Ep 130: Everyone is Wrong About Romans 13 (Including Me)

June 11, 2024
Protestant Libertarian Podcast

In this episode, I explain why I am unhappy with everyone’s interpretation, including my own. Christians from every political perspective want to either claim Romans 13 validates their position or try to explain it away theologically, and I don’t believe that either of these approaches are historically correct. I examine the many shortcomings with popular interpretations of Romans 13, including incorrect assumptions about the nature of scripture, privileging theological readings of the text over historical ones, the failure to integrate this text with either its context in Paul’s letter to the Romans and other aspects of Pauline thought, reading it anachronistically as if it addresses modern, post-Enlightenment political questions, and our own limited knowledge of the Greco-Roman world. This episode is sure to offend everyone equally. Enjoy!