University of Notre Dame
‘All things work together’: Reading Rom 8:28–30 in the light of the Wisdom of Solomon
Despite the many exegetical difficulties that Paul’s hopeful expression in Rom 8:28– 30 has long provoked, there is a strong tradition within Pauline scholarship of reading it in the light of Paul’s allusion to the Adamic narrative. This paper explores the possibility that Paul’s affirmations in these verses are more clearly manifest when they are also read in the light of another text from the Jewish hermeneutical tradition, the Wisdom of Solomon (hereafter, Wisdom)—something that has been largely overlooked in contemporary Pauline scholarship. Following an intertextual approach, it explores the complex semantic effect produced by the superimposition of Paul’s ‘Adam Christology’ and ‘Wisdom Christology’ within the one text, and discusses how these work together to encapsulate Paul’s conviction that in the Christ-event, which is the true focal point of the history of the cosmos, God has created a new human family around a new Adam and that to be members of this eschatological family is the ultimate destiny for all humanity. To do so, the paper begins with a discussion of the correspondences of Rom 8:28–30 with Wisdom, arguing for a greater appreciation of the literary relationship between the two texts. It then discusses the points of contact and divergence between the theologies of Paul and Wisdom, exploring how Paul’s claims in these verses might be heard within the matrix of Second Temple Jewish writings in which Wisdom also belonged. Finally, it raises questions and offers preliminary answers to how reading Rom 8:28–30 in the light of Wisdom might relate to the Letter to the Romans as a whole, and what Paul might have been attempting to do with such engagement of Wisdom.