Volume 61: Number 3 Table of Contents July 1997 Eschatological Tension and Existential Angst: "Now" and "Not Yet" in Romans 7:1425 and lQSll (Community Rule, Manual of Discipline) Lane A. Burgland ........................... 163 The Healing of Naaman in Missiological Perspective Walter A. Maier I11 .......................... 177 A Chapel Sermon on Exodus 20:l-17 James G. Bollhagen ......................... 197 Communicating the Gospel Without Theological Jargon .......................... Andrew Steinman 201 .................................... Book Reviews 215 Salvation in Christ: A Lutheran-Orthodox Dialogue. Edited with an Introduction by John Meyendorff ....................... and Robert Tobias Ulrich Asendorf A Histo y of the Bible as Literature. By David Norton. ................................ Cameron A. MacKenzie Ministy in the New Testament. By David L. Bartlett .................................... Thomas M. Winger The Justification of the Gentiles: Paul's Letters to the Galatians and Romans. By Hendrikus Boers ........ Charles A. Gieschen Christianity and Christendom in the Middle Ages: The Relations Between Religion, Church, and Society. By Adriaan H. Bredero ................... Karl F. Fabrizius The Mystery and the Passion: A Homiletic Reading of the Gospel Traditions. By David G. Buttrick ...... Carl C. Fickenscher I1 Christ in Christian Tradition. By Aloys Grillmeier with Theresia Hainthaler ................. William C. Weinrich Theological Ethics of the New Testament. By Eduard Lohse ................................... H.ArminMoellering Paul's Narrative Thought World: The Tapestry of Tragedy and Triumph. By Ben Witherington ......... Charles A. Gieschen Galileo, Bellarmine, and the Bible. By Richard J. Blackwell. ................................ Cameron A. MacKenzie Teaching Law and Gospel. By William Fischer ... Erik J. Rottrnann Books Received ................................... 238 Eschatological Tension and Existential Angst: "Now" and "Not Yetf' in Romans 214-25 and 1QS 11 (Community Rule, Manual of Discipline) Lane A. Burgland In a recent article, D. B. Garlington enumerated five different approaches to Romans 7:14-25.' Paul refers to: (1) man under the law, prior to salvation; (2) the normative condition of the Christian;' (3) the Christian who tries to do the law without the full aid of the Spirit; (4) the person who is in the process of becoming a Christian and is frustrated, caught "in between" belief and unbelief; (5) the experience of any man, regardless of faith in Christ, who tries to do good.3 A careful reading will lead to the conclusion that Romans 7:14-25 desribes the normative condition of the Christian. In Romans 7 Paul defends the law as good even though it seems to be an ally of sin (Romans 6:14-7:7), a view confirmed by its effect on the Christian, a member of two separate and distinct ages. One may then ask whether this eschatological tension and the resulting existential Angst (anxiety created by the mere fact of existence) is unique to Paul or whether it is also reflected in the Qumran documents. This study will examine Romans 7 with particular attention to the eschatology reflected by Paul in verses 1425. The Community Rule (1QS ll), a Qumran document that contains similar statements, will then be compared with Romans 7. Romans 7:7-13 (7) What therefore shall we say? Is the law sin? Of course not! But I did not know sin except through law; for I would 'D. B. Garlington, "Romans TI425 and the Creation Theology of Paul," Trinity Journal, n.s., 11 (1990): 197-235. 'J. D. G. Dunn (Romans 1-8 [Waco: Word Books, 19881,398) depict. this section as representing the Christian in two epochs. 3Garlington, "Romans T142.5," 199. Dr. Lane A. Burgland is Assistant Professor of Exegetical Theology (Nau Testament) at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana. not have known covetousness except the law said, "you will not covet." (8) But sin, taking opportunity through the command, produced in me every (lund of) covetousness; for without law sin (is) dead. (9) Then I was living apart from law, but having come by the command, sin revivified, (10) and I died and the command which was (intended) for life, was found in me (to produce) death. (11) For this sin, taking opportunity through the command, deceived me and through it killed (me). (12) So thus the law, on the one hand (is) holy and the command (is) holy and right and good. (13) Has the good therefore become for me death? Of course not! But this sin, so that it may be manifestly sin, through the good to me has been working death, so that the sin might be utterly sinful through the ~ommand.