The Apocalyptic Wrath of God and Its Place in the Gospel of Paul (Rom 1:18-32)

Marcin Kowalski

The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin , Poland
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8732-6868


Abstract

The article analyzes the motif of divine wrath in Rom 1:18-32. The author starts with a survey of the recent proponents of the “apocalyptic Paul” (Albert Schweitzer, Ernst Käsemann, J. Christiaan Beker, Douglas Campbell, N.T. Wright et al.). Next, the basic elements of the apocalyptic language in Rom 1:18-32 are scrutinized: the idea of revelation (ἀποκαλύπτ-), God’s sovereign rule over the world (παραδίδωμι), and God’s saving wrath (ὀργή). The author then demonstrates the place and the dynamics of Rom 1:18-32 within the context of the Pauline argumentation of Rom 1–4. The paper concludes with a concise presentation of the idea of divine wrath as found in the Old Testament and in Jewish and Greco-Roman literature, which allows us to appreciate the novelty and apocalyptic dimension of God’s wrath in Paul.

Keywords:

apocalypticism, Rom 1, 18-32, divine wrath, rhetoric, Paul’s gospel, Greco-Roman world

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Published
2018-03-05


Kowalski, M. (2018). Apokaliptyczny gniew Boga i jego miejsce w Ewangelii Pawła (Rz 1,18-32). Verbum Vitae, 33, 203–249. https://doi.org/10.31743/vv.2018.33.09

Marcin Kowalski  xmkowal@gmail.com
The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8732-6868



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