Social Reciprocity And Gentile Debt To Jews In Romans 15:26-27 -- By: Gerald W. Peterman

Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 50:4 (Dec 2007)
Article: Social Reciprocity And Gentile Debt To Jews In Romans 15:26-27
Author: Gerald W. Peterman


Social Reciprocity And Gentile Debt To Jews In Romans 15:26-27

Gerald Peterman

Gerald Peterman is professor of Bible at Moody Bible Institute, 820 N. LaSalle Blvd., Chicago, IL 60610.

At Rom 15:25–27 Paul tells about his travel plans saying,

[B]ut now, I am going to Jerusalem serving the saints. For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. Yes, they were pleased to do so, and they are indebted to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual things, they are indebted to minister to them also in material things.1

Why did the Gentiles of Macedonia and Achaia owe a material blessing to the messianic Jews in Jerusalem? If first-century Gentile churches owed this return, do Gentile churches in the twenty-first century owe it as well? If so, how? If not, why not? These questions will be investigated in the following pages. They mainly deal with 15:27. First, however, preliminary comments will be offered on the translation and significance of 15:26. Second, arguments will be given to demonstrate that Gentile debt to believing Jews is ongoing.

I. Preliminary Comments On Romans 15:26

1. The translation of κοινωνίαν τινὰ ποιήσασθαι. This phrase is rendered “make a contribution” in most English translations; those not using the word “contribution” give a virtual equivalent. Translating κοινωνία with “contribution” is a practice that goes as far back as the Vulgate and in English to Tyndale and Wycliffe.2 But the phrase κοινωνίαν ποιήσασθαι should better be translated “establish fellowship.”3

The strongest argument against rendering 15:26 with “make a contribution” is that it gives κοινωνία a rare, if not unknown, concrete sense. It is true that Bauer’s lexicon gives “contribution” as a possible gloss for κοινωνία.4

But from at least as far back as the second edition of Bauer’s Wörterbuch (1928) and right up to the present, he has also given a possible alternative...

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