~ Paul makes a number of remarks about the law up to this point that could be misconstrued by the reader. The believer dies both to sin (6:2) and to the law (7:4). The believer is therefore freed from both sin (6:18) and the law (7:3). He is "justified from sin" (67) and "discharged from the law" (7:6). The Christian walks in newness of life (64) and serves in the new way of the Spirit (7:6).5 The reader could very well conclude that the law and sin are one and the same. Paul therefore defends the law, first by pointing out that sin is the real culprit (in verses 7-13) and then by placing blame where it belongs: not on the law (which is good) but on sinful human nature (in verses 14-25).6 Paul shows that before he was converted, his attitude towards the law differed sigruficantly. He had excelled in law- performance beyond any of his contemporaries (Galatians 1:14). But now, as a Christian, he recognizes that in his zeal to fulfill the law he actually had been "a blasphemer and a persecutor and a hubristic man" (1 Timothy 193) because he was ignorant of the 4All translations are the author's unless otherwise indicated. 'Noted by Leon Morris, The Epistle to the Romans (Grand Rapids: Inter- Varsity, 1988), 270. 60ne may see DunnI Romans 1-8,376. He suggests a further division in verses 18-20 regarding the divided "I" and in verses 21-23 concerning the divided law. It is not necessary to divide the law inasmuch as the problem is rooted in the fact that the believer "lives in two worlds." Eschatological Tension and Existential Angst 165 true nature of the law in which he was an expert. His ignorance was unbelief (1 Timothy 1:13) and in his unbelief he was deceived. Instead of achieving a righteous status before God, he became the "chief" of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). One might suggest, therefore, that Paul refers to his own experience under the law before conversion in Romans 77-13 as he now, a Christian, evaluates it.' He can identify with Adam because both are "first" or "foremost" sinners: Adam by chronology and Paul by degree. The rest of humanity (excepting Jesus Christ) falls within the same category, although coming later than Adam and sinning less than Paul. One may then paraphrase Paul's comments in 77-13! particularly 7:9-10, as Michael Middendorf has done: I was alive, that is, I possessed physical life and thought I possessed spiritual life. However, I was actually living an existence under the lordship of the Law (TI), the end of which was death (75). I was being deceived by sin into a mistaken apprehension of the purpose and function of the Law's commandment. When my full understanding of sin and the Law came, when I realized the actual effect of God's Law upon me as a sinful man, "I died (iy6 &.rcbOavov; 10a).8 Verse thirteen serves as a "hinge" verse to summarize the previous six verses and introduce the second defense of the law, 7:14-25. When Paul defends the law in chapter 7, he recognizes the close connection between it and God Himself. It is therefore impossible to equate the law with sin, in spite of the effect the law has on sinners. Paul's personal experience parallels that of Adam and holds true for all people. Only as a Christian can he look back and see clearly the nature of the law and its purpose. And it is as a Christian, a believer buried with Christ Jesus in His death through baptism and raised with Christ into newness of life (one may compare Romans 6:4) that he writes verses 14-25. 'Michael Middendorf makes this point, "The 'I' in the Storm: Paul's Use of the First Person Singular in Romans 7," unpublished Th.D. dissertation (St. Louis: Concordia Seminary, 1990), 271-72. 'Middendorf, "The 'I' in the Storm," 273. Romans 7:14-25 (14) For we know that the law is spiritual, but I, I am fleshly, having been sold under sin. (15) For that which I work out I do not know; for that which I do not want, this I do, but that which I hate, this I am doing. (16) And if that which I do not want, this I am doing, I agree with the law that (it is) good. (17) But (it is) no longer I, I am working out this but the sin dwelling in me. (18) For I know that good does not live in me, that is in my flesh; for to want lies close at hand, but to work out the good does not. (19) For although I want to do good, the evil I do not want (is) what I am doing. (20) And if that which I do not want, this I do, no longer (is it) I working it out but the sin dwelling in me. (21) Wherefore I find the law, by which I want to do the good, that evil lies close