In this chapter we take the third of the six steps involved in our teleological reading of Rom. 1.16–4.25, formulating an hypothesis about the nature of the text. This explicit hypothesis replaces the implicit presupposition of the mainstream debate that the text is theological exposition. We describe the nature of the text in order to awaken the appropriate responses in ourselves. Since the identification of the text as exposition has been implicit, the responses it has generated have all the power of tools unconsciously applied to the text. We therefore need to formulate our new hypothesis as fully and explicitly as possible, and be very conscious of what we are doing when we are working with it on the teleological exposition.

Because the question is an unaccustomed one, at least in the form in which we are asking it, we shall present the hypothesis in four major statements about the way we perceive and respond to the text. For each of these, we shall supply as much evidence as is possible without entering into detailed exegesis, and discuss the changes it requires in our responses to the text.

In this case, our first and fundamental observation about the nature of the text helps to form our response by defining more closely our goal in reading.