powerful perspective was something that many scholars have been eagerly awaiting.

Richard Cassidy’s name should already be familiar to those invested in studying Paul’s letter to the Philippians, since his 2001 monograph on Paul’s imprisonments ( Paul in Chains: Roman Imprisonments and the Letters of St.

Studying Pauls Letters by Joseph A. Marchal