Review:

Reading Romans in Pompeii

Unlike a commentary on Romans, which attempts to understand Paul’s thoughts in their context and apply them to contemporary life, the interest of this book is primarily in the people Paul wrote to and their world.

Using the well preserved archaeological data from Pompeii (150 miles from Rome) as a starting point, Peter Oakes tries to imagine what a house church there might have looked like – its size, composition, relationships and concerns. He then looks at the content of Romans from the perspective of a furniture craftsman, a barmaid slave girl and other real people, asking ‘How might this letter have resonated with them with their concerns, in their community?’

Does it work? To an extent, yes. I found the link between digging up old buildings and the issues facing a real church to be imaginative but rather too speculative to be fully convincing. To be fair, Oakes admits that his reconstruction is very approximate. Nevertheless Reading Romans in Pompeii is a valuable read for anyone wishing to study Paul and his first century context.

HIGH: Brings to life the practical exhortations of Romans 12 particularly well.

LOW: Too much archaeological guesswork before it gets to consider Romans in any detail.

Published by: SPCK