The Quarterly Journal of St. Philaret’s Institute

This article presents an exegetical analysis of Romans 13:1–7, suggesting that there is a hidden subtext in the passage. The author reveals certain allusions to the Wisdom of Solomon and the prophets Daniel and Isaiah, supported by lexical parallels (according to LXX). All of them are semantic inversions: according to Paul “authority” is established by God and the rulers are His faithful servants who should be obeyed, but in the Old Testament passages the earthly kings are called bad servants who will be punished and will themselves obey the people of God. A lexical analysis of the Epistle to the Romans also suggests its target audience to be heterogeneous: the addressees of the letter could include Christians, Jews, and pagans. For the latter allusions and hidden meanings were apparently incomprehensible due to their ignorance of the Jewish tradition.  
In the Old Testament, one can find compliments to kings similar to those in Romans 13:1–7, but the oral tradition tends not to interpret them literally. At the same time, submission to God was a priority. All this is essential for understanding the context of interpretation of the passage by those familiar with the tradition. 
It still remains unclear how Paul’s theology of power relates to the first-century Jewish traditions about angels and their influence on earthly rulers (elsewhere in Pauline letters the word ἐξουσία is most often understood as “angelic powers”). This is one possible avenue for further exploration.