at hand. (22) For I joyfully agree with the law of God according to the inner man, (23) but I see another law in my members at war with the law of my mind and taking me captive by the law of sin which is in my members. (24) Wretched man I! Who will rescue me from this body of death? (25) But thanks to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! Therefore, on the one hand, I serve the law of God and yet, on the other hand, by the flesh (I serve) the law of sin. Paul speaks in these verses as a Christian. Yet as a Christian, baptized into Christ's death and raised to a new life in Him, how is it possible that Paul can represent himself as still "sold under sin" and admit that he still serves "the law of sin?" Paul established in verses 7-13 that the problem does not lie in the law, because it is good and its commandment is holy and righteous and good. Further, he adds in verse 14, the law is spiritual (xwupat~~6~). Dunn explains that this means "it derives from the Spirit (given by inspiration), embodies the Spirit, manifests the Spirit, was intended to address at the level of the Spirit. . . ."9 Contrasted to this "spirituality" of the law is the "fleshy" nature gDunn, Romans 1-8,387. He refers the reader to Paul's use of xveupatlu6~ in Romans 1:ll; 1 Corinthians 213; 10:3-4; 12:l; 15:44, 46; Colossians 1:9; 3:16. Eschatological Tension and Existential Angst 167 of human existence. The adjective Paul employs here as an antonym for nveupatt~6~ is abp~rvoq, a word which appears only four times in the New Testament. Here and in 1 Corinthians 3:l it is set in opposition to nv~upazt~6~ and seems to be quite negative. In 2 Corinthians 3:3 and in Hebrews 716, however, the authors use it without those negative overtone^.'^ When Paul sets the two terms nv~upazt~6< and obp~tvo< in contrast to each other, he has in mind the difference between the next age (following the resurrection) and the present age (prior to the resurrection). One may see this most clearly in his treatment of the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15. Paul uses the adjective o&p~tvo< to represent the human being in the age of Adam, created a "living soul" from the dust of the earth. The significant change in Adam and his descendants that occurs in Genesis 3 is reflected in Paul's use of a&p( at many points in his writings where man as sinful man is in view." Paul, therefore, says that man is "by nature" sinful ($Baa, Ephesians 2:4) and under God's wrath. Commenting on Romans 7:14 and specifically on the phrase "but I am fleshy, having been sold under sin," Dunn writes: "in short, the phrase speaks of the individual in his belongingness to the epoch of Adam, which is ruled by sin and death."12 When an individual is brought into Christ by means of baptism (Romans 6:l-4; Galatians 3:26-28) he is literally a "new creation" (2 Corinthians 5:17). As Robin Scroggs writes: Paul does not use the term 'new creation1 as a metaphor. Man in Christ will be, indeed already is, a truly new creature. The literal reference of Paul's language here has often been noticed, but it needs to be reiterated to avoid any - - ''In 2 Corinthians 3:3, Paul talks about how the Corinthian believers are living letters of Christ through Paul's ministry, "written by the Spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets but on tablets of fleshy hearts." In Hebrews 716, the author defends the high priesthood of Christ Jesus as not being "according to the fleshy command but according to the power of indestructible life." "For example, Romans 8:3 (Jesus came in the "likeness of sinful flesh), 8:4, 5,6,8,9,12,13; 9:s. "Dunn, Romans 1-8,388. suggestion that Paul is speaking simply of some emotional, intellectual, or decisional experience of the natural man. Paul's language implies further that the reality of this new nature is nothing more nor less than a restoration to that truly human reality, God has always desired for man.13 The decisive event in this epoch is the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The reader of Romans has seen Gentiles condemned by the law in 1:18-32. He has witnessed the condemnation of Jews by the law in 2:l-28. He has read of the law's condemnation of all people together in 3:l-20 and may recall Paul's harsh words that "by works of the law all flesh will not be justified before [God] because through the law comes recognition of sin" (3:20). "But now!" opened 3:21 and in 3:21-26 Paul treats the cross of Christ and the effect Jesus' crucifixion has on humanity's plight. In the "now time" (dv TQ v6v K~L~Q, 3:26), God's righteousness