Questions for Reading:
1. Is Paul exemplary in the way he reads scripture?Faithful Israelites become like worshipers of Baal, for example, or the Torah that Moses praises in Exodus becomes the preaching of the gospel after Torah has been completed? Can you detect a purpose in the way he reads?
2. How do the ideas of predestination and election change when we see them, not in the context of individual salvation, but in the context of God’s larger actions in history?
Questions for Reflection:
1. How do you think Romans 9-11 fit with the material we have read in Romans 1-8? Is this an aside or a fundamental conclusion to what has gone before? How so.
2. In the light of Romans, how do we think about the relationship between Christians and Jews in 21st century North America? Is Paul helpful to us here, or is his framework so different from our own that we need to start somewhere else entirely?
3. Given the way he closes this section with praise, Paul doesn’t seem to think that God owes humanity answers to every mystery of life. Do you agree? Disagree? Why?