Early Christian readings of Paul on moral regeneration

Abstract

Since God judges everyone according to their deeds, Paul regards the cultivation of moral conduct as a crucial task. Responding to the scholarly deadlock on whether believers’ ethical capacities are themselves regenerated or simply overlaid with divine power and otherwise unchanged, we engage with Romans 6:1-14 and its direct citations up to the death of Origen, where direct citations are identified by an attribution signal and literality. We ask whether moral regeneration is present in the early readings of Romans 6:1-14. Irenaeus’ three citations argue for the unity of Christ, the salvageability of the flesh, and a distinction between fleshly deeds and the flesh itself. Understanding the Spirit as formative of those whom he indwells, Irenaeus cites Romans 6:4 in order to demonstrate believers’ moral regeneration if they continue in the Spirit. Clement of Alexandria’s four citations are proof-texts against the Basilideans and the Valentinians. Clement’s Apostle signals believers’ exoneration for involuntary misdeeds because he says that they are “under grace”. Tertullian adapts two extended citations to his sympathetic audience in order to argue for the salvageability of the flesh and for the exclusion of recidivist baptized adulterers from the Church. Tertullian’s Apostle expects that all wrongdoing comes to an end with baptism. Origen adopts a voluntarist hermeneutic in his Commentary on Romans against opponents who promoted moral determinism. Thus, we find his strong witness to personal responsibility for moral action. His Commentary also contains his deduction from Romans 6:12 that the desires of the Spirit overlay the desires of sin, which believers still have. Origen’s other works contain proof-texts from our passage which display symbolic readings of “sin” and moral degeneration in recidivists; these too mainly make the case for personal responsibility. Thus, Clement, Tertullian, and Origen witness to perspectival renewal, and Irenaeus and Origen also to moral regeneration.