has been displayed in the crucifixion of Himself in the Person of His Son. The believing man is restored in Christ Jesus the Image of God (Colossians 1:15; 2 Corinthians 4:4), and the next age has dawned already. The Holy Spirit Himself is the tippapdv, the Guarantee, of our present participation in the coming age (Ephesians 1:14; 2 Corinthians 5:5). Garlington observes the role this plays in Romans 5-8: As an outgrowth of an objection raised and answered in 77- 12, 7:13-25 articulates the overlap of these two creations, with its resultant tension in the believer's inward being. Chap. 8, finally, predicts the glories of the consummated new creation. The sub-structure of Romans 5-8 therefore can be viewed as the passing away of the old creation and the advent of the new. This is what accounts for the conspicuous time-element in these chapters. Echoing 3:21, the "eschatological v6v" is present in 5:lO; 6:21; 76/17; 8:l; and even when the "now" of salvation is not expressly mentioned, it is nonetheless just beneath the surface of all I3Robin Scroggs, The Last Adam: A Study in Pauline Anthropology (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1966), 63-64. Eschatological Tension and Existential Angst 169 those passages that speak of the definitive break with the old age.14 On this side of the resurrection such restoration is partial15 but it is real already (Romans 8:28-30).16 Paul, as every believer, has obtained the forgiveness of sins and eternal life (Romans 5:17-21; 6:22-23; 8:2 28-39). Yet he can say to the Philippians that he has not already received the goal of the Christian life nor has he already been perfected, but that he diligently pursues "the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:9-14). He is sure of his salvation, presently possessed (Romans 8:38-39) but warns fellow believers in Corinth of the danger of falling away from the faith (1 Corinthians 10:l-13). Using verbs in the present tense, Paul describes the effect that this eschatological tension produces in the life of someone who lives in two epochs, still a member of the old eon of fallen human nature and yet, in Christ Jesus, a resident of the age to come. Paul expresses the subjective effect of this objective truth in Romans 7:14-25 as he defends the law.17 Dunn observes: 14Garlington, "Romans 7:1425," 204. lSGarlington comments ("Romans 7:14-25," 234-35): "God, then, is in the process of making his people what Adam, as his image, should have been. But until the process is complete, the Christian, like Christ himself, must labor and persevere amidst circumstances which are far from favorable. It is, in cons&pence, precisely because he anticipates better things that the believer cannot be content with his present attainments in grace. In view of what he longs to be hereafter, he can only cry out with the apostle Paul, 'Wretched man that I am.' Yet the bottom line, from which our truest comfort in this life is taken, is the one drawn from Paul by Luther. As those who live in the era of overlapping and conflicting creations, we are simul iustus et peccator." 16John, quoting Jesus, phrases this distinction in terms of life and death. One may compare John 5:2429 where the dead are hearing and possessing eternal life during the earthly ministry of Jesus while those in the grave await the resdon. evel la ti on 20:l-10 makes the same point (those who have a share in the first resurrection, baptism, will not taste the second death, hell). The point is that Paul is not saying something that other New Testament writers and Jesus Himself have not also expressed or implied. 17Garlington observes a parallel structure in verses 1420 ("Romans 214 25," 211): 14 - 18a; 15a - 18b; 15b - 19; 16-17 - 20. Dunn adds his opinion that "the last two clauses of verse 21 are a compressed form of verses 1%-19. . ." (Romans.1-8,392). Verses 21-25 form the summary and As the whole context indicates, Paul's is a salvation-history dualism or tension, not an anthropological dualism: the "I" is split not as a result of creation (or the fall), but primarily as the result of redemption; the "I" is split because the "I" of the believer belongs to, is stretched between the old epoch of sin and death (and law) and the new epoch of grace and life (and S~irit)?~ The question that one may ask at this point is whether Paul's understanding of the two epochs and the believers membership in both at the same time is unique to the New Testament or whether other communities, such as those at Qumran, developed a similar theology. Existential Angst seems to be fairly common in the world. Do the Qumran people evidence this frustration? And if so, what is its origin? Two scrolls from Qumran may provide the answers to those questions. 