Lorek, Piotr (Uniwersytet Opolski. Redakcja Wydawnictw Wydziału Teologicznego, 2006)
It may be observed that Apostle Paul explicitly refers to the concept of the Gospel (using a noun ϵύαγγϵλιον and a verb ϵύαγγϵλίζω) in the Letter to Romans in its strategic rhetorical points (inter alia at the beginnings and ends of the ancient epistolary components). This suggests that the theme of the letter is the Gospel. The question arises about the source for Paul’s formulation of the Gospel. The article proposes that it comes from the book of Isaiah. The argument is that in the surroundings of the passages in which Paul directly mentions the Gospel one finds quotations from Isaiah, and in one case the quotation from LXX Isaiah itself contains the verb ϵύαγγϵλίζω. Once this compository aspect is noticed, what remains is to interpret Paul’s Gospel fragments in the light of the citations from and allusions to Isaiah as well as in the general message of the prophet. The intertextual analysis provides a typological picture of the return of Israel from the exile in Babylon with its various topics, that function as a type for Paul’s Gospel. This typological interpretation allows the reader to comprehend the nuances of the presentation of the Gospel in the Letter to Romans more clearly.
