PAUL AND THE RHETORIC OF REVERSAL: KERYGMATIC ...

elated word ἐπιθυμία, when used negatively, occurs almost entirely in the same contexts,
excepting its use in the Pastorals. 42
Rosner draws on the work of Reinmuth to confirm the importance of both sexual immorality
and greed in Paul and his theological heritage:
[H]is major achievement in relation to the present study is the carefully documented
assertion that sexual immorality and greed are two key vices in the Scriptures (A),
Jewish moral teaching (B), and Paul’s ethics (C). Although not labelled as such by
Reinmuth, these data constitute a fine example of the mediation of Scripture via
Jewish moral teaching to Paul’s ethics. That Paul’s ethics are pervaded by an
opposition to these two vices is thus explicable in terms of indirect dependence upon
the Scriptures. 43
Countryman suggests that the association of greed/covetousness with sexual immorality may
be understood in relation to the concept of sexual property:
Christians held firmly to the notion of private sexual property and made this the
foundation for constructing their sexual ethic…. Greed, in this sense, is not simply
desire, but a kind of grasping behaviour that enhances one’s own property at the
expense of another or delights in possessing more than another. 44
This property ethic gave rise to certain prohibitions deemed necessary to protect it.
Adultery was wrong because it was theft of a neighbor’s property. Incest was wrong
because, being defined primarily as a revolt of the young against the old, it upset the
42
This word occurs in Romans 1:24, 6:12, 7:7-8 (used as exemplary of fundamental sin),
13:13-14; Galatians 5:15-17, 5:24; Ephesians 2:3, 4:22; Colossians 3:5; 1 Thessalonians 4:5; 1
Timothy 6:9; 2 Timothy 2:22, 3:6, 4:3; Titus 2:11-12, 3:3.
43
Brian S. Rosner, Paul, Scripture and Ethics: A Study of 1 Corinthians 5-7 (Leiden: Brill,
1994), 37.
44
Countryman, Dirt, Greed, and Sex, 144-145.
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