from those churches, just as he did from Corinth. Is it possible that Paul had just received
yet another message about ongoing trouble in Galatia and managed to work in his feelings
about that situation as a tangent into his letter to the Corinthians? Perhaps 1 Corinthians
7:17, the verse that introduces the unit on circumcision and slavery, actually alludes to
something like this: This is the rule I lay down in all the churches.
Or let's go to Romans 14:1
15:7. I agree with those commentators who see a
directness in Paul's instructions in 1 Corinthians 8 and 10:23
33 that is absent in Romans
14:1
15:7. Not only is the situation more specific (whether to eat meat that has been
sacrificed to an idol god in a Corinthian temple versus generic food and special day
regulations), but Paul also has a much greater precision of advice for specific situations in
1 Corinthians versus Romans.
Beginning in Romans 12, Paul starts a section of general paranesis: Use your God-
given gifts; love and serve others; obey the government. So why does he switch from
general paranesis to something a bit more narrow in Romans 14? Well, Paul is writing
this letter from Corinth at the end of his third missionary journey. It was in Corinth that
this issue stood at its prime, and while undoubtedly some resolution had taken place by
this time, with all the idol temples in Corinth and with the questionable spirituality of at
least some in Corinth, Paul take the opportunity to touch on this issue one more time, not
because he has heard of a similar problem happening on in Rome, but simply because it is
an issue that has taken so much of his energy with the Corinthians. It is primarily a
Corinthian issue, not a Roman issue.
Even if Paul had heard about problems among the believers in Rome on the issue
of what is appropriate to eat, I question whether he would have seen it as his role to