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Paul in Romans and Mishnah Sanhedrin both reflect a Jewish tradition that views death as a means of atonement. The Mishnah portrays the execution of a repentant person as bringing forgiveness, using language similar to Romans, where the death of the old self brings freedom from sin.
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Romans 6:6
New Testament
4 Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life. 5 For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be united in the likeness of his resurrection. 6 We know that our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 (For someone who has died has been freed from sin.) 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that since Christ has been raised from the dead, he is never going to die again; death no longer has mastery over him.
Date: 55-58 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Mishnah Sanhedrin 6:2
Mishnah
Rabbinic
For so we find with regard to Achan, that Joshua said to him: “My son, please give glory to the Lord, God of Israel, and make confession to Him” (Joshua 7:19). And the next verse states: “And Achan answered Joshua, and said: Indeed I have sinned against the Lord, God of Israel, and like this and like that have I done.” And from where is it derived that Achan’s confession achieved atonement for him? It is derived from here, as it is stated: “And Joshua said: Why have you brought trouble on us? The Lord shall trouble you this day” (Joshua 7:25). Joshua said to Achan as follows: On this day of your judgment you are troubled, but you will not be troubled in the World-to-Come. And if the condemned man does not know how to confess, either from ignorance or out of confusion, they say to him: Say simply: Let my death be an atonement for all my sins. Rabbi Yehuda says: If the condemned man knows that he was convicted by the testimony of conspiring witnesses, but in fact he is innocent, he says: Let my death be an atonement for all my sins except for this sin.
Date: 190-230 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... the terminology in 1 Corinthians 5:5 is similar to the baptismal formulations in Romans 6:6-11, Colosslans 2:12-15 and Galatians 5:16-24 which refer to the death of the old man and the life of the new man ... In Judaism, death was occasionally regarded as the means of "atonement for sins." (For example, see Mishnah, Sanhedrin 6:2. This rule was even applied to criminals who were instructed to say, 'May my death be an atonement for all my sins') However, the death penalty could serve to expiate the sin of the offender only when the offender had repented. The Essenes had a notion similar to the one in Judaism. The Essene community believed that the suffering of an offender resulted in atonement, and that he thus could be received back into the community again ..."
Lee, Sang-Kue
Church Discipline in the Pauline Churches A Socio-Theological Approach
(pp. 144-147) University of the Free State, 2010
* 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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