1 QS 11, The Community Rule Eleven reasonably well-preserved columns of a manuscript were discovered in Cave 1 and published in 1951 by Millar Burrows under the title The Manual of Discipline (The Dead Sea Scrolls of St. Mark's Monastery 11, New Haven). One of the oldest of the scrolls, this scroll (now known as "the Community Rule") dates from 100 B.c.'~ In the eleventh column, at lines 9-10, the text reads: As for me, I belong to wicked mankind, to the company of ungodly flesh. My iniquities, rebellions, and sins, together with the perversity of my heart, belong to the company of worms, and to those who walk in darknessm conclusion. '8Dunnl Romans 1-8,394. 190ne may see Geza Vermes, The Dead Sea Scrolls in English, third edition (New York: Penguin books, 1987), 61 for examples. qermes, The Dead Sea Scrolls in English, 79; Vermes' translation. Eschatological Tension and Existential Angst l7l This text appears in the context of praise and confession. The author praises God for what He has done for the author and his community, particularly for joining them to the community of the angels, referred to as the "Holy Ones" and the "Sons of Heaven" in the previous lines. Parallels to this expectation exist outside of Qumran and outside of the Bible. The author(s) of I Enoch 104.6 (perhaps as early as the Community Rule) states: "Now fear not, righteous ones, when you see the sinners waxing strong and flourishing; do not be partners with them, but keep far away from those who lean onto their own injustice; for you are to be partners with the good-hearted people of heaven."21 The author of 2 Baruch (second century A.D.) expresses similar hopes: Miracles, however, will appear at their own time to those who are saved because of their works and for whom the Law is now a hope, and intelligence, expectations, and wisdom a trust. For they shall see that world which is now invisible to them, and they will see a time which is now hidden to them. And time will no longer make them older. For they will live in the heights of that world and they will be like angels and be equal to the stars. And they will be changed into any shape which they wish, from beauty to loveliness, and from light to the splendor of glory. . . . And the excellence of the righteous will be greater than that of the angels (2 Baruch 51:7-10,12)." The sigruficant difference between 1 Enoch and 2 Baruch, when compared to 1QS 11.9-10, is that the author of the Community Rule confesses his sinfulness and unworthiness to become part of the heavenly community. This has, quite naturally, led some to link the Community Rule 11 to Romans 7. Dunn, for example, says: "We find precisely the same self-confession in the Qumran literature, used by those who, very much like Paul, rejoiced in the experience of God's righteou~ness."~~ ''Translated by E. Isaac and included in James Charlesworth's The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (Garden City: Doubleday, 1983), 1235. ZZTranslated by A. F. J. Klijn, included in James Charlesworth's The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha), 1:638. 23Dunn, Romans 1-8,389. It appears, however, that Dunn has overstated the resemblance. The author of the Community Rule expresses his anxiety over his failure to adhere to the law's precepts. He even goes so far as to confess that "I belong to the Adam of wickedness." On the collective or corporate use of "Adam," Leaney notes: It is significant that besides the frequent use in 1QH [Thanksgiving Hymns] it is thus used eight times in CD [Damascus Document or Zadokite Document], twice in DSW [The War Scroll or lQw, but in the Rule only at 5.17 in this way other than the six times all concentrated in this column, where the thought is so closely parallel to that of IQH.'