Was St. Paul Being Culturally Relevant?

Romans chapter 10 is one of those passages in which St. Paul pours out his heart over the lost condition of the Israelites—even though they are zealous for God.  The problem is they wanted to meet God under their own terms.  As I was reading chapter 10, it occurred to me that there may be more to St. Paul’s choice of words here—especially in light of the audience, i.e., folk in the Roman church who came out of a pagan background.  The clue lies in the affirmations of what “the righteousness of faith” is not:  it is not ascending into heaven or descending into the abyss.”  If we know that the audience came out of a culture steeped in mythology, it is natural that they might slip into the hero mythos of their culture, i.e., heroes who descend into Hades to achieve great deeds, etc., so St. Paul is disabusing them of such thought.  In other words, the “righteousness of faith” is not about our great heroic deeds—the heroic deeds of faith were accomplished by Jesus!  The heroic deeds of Jesus have made “the word” come near us so that we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths.  It seems that St. Paul, once again, proves himself to be an artist with his pen—praise be to God…just sayin’