>For rulers are not a terror to good conduct but to bad. Do you wish to have no fear of the authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive its approval, for it is God’s agent for your good. But if you do what is wrong, you should be afraid, for the authority does not bear the sword in vain! It is the agent of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer.What did he mean by this?
>>18587675The interpolator meant you should be a good goy and obey the government, nevermind that Jesus and John the Baptist and James and Paul and Peter are all supposed to have been executed by the government despite having what Christianity would define as good conduct.
>>18587691and Peter and Paul were both thrown in prison (several times for Paul) only to be let out (or miraculously escape in Peter's case) prior to their eventual executions.
>>18587691>>18587712For the record, although the most common suggestion is that all of Romans 13:1-7 is an interpolation, I suspect verse 7 is authentic, and it continues the list of admonitions started in Romans 12. I believe its authenticity is supported by Jesus also recommending paying taxes in the gospels, and Paul's simple justification in verse 7, that it's only a matter of "paying to all what is due to them" is a better match for Jesus' own justification of paying taxes than the business in 13:1-6 about how you should pay taxes because the authorities are God's agents for executing wrath on the wrongdoer. The presence of at least verse 7 in the original letter would also provide an explanation for why the interpolator put their pro-government speech here instead of anywhere else. And I do remember reading *somewhere* that there existed a manuscript excluded 1-6 but kept 7, though I haven't been able to find the article or book that mentioned it again.