~ This "Adam of wickedness" is set in parallel in 1QS11.9-10 with "the company of ungodly [or evil] flesh" and raises the question of whether this author's use of "flesh" is identical to Paul's. Certainly they are similar. Karl Kuhn describes the use of "flesh" in Qumran: In the Qumran texts the word "flesh" is contrasted not only to the spirit of God but to the "spirit of truth," which the believer possesses, in accordance with his predestination. Therefore, man as "flesh" is unworthy of God and prone to do evil, or rather, prone to succumb to the Evil One, while the spirit of the pious, as the "spirit of truth," places him in the battlefront on God's side against the Evil One. Thus "flesh" becomes a contrast to the "spirit" which rules the pious man and determines his good actions, and dwells within him; consequently "flesh" becomes the area of weakness through the natural inclinations of man; it becomes almost synonymous with evil.'' The rabbis had also recognized the existence of two separate impulses within man. As early as the Tannairn (first century A.D.) there had been discussions of the "evil impulse" (YTi iY) and the 24A. R. C. Leaney, The Rule of Qumran and its Meaning: Introduction, Translation and Commenta y (London: SCM Press, 1966), 254. %rl Georg Kuhn, "New Light on Temptation, Sin, and Flesh in the New Testament," in The Scrolls and the Nau Testament, edited by Krister Stendahl (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1957), 101. Eschatological Tension and Existential Angst 173 "good impulse" (Iw;-I w; one may see M. Berakoth 9.5).26 Yet this evil impulse has more to do with mankind as creature than Paul's statement in Romans 794 that even members of the elect community have been and still are "sold under sin" (x~xpapkvoq). For example, the author of the Community Rule states in 1Q!311.10, "My iniquities, rebellions, and sins, together with the perversity of my heart, belong to the company of worms and to those who walk in darkness."" The author anchors his understanding of his unworthiness in his corporeality, in his weak creatureliness which contrasts with God's perfection and omnipotence. There is no sense in the Community Rule that the existential Angst is ultimately rooted in an existence within two ages, the age of Adam and the age of Messiah. For the Qumran covenanters, the age of Messiah seems to be purely future, as yet totally unrealized. The confession of unworthiness in 1QS11.9-10 resembles Paul's discussion in Romans 7:14-25, but has developed from a different understanding of eschatology. This is evident in the way in which the author concludes the Community Rule. He asks, What shall one born of woman be accounted before Thee? Kneaded from dust, his abode is the nourishment of worms. He is but a shape, but moulded clay, and inclines towards dust. What shall hand-moulded clay reply? What counsel shall it ~nderstand?~' The author laments the creatureliness of man, corporate Adam, and ends with two rhetorical questions, set in parallel, which he leaves ~nanswered.~~ Leaney summarizes: All these passages emphasize the finitude of man and his membership of the order of this world with which is contrasted that of the new age, sometimes thought of as already existing and removed from this world not by time but by space. . . . Thus angels live in the other heavenly %ne may see Leaney, The Rule of Qumran, 42-43. 27Vermes, The Dead Sea Scrolls in English, 79. ZBVermes, The Dead Sea Scrolls in English, 80. 29Note that Paul answers the rhetorical question with which he ends Romans 725. order; but when the fulness of time comes it will be possible for finite mortal men, whose origin and life exists so far only on the biological level, to attain to the other order of life.30 The difference between the Community Rule and Romans 214- 25 is that the Qumran author speaks as a human being, expressing the Angst that is common to humanity. The author belongs to those predestined to inherit the glory of the angels and share in their community at some point in the (near)fuhrre but does not yet possess it. Even if it already exists, it exists somewhere else. On the other hand, Paul speaks in Romans 7:14-25 as a Christian, one who has already experienced the eschaton through baptism into Christ's death and resurrection. Paul and all Christians, the "I" of Romans 7:14-25, are already members of the holy community, although this is "not yet" fully realized. The author of the Community Rule shares much with Paul: the use of "I" to represent a larger group, of which he is himself a member; the opposition of "flesh" to the coming age; and a confession of sinfulness and unworthiness. But these are only superficial ~imilarities.