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by Tom Holland (Author)
Why subtitle a commentary on Romans The Divine Marriage? Mainly because the central message of the Bible has to do with the drama of God seeking out a people for himself. The Old Testament described Israel as God's bride because she was called to a unique, personal relationship with her God.
However, Paul's contention is that national Israel's exclusive claim to be the bride no longer stands. The apostle's message is that God has created a new covenant with those who believe in his Son, and that believing Jews and Gentiles have now become the true bride of God. The Jewish remnant and believing Gentiles both draw from the same divinely-appointed stock as they share the promises given by God to Abraham.
The theme of the divine marriage (which is the culmination of the New Exodus) shaped and guided the letters that Paul wrote. This is especially true for the letter to the Romans, the letter of the divine marriage.
Here in his new study the insights of Holland's former work, Contours of Paul Theology with its central "New Exodus" paradigm, impact radically upon earlier readings of Paul's Letter to the Romans, revealing that these readings were controlled by eclectic methodologies that have in varying measure obscured the message of the biblical text.
Those who have already encountered Contours will be eager to discover how a corporate reading of the Apostle Paul's greatest contribution to the New Testament unfolds, and how-to highlight but one issue-a forensic sense of justification is to be maintained in the light of a broader covenantal context.
Many readers will be amazed that yet another study of a biblical text that has been subjected to so many fingertip searches in the past can yield such fresh evidence. All in all, Tom Holland's new commentary will not only affect the way one reads Romans, but it will also change the way that one looks at the Bible as a whole.
