Against the prevailing view that Paul is (at most) marginally influenced by Greek intellectual traditions, this article argues that Romans 6…8 manifests certain Platonic traditions about the soul. Following a consideration of scholarship on Pauline anthropology and a critical definition of discourse, Paul's appropriation of Greek philosophy is recast as the adaptation of a Platonic discourse about extreme immorality or the death of the soul. This discourse explains the language about sin, death, flesh, passions and the body; the metaphors of enslavement, imprisonment and rule that predominate in these chapters; and the inciting role of law in Rom. 7.7-13.
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