~' And the superficiality of the comparison is most obvious in the fact that Paul can answer his final rhetorical question and the author of the Community Rule cannot. Only as a member already possessing the next age can Paul speak as he does in Romans 7. The contrast with Paul's theology is remarkable. The Community Rule at 4.23 reads "For God has chosen them for an everlasting Covenant and all the glory of Adam shall be theirs."32 The context is the arrival of the eschaton, the day when God shall put an end to falsehood and truth will arise in the world forever. A man of Qumran may cry out to God and confess his unworthiness in contrast to God's holiness; he may confess to his fellows his unworthiness to be included among those predestined to eternal life. But this is not the cry of Paul in Romans 7. %eaney, The Rule of Qumran, 259. "Contra Karl Kuhn, "New Light on Temptation," 102-09. "Vermes, The Dead Sea Scrolls in English, 66. Eschatological Tension and Existential Angst 175 Summary and Conclusions Paul has an awareness of God's sovereignty, an appreciation of man's sinfulness, a recognition of an entirely God-dependent salvation, and the use of "I" to refer to himself and the community of which he is a member in common with those who wrote the Community Rule and the Thanksgiving Hymns. He uses "flesh" and "spirit1' in ways that resemble those terms in Qumran, and both express an existential Angst. But the differences are greater than the similarities. W. D. Davies concludes his study of these two terms in Paul and in Qumran: Thus our discussion of "flesh" and "spirit" in Paul has led to the same conclusion. The Scrolls and the Pauline Epistles share these terms, but it is not their sectarian connotation that is determinative of Pauline usage. As the Epistles themselves would lead us to expect, Paul stands in the essentials of his thought on these matters more in the main stream of Old Testament and Rabbinic Judaism than in the sect. There is no reason to suppose that in other aspects of his thought the case would be different.33 Paul may speak of an election to salvation, but he does so only in Christ and Him crucified (Romans 8328-30; one may compare Ephesians 1:3-14). Nowhere does Paul speak of a predestination for any individual to damnation or destruction. Rather, he affirms that God "wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the Truth." (1 Timothy 2:4) A second difference lies in the origin of the existential Angst both express. For Paul, this anxiety comes from the fact that a Christian lives in two ages, the age of Adam since Adam's fall, and the Coming Age, which has already begun with the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Romans 321-26). When a person is baptized into Christ Jesus, he enters that age, a new creation called to a new life (Romans 6:l-4; one may compare 2 Corinthians 5:17). Yet the old continues along with the new, and the battle is joined, as David Wenham describes: 33W. D. Davies, "Paul and the Dead Sea Scrolls: Flesh and Spirit," in The Scrolls mrd the New Testament, edibed by Krister Stendahl (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1957), 182. Paul was aware that the pressures on the believer were often severe (e.g. 1 Corinthians 75): outside there were the principalities and powers, defeated by Christ and yet a fierce foe; inside was the fleshlthe body with its constant tendency to sin and its constant tendency to reassert its enslaving power in the believer. The enemy for Paul was no paper tiger; probably in Romans 714-25 he was speaking from personal experience. He urges his readers not to get tired (e.g. Galatians 6:7-lo), an injunction necessary because the battle is one in which it is easy to grow weary. The reality and unpleasantness of the enemy is made clear by Paul's expressions of longing for future liberation-a liberation only partially realized now and fully to be enjoyed in the future.34 A third distinction appears when the role of the law is observed. Nowhere in Qumran's literature does the law appear as an occasion for sin, as a springboard that sin uses to increase sins among people. Yet Paul can and does say that the law was given so that sin might be recognized as sin and so that the surpassingness of sin might be developed through the command (Romans 7:13). Finally, the similarities and differences may be summed up in how the author of the Community Rule and Paul ended their treatment of this subject. The Qumran author wrote: "What shall hand-moulded clay reply? What counsel shall it understand?" Having expressed his Angst, the author was left without an answer to his own question. Paul, on the other hand, cries: "Wretched man I! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" And answers from God-given faith: "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" 34David Wenham, "The Christian Life: A Life of Tension? A Consideration of the Nature of Christian Experience in Paul," in Pauline Studies: Essays Presented to Professor F. F. Bruce on His 70th Birthday, edited by Donald A. Hagner and Murray J. Harris (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980), 89-90.