Texts in Conversation
Paul in Romans 9 echoes language from Job, which cautions against arguing with God. In Job, this shows human limits in grasping divine action, and Paul uses the same idea to emphasize that God is free to extend redemption to both Jew and Gentile.
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Job 9:12
Hebrew Bible
10 he does great and unsearchable things, and wonderful things without number. 11 If he passes by me, I cannot see him; if he goes by, I cannot perceive him. 12 If he snatches away, who can turn him back? Who dares to say to him, ‘What are you doing?’ 13 God does not restrain his anger; under him the helpers of Rahab lie crushed. 14 “How much less, then, can I answer him and choose my words to argue with him.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Romans 9:20
New Testament
18 So then, God has mercy on whom he chooses to have mercy, and he hardens whom he chooses to harden. 19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who has ever resisted his will?” 20 But who indeed are you—a mere human being—to talk back to God? Does what is molded say to the molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special use and another for ordinary use? 22 But what if God, willing to demonstrate his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath prepared for destruction?
Date: 55-58 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The theme of God’s impartiality in Romans 2 also stands in the background of the question in verse 19, and the vocative address ὦ ἄνθρωπε (“Oh man”) in the reply echoes Romans 2:1, while the “vocabulary of wrath and power and patience and glory” calls back not only to 1:18–32 but also to 2:4–11. The rebuke of Romans 9:20 evokes numerous potter-clay analogies in biblical and other early Jewish literature, especially recalling Isaiah 29:16 / 45:9, Job 9:12 / 33:13, and Daniel 4:35, and the image of a potter making different kinds of vessels from the same clay (9:21) borrows heavily from Wisdom of Solomon 15:7–8 ..."
Staples, Jason A.
Vessels of Wrath and God’s Pathos: Potter/Clay Imagery in Rom 9:20–23
(pp. 1-22) Harvard Theological Review, 2022
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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