Reading Romans in Pompeii: Paul's Letter at Ground Level

by Peter S. Oakes

Peter Oakes relies on demographic information and data from excavations in nearby Pompeii to paint a compelling portrait of daily life in a typical insula, or apartment complex, like the ones in which Paul s audience in Rome likely lived. Imaginatively fleshing out profiles of the circumstances of actual residents of Pompeii, Oakes then uses these profiles to invite the reader into a new way to hear Paul's letter to the Romans as the apostle s contemporaries might have heard it. The result of this ground-breaking study is a fuller, richer appreciation of Paul's most important letter.

Genres: Biblical Studies, Christian, Theology

194 pages, Hardcover

First published September 17, 2009

About the author

Peter S. Oakes (DPhil, University of Oxford) is Greenwood Senior Lecturer in the New Testament at the University of Manchester in Manchester, England. He is the author of Reading Romans in Pompeii: Paul’s Letter at Ground Level and Philippians: From People to Letter.

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book starts off with a dense technical discussion of an archarology of working class neighborhoods in pompeii. This was some very tough sleddding. But all that work pays off exponentially when you get to the second half of the book, which is a reading of Romans that flows directly out if the archaeological foundation he laid in the first few chapters.

I walked away from this book with new eyes that help me to see Romans in a richer more complex and far more practical way than I've ever seen it. this book is worth all of the effort you put into it.

[Sanjuro · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a tale of two cities (Rome, Pompeii), as well as a tale of two halves. The first half of the book is richly detailed and densely packed with archaeological information regarding the preserved social infrastructure in Pompeii housing blocks. The information is helpful, and needed to be published, but it made for a slow burning read that tried the patience of the reader looking for payoff regarding the relationship of this material to Romans. Although the first half is a bit of a slog, there is a some important information there, especially regarding the surprising potential for a more thriving middle class in Roman cities. The reader would do well to pay close attention to the characters Oakes creates in the first half, as the second half of the book is really about them.

The second half delivers. The payoff was worth the slog. Oakes offers a brief but extremely compelling commentary on Romans 12 in light of his findings, as well as a detailed chapter on how to read the whole of Romans in light of Paul's creation of a new "holy people" and the various ways that Roman citizens in small house churches might have heard/read/related to the material in Paul's Romans letter. Oakes' contention is that, although we pay lip service to Romans being a 1st century document, and although we pay lip service to the need to read it in that light, very little scholarship has really built a paradigm for doing so. Oakes do so here with stellar results that should move the conversation forward.

In reading like a Roman, Oakes reads the text through the eyes of a householder, a barmaid, a freedman, and a slave. He highlights the ways these people would have encountered the text, and shows ways that each might have understood and misunderstood the letter's content in light of their own experiences. Important were Oakes' comments on the way that "judgement" is a neglected aspect of the gospel, and the importance of Paul's theology of "the body" for people on the lower end of the social spectrum, such as slaves and barmaids who were made to use their bodies for financial gain.

The book is an odd one in that Oakes unapologetically pushes the reader through a lot of "math" in order to get to the meat, but the math was necessary to paint the picture powerfully. A helpful book I will visit again.

[Jonathan Caldwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating book that forces its reader to hear/read Romans through the eyes of first century christians. Not some abstract idea of a first century reader, but four specific individuals with real lives, families, problems, hopes, and personalities.

The first half of the book explores the ruins of Pompeii, specifically a block of house called the Insula of the Menander. The author explores what was left behind in these small "houses" to speculate who these people might have been. Based on what is found, Oakes "creates" a craft-worker, a bar-maid (who is a sexually exploited slave), a poor stone worker, and a bottom of the heap slave. Oakes describes the living quarters of these (and other) people in Pompeii and how that would translate to Rome. He discusses how these individuals would make up a first century Roman church that met in a home (probably the craft worker's).

Now how would a bar-maid, who is forced by her master to sexually entertain customers (something common in their day) respond to Romans when Paul talks about wanting to do what is right but not being able to? How would a bottom of the heap slave, possibly mistreated by his master, hear "Bless those who persecute you" and "never avenge yourselves"?

I will admit that the first three chapters are rather dry and technical. But you have to read them to appreciate the rest of the book. And your effort will be rewarded, I guarantee!

[jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book! Bravo! The book is a bit of a technical slog in the first half as Oakes does the hard work of laying his foundation of archaeological work grounded in excavations of Pompeii and the sociological validation of a craftworker’s model for a first century house church and its makeup of what would be a typical group of hearers of Paul’s gospel to the Romans with adjustments so accorded. He then walks the reader through Paul’s letter to the Romans as it would be heard by such non-elites as Holconius, a cabinet maker, Primus, a slave, Sabina, a destitute stone worker, and Iris, a barmaid forced to work as a prostitute. Hearing Paul’s message of the gospel from these varied Gentile perspectives is profoundly illuminating and informs a reading of Paul’s letter to the Romans with invigorating new insights. I’ll never read the letter as I have in the past. This blurb doesn’t do it justice since I’m hampered by pecking it on my phone.

[Derek Winterburn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a stimulating read, but takes a while to get going. Written for his academic peers Oakes does a great deal of preparing of the ground, by discussing households in Pompeii. This enables him to identify four types of people who would have been in Rome, and thus in the Roman churches. The heart of the book takes each character and asks what Romans has to say to them. This is illuminating, not least because the author does not shy away from saying that people believed in Christ for a life beyond death! I wish the author would write a fuller and more popular treatment of Romans, with Pompeii in the distant background!

[Beth Jarvis · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second half of the book provides rich new insight into interpreting Romans through the lives of those who would have possibly been members of a house church in Rome. This was really inspiring and helped me draw new connections for our churches and communities today. I will read and preach / teach Romans differently now because of this book. However, the first half of the book was a chore to get through. Mercy. So, if you are reading this book and lost-be encouraged! Like life, it gets better.

[Taylor Terzek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Work through the first few chapters, and the last chapters are worth it 👍