crigin, or strongly Jewish in sympathy. The apostle’s own applica- tion of their teaching in xi. 17-24 proves exactly the reverse.
(ε) Still less can anything be made of an appeal to xiii. 1-7. The Jews were certainly a rebellious and turbulent race, and inherited theo- cratic ideas which might make them doubt the lawfulness of paying tribute to Czsar (Deut. xvii. 15, Mark xii. 13-17) ; but Christianity too in all its forms is an idealism which necessarily raises the question of the relation of God’s Kingdom to the kingdoms of this world, and so gives occasion to such explanations as those of Paul in chap. xiii. 1-7. It has been pointed out, too, that echoes of this passage occur in the public prayer of the Roman Church in Clem., ad. Cor., I., Ixi., at a period when the Gentile character of the Church is not questioned.
(Ὦ As for the use of the Old Testament in this epistle, it has no bearing whatever on the nationality of the readers. To all the New Testament writers the Old Testament was revelation, and ina sense Christian revelation; and they used it in the same way no matter to whom they wrote.
None of these passages is sufficient to prove that the Church as a whole was Jewish-Christian, or even that it was strongly influenced by Jewish ideas. On the other hand, the passages quoted under 1 prove conclusively that the bulk of the Church was Gentile, so that one writing to it as a body thought of it as a Gentile Church. This, of course, would not preclude the existence in it of a minority of Jewish origin. We can hardJy conceive, in the lifetime of the Apostles, a Church without such an element. The Apostles themselves were all Jews, and it was their rule—it was even Paul’s rule—to preach to the Jew first. But apart from this general presumption, we have a distinct indication in the epistle itself that there was in the Roman Church a Jewish-Christian ele- ment. In chap. xiv. Paul speaks of dissensions between ‘the strong” and “the weak,” and though it would be wrong simply to identify these with Gentile and Jewish Christians, it is a safe in-, ference from xv. 7-13, taken in connection with what precedes, that the difference between “‘ strong” and “‘ weak” was not unrelated to that between Gentile and Jew (see notes ad loc.). Hence the pre- vailing tendency of scholars is to recognise that the Church was Gentile as a whole, but had a minority of Jewish origin. To what extent the Gentile mass was influenced by Jewish ideas—how far the Gentile members of the Church had been originally proselytes, and were therefore appreciative of the Jewish-Christian conscious- ness or in sympathy with it—is another question. As we have seen above, under 2, b, c, no special assumption of this kind is needed to explain the manner in which Paul vindicates his gospel to them.