Romans 5:7 as Responsa to Jewish Perceptions of Martyrdom

I don’t remember ever seeing much attention given to Romans 5:7. I tend to think there are two reasons for this; one is historical and the other practical. From a historical point-of-view, Paul’s line about individuals dying for one another seems to be betrayed in the centuries following him when Christians at various times within the Empire were marched to their deaths.

The willingness of Christians to die for one another was one of the reasons Marcus Aurelius was said to stop his own persecutions. As for us future readers, the idea of dying for one’s faith seems absurd in a time when our world is open to religious pluralism so that when it happens, we are offended and appalled. To be fair to Paul, he did not have either of these contexts.

So the question opens up: to what might have Paul been referring to when he commented about the superior moral character of Christ whose self-sacrifice was so grand? You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. – Romans 5:6-8 These lines break up the theological argument Paul is making about justification by faith and appears as a much more blunt characterization of human beings. It may be a general opinion about the state of humanity. Yet, Paul relates his letter in the context of the Israel and is writing to a community of Christians where Jewish Christians were experiencing prejudice within and persecution without.

For someone like myself who finds value in the historical-critical method, one might reasonably imagine that Paul’s wisdom comes from his years of rabbinic training. So what might have been a rabbinic view on self-sacrifice? Jesus’ death was not only outrageous to many Jews because they could not imagine a dying Messiah, but also because the idea of dying in Judaism to demonstrate one’s faith is contrary to the call to life and self-preservation. Unlike in Christianity, the desire for heaven in Judaism has never been as theologically robust or necessary. Living in the present life was much more an acceptance of Israel’s covenant with God then the promise of the life thereafter. This traditionally has problematized martyrdom in Judaism. While few instances of martyrdom come up, for example in tractate Sanhedrin and the pseudo-canonical Maccabees, these are very much confined. Paul’s rejection of the call to martyrdom stands with these above examples. Only idolatry, sexual sin, and desecration for the sake of desecration of torah were seen as impermissible, so to allow oneself to die instead of violating these precepts was an incredibly pious act. Paul’s placing of Jesus’ crucifixion as an incredibly pious act despite that those hung by a tree were considered criminals, murderers, and heretics must have seemed audacious to Jews trying to read this. The theology of life in Judaism for a people constantly confronted with death was replaced by a theology that started with death to bring about life in another place.

That Jews saw the kingdom of God as a physical kingdom then was not just rampant Messianic hope of physical dominion but also supported their whole theological understanding of what it meant to be Jewish. The promise of a physical messianic reign validated their call to stand in this life. ***This Jewish ethics of survival is important and can be found in a few other places, such as the John 11:50 verse: “You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” (see my previous blog post “His Blood Be Upon Us – An Alternate Reading of Jewish Responsa.”)