The Prophetic Writings - by James Krieg

Romans 16:25

We get many letters at Canyonview Bible Seminary fRomans Sunday school teachers and Bible study leaders concerning the differences in translations. The teacher frustration comes when the class is content to amalgamate the various translations and pronounce the majority opinion as correct. But the majority opinion is not always correct. And especially when you mix in the paraphrased versions it can be quite misleading.

Romans 16:25-26 is one passage that falls into this category; the majority opinion of translations can lead to a poor interpretation.

Romans 16:25 (KJV) Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began.

Romans 16:26 (KJV) But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:

A better translation fRomans the Greek would read thus:

16:25 "And to the one being able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery having been kept silent in times eternal, BUT NOW having been manifested and made known to all the gentiles through the prophetic writings according to the arrangement of the eternal God for the obedience of faith, to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to him is glory forever, amen."

The phrase "prophetic writings" is what we will examine in detail here.

Dropping back to verse 25 to pick up the context, Paul states that the tenants of this gospel and the preaching of Christ through him established believers today. He says this gospel is in accordance with revealed mystery truth. It is a mystery because it was kept silent in all past ages.

The great Pauline phrase "but n" begins verse 26. BUT NOW it is not kept silent any longer. His gospel has been manifested and made known through the agency of the prophetic writings.

Most of the nine translations I have before me, not all, translate the Greek phrase as writings of the prophets. With this translation the reader would normally think of the writings of the Old Testament prophets (cf. Acts 28:23; Romans. 1:2). But by a quick recall we see this totally contradicts verse 25. God kept silent concerning the revelation of the mystery when He communicated with the Old Testament prophets.

The problem is that "writings of the prophets" is an incorrect translation. Looking closely we first of all see the word "graphe." We get our English word "graphics" fRomans this and it is translated writings in scriptures.

The nest word, "Prophertikos" is the one that seems to give us problems. First of all, we need to see what part of speech this is. It is an adjective. The English word "prophet" is a noun, not an adjective. To translate the adjective form we use the word "prophetic." Plain and simple, if we translate this "prophet" we use the wrong part of speech.

We can see Romans verse 25 that it could not be the Old Testament prophets through whom the new revelation of the mystery was made known. Therefore, who did write the "prophetic writings"?

This needs to be our first question. What is a prophet? It is a two part Greek word meaning before and meaning to speak or tell. A prophet is one who speaks before a group of listeners.

In our modern day minds we think of a prophet as one who tells the future. This is not the primary emphasis of a New Testament times prophet. We see in John chapter 4 that the woman at the well knew Jesus was a prophet because He knew something about her past. Paul tells Titus about one of the Creten's prophets (Titus 1:12), that is, one of the Creten's public speakers. This prophet spoke concerning the present condition of the people.

In First Corinthians 14:1-5 , Paul speaks of prophets edifying the people. They were not proclaiming eschatology, but, as laying a foundation of new truth for the church (Ephesians 1:22), they spoke the things that would establish the believers' lives in the dispensation of Grace.

We conclude that a scriptural prophet is one who is gifted (Ephesians 4:11) with the ability to interpret and proclaim God's message for the people of his time. If this man writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he would produce prophetic writings.

Was Paul a Prophet?

Paul never makes a direct claim to being a prophet. However, he does claim to be a preacher, an apostle and a teacher (2 Timothy 1:11). Acts 13:1 talks about many prophets and teachers in Antioch,, Paul was there. In First Corinthians 13:9, he uses the first person pronoun "we"; we prophesy.

We can say with confidence that Paul qualifies as at least a prophet, an interpreter or proclaimer of God's Word. And his writings should be regarded as prophetic writings.

In Conclusion, who wrote the prophetic writings in Romans 16:25? FRomans our study we must conclude that Paul is talking about his own writings. First, he qualifies as at least a prophet. second, at the time Romansans was written (56-58 AD) his writing were the only ones through which the "having been kept silent" mystery was manifested and made known.

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