Romans 8.19–22 and Isaiah's Cosmic Covenant

Abstract

There are striking thematic and verbal parallels between Isaiah 24-27 and Rom 8.18-30 that suggest that Isaiah 24-27 provides the primary source for Paul's description of the ruin and groaning of creation in Rom 8.19-22, a possibility that is strengthened by the fact that Paul elsewhere explicitly cites Isa 25.8. If Paul has used Isaiah 24-27 in this way, it helps to explain the emergence in Romans 8 of a cosmic theme in the context of resurrection hope; it also implies that a historic 'fall of nature' in the traditional sense is not strictly in view, but that Paul rather considers creation to be enslaved to the effects of ongoing human sin and divine judgment. This slavery itself can be considered the result of God's decision to link the fate of the natural world and humankind through what Isa 24.5 calls an 'eternal covenant'.

La creación puja y Dios con ella: estudio de la argumentación en Rom 8,18-30

“…Esta interpretación ha sido ampliamente utilizada por algunos entusiastas del diálogo entre ecología y Biblia. Moo (2008) afirma, por ejemplo, que "Romans 8.19-22 is quite possibly the text most frequently cited by those seeking to employ Christian Scripture for an environmental agenda" (p. 74). Stenschke (2017) comparte la misma observación y subraya uno de los motivos centrales del proyecto "Uses of the Bible in Evironmental Ethics" de la Universidad de Exeter, el cual definió Rom 8,19-23 como un "environmental mantra" (p. 262).…”