What does St Paul mean by ' height or depth' in Romans 8:39?

Question

St Paul writes in Romans 8:39:

For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

St Paul travelled extensively - both by land and by the seas- to witness Christ. Many of his journeys involved adventure and risk including a shipwreck ( Acts 27). By saying ' height or depth' was Paul referring to the long and troublesome journeys he undertook for proclaiming Jesus ? And he also mentions of ' any other created thing' Does it imply that height and depth are two created physical entities that deter us from the love of Christ ? Was he alluding to the 'chasm' that stood between Father Abraham and the place of torment that the Rich Man of Lazarus' parable was in( Lk 16:26)? Or, did he mean something else by ' height or depth' ? How do Bible scholars explain those terms ?

Answer 1

I don't think we can say that St. Paul’s use of “height or depth” is specifically referring to his own journeys or this chasm mentioned in the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. Instead, it is safe to conclude that this is a statement about the unbreakable bond between believers and God’s love.

nor height nor depth,

This is probably a case of merism

(Latin: merismus, Greek: μερισμός, translit. merismós) is a rhetorical device (or figure of speech) in which a combination of two contrasting parts of the whole refer to the whole. ^[1]

Two extremes encompass everything in between.

If we were to travel to the “highest” or “lowest” points in the universe, or anywhere in between, we would never arrive at a place where we could escape Christ’s love. There is nowhere we can go where anyone or anything can take our eternal salvation away from us. Nowhere. (faithalone)

Thay are extremes of space or location:

No distance in space or astronomical perspective can isolate the believer from God’s love. God’s power is everywhere; there is nothing that can encompass any domain that is outside God’s dominion. (versebyversecommentary)

God’s love is omnipresent and cannot be escaped

nor any other created thing,

Nothing in the complete created realm can part the believer from God’s love. Anything that we can imagine cannot separate the believer’s from God’s love in providing eternal security. Paul left no contingency whereby something or someone might separate the believer from eternal life. (versebyversecommentary)

This includes all physical entities and any other possible obstacles.

Answer 2

Physical height and depth (distance) separates us from each other in the temporal universe we live in and are attributes of space and time (a creation of God). I believe Paul's point is although we experience the effects of space and time, (height and depth), it cannot separate us from God's love or the eternal security of our spiritual beings. Our physical position in this universe is irrelevant to God.

Answer 3

Rom 8:39 is one of many examples of one of Paul's favorite rhetorical device - the merism. In Rom 8:38, 39, Paul uses several of these:

• neither death nor life
• neither angels nor principalities
• neither things present nor things to come
• neither height nor depth

Further, Paul likes to use these merisms (as here) in the negative and then pile them up. See appendix below.

Thus, Paul's point in Rom 8:38, 39 appears to be rather simple - absolutely nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God.

APPENDIX - Paul's Negative Merisms

In constructing this list, I have only tabulated those instances where “ou (not) A… oude (nor) B” is used. [Some may argue that these form a series of Hendiadys(s) but that is another matter.] Further, my translations listed below are rather (overly) literal in an attempt to show the underlying Greek construction.

• Rom 2:28, (Jewish) not openly nor in the flesh (= a believer, not a biological Jew)
• Rom 3:10, none righteous nor one (= nobody is righteous, all are sinners)
• Rom 4:15, no law nor transgression (= no Torah nor 10 commandments)
• Rom 8:7, not subject to law nor can be (= outside the law)
• Rom 9:6, 7, not all descended from Israel nor can they be (= unconnected with literal Israel)
• Rom 9:16, not the [one] wishing nor the [one] running (= unrelated to humans at all)
• Rom 11:21, not spare branches nor you (= spare no one)
• 1 Cor 2:6, (wisdom) not of this age nor the rulers of this age (= unrelated to human wisdom)
• 1 Cor 11:16, (custom) not have neither the churches have (= nothing else)
• 1 Cor 15:13, (resurrection of dead) not is neither Christ has been raised (= no resurrection)
• 1 Cor 15:16, (dead) not raised neither Christ has been raised (= no resurrection)
• 1 Cor 15:50, (flesh and blood) not able to inherit corruption nor incorruption (= mortal man does not enter eternity)
• 2 Cor 7:12, not for the sake of the offender neither the sake of the wronged (= unrelated to the crime)
• Gal 1:1, not from men nor through men (= unrelated to humanity)
• Gal 1:11,12, not according to man neither from man neither taught [by man] (= unrelated to humanity)
• Gal 1:16,17, not conferred with flesh and blood neither go up to Jerusalem (= unrelated to human advice)
• Gal 3:28, not Jew nor Greek; not slave nor freeman; not male nor female (= no distinction)
• Gal 4:14, not despised nor disdained (= honoured)
• Phil 2:16, not run in vain neither laboured in vain (not wasted time and effort)
• 1 Thess 2:3, not of error nor of uncleanness (= not out of deception)
• 1 Thess 5:5, not of night nor of darkness (= not from deception)
• 2 Thess 3:7, 8, not idle among you neither ate a gift of bread from anyone (supported myself)
• 1 Tim 2:12, not to teach nor to domineer (= not foist ideas upon)
• 1 Tim 6:7, nothing we bring in neither can we carry anything out (= we have nothing, ultimately)
• 1 Tim 6:16, no man saw neither is able (to see) (= see nothing)