Epistle to the Romans
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The Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Romans is one of the letters of the New Testament canon of the Christian Bible. Often referred to simply as Romans, it is one of the seven currently undisputed letters of Paul. It is even counted among the four letters accepted as authentic (known in German scholarship as Hauptbriefe) by F. C. Baur and the Tübingen School of historical criticism of texts in the 19th century.
The book, according to Joseph Fitzmyer, "overwhelms the reader by the density and sublimity of the topic with which it deals, the gospel of the justification and salvation of Jew and Greek alike by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, revealing the uprightness and love of God the father."[1] N. T. Wright notes that Romans is "neither a systematic theology nor a summary of Paul's lifework, but it is by common consent his masterpiece. It dwarfs most of his other writings, an Alpine peak towering over hills and villages. Not all onlookers have viewed it in the same light or from the same angle, and their snapshots and paintings of it are sometimes remarkably unalike. Not all climbers have taken the same route up its sheer sides, and there is frequent disagreement on the best approach. What nobody doubts is that we are here dealing with a work of massive substance, presenting a formidable intellectual challenge while offering a breathtaking theological and spiritual vision".[2]
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[edit] Historical Context of Romans
Jews were expelled from Rome because of Christian disturbances around AD 49 by the Edict of Claudius.[3] The conflict developed because Jewish Christians and Jews argued with one another over the validity of Jesus as the Messiah. Both Jews and Jewish Christians were expelled as a result of their infighting.[4] The majority of people left in the Christian church at Rome would have been Gentile Christians. These gentile churches developed along a different trajectory from the Christian circles that grew out of Jewish synagogues.[4]
Claudius died around the year AD 54, and his successor, Emperor Nero, allowed the Jews back into Rome. Gentile Christians may have developed a dislike of or looked down on Jews (see also Antisemitism), because they theologically rationalized that Jews were no longer God's people.[5] Fitzmyer argues that with the return of the Jews to Rome in 54 new conflict arose between the Gentile Christians and the Jewish Christians who had formerly been expelled.[6]
The Roman church would have to accept that the gospel was for the "Jew first and also to the Greek" (see Romans 1:16).
[edit] Dating of Romans
It was probably written at Corinth or possibly in nearby Cenchrea, transcribed by Tertius (16:22). Phoebe (16:1) of Cenchrea, the Aegean port of Corinth, conveyed it to Rome, and Gaius of Corinth entertained the Apostle Paul at the time of its composition (16:23; 1 Corinthians 1:14); Erastus was chamberlain of the city, that is, of Corinth (2 Timothy 4:20).
The precise time at which it was written is not mentioned in the epistle, but it was obviously written when the collection for Jerusalem had been assembled and Paul was about to "go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints", that is, at the close of his second visit to Greece, during the winter preceding his last visit to that city (Rom 15:25; cf. Acts 19:21; (Rom 20:2-3, 20:16; 1 Cor 16:1-4) early in 58.
At this time, the Jews made up a substantial number in Rome, and their synagogues, frequented by many, enabled the Gentiles to become acquainted with the story of Jesus of Nazareth. Consequently, a church composed of both Jews and Gentiles was formed at Rome. According to Irenaeus, one of the earliest Church Fathers, the church at Rome was founded directly by the apostles Peter and Paul.[7] However, many modern scholars disagree with Irenaeus, holding that while little is known of the circumstances of the church's founding, it was not founded by Paul.[8]
Many of the brethren went out to meet Paul on his approach to Rome. There is evidence that Christians were then in Rome in considerable numbers and probably had more than one place of meeting (Rom 16:14-15).
[edit] Style
While scholars are often able to determine aspects of the context of NT writers from their letters, it is much more difficult to understand Paul's letter to the Romans. Scholars often have difficulty assessing whether Romans is a letter or an epistle:
"A letter is something non-literary, a means of communication between persons who are separated from each other. Confidential and personal in nature, it is intended only for the person or persons to whom it is addressed, and not at all for the public or any kind of publicity...An Epistle is an artistic literary form, just like the dialogue, the oration, or the drama. It has nothing in common with the letter except its form: apart from that one might venture the paradox that the epistle is the opposite of a real letter. The contents of the epistle are intended for publicity--they aim at interesting 'the public.'"[9]
Joseph Fitzmyer argues, from evidence put forth by Stirewalt, that the style of Romans is an "essay-letter."[10] Philip Melanchthon, a writer during the Middle Ages, suggested that Romans was caput et summa universae doctrinae christianae ("a summary of all Christian doctrine").[11] While some scholars attempt to suggest, like Melanchthon, that it is a type of theological treatise, this view largely ignores chapters 14 and 15 of Romans. There are also many "noteworthy elements" missing from Romans that are included in other areas of the Pauline corpus.[12] The breakdown of Romans as a treatise began with F.C. Baur in 1836 when he suggested "this letter had to be interpreted according to the historical circumstances in which Paul wrote it."[11]
[edit] Purposes of writing
The main purpose of the epistle to the Romans is given by Paul in Romans 1:1, where he reveals that he is set apart by God for the purpose of preaching the Gospel.[13] He wishes to impart to the Roman readers a gift of encouragement and assurance in all that God has freely given them (see Romans 1:11-12; 1 Corinthians 2:12).
The purposes of the apostle in dictating this letter to his Amanuensis Tertius (16:22) is also articulated in the second half of chapter 15:
- Paul asks for prayers for his upcoming journey to Jerusalem; he hopes that the offering collected from the Gentile churches will be accepted there.
- Paul is planning to travel to Rome from Jerusalem and spend some time there before moving on to Spain; he hopes the Roman church will support his mission to Spain.
- Since Paul has never been to Rome, he outlines his gospel so that his teaching will not be confused by that of "false teachers".
- Paul is aware that there is some conflict between Gentile and Jewish Christians in the Roman church, and he addressed those concerns (chapters thirteen and the first half of fourteen). While the Roman church was presumably founded by Jewish Christians, the exile of Jews from Rome in AD 49 by Claudius resulted in Gentile Christians taking leadership positions.
[edit] Theme
The main theme of the letter is the salvation offered through the Gospel of Jesus Christ (1:16-17). Paul argues that all humanity is guilty and accountable to God for sin and that it is only through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that humanity can attain salvation. Therefore, God is both just and the one who justifies. In response to God's free, sovereign and graceful action of salvation, humanity can be justified by faith. Paul uses the example of Abraham to demonstrate that it is by faith that mankind can be seen as righteous before God.
[edit] Content
This essay-letter composed by Paul was written to a specific audience at a specific time; to understand it, the situations of both Paul and the recipients must be understood.
[edit] Introduction (Rom 1.1-15)
The introduction (Rom 1.1-15) provides some general notes about Paul. He introduces his apostleship here and introductory notes about the gospel he wishes to preach to the church at Rome. His human line stems from David (Rom 1.3). Paul, however, does not limit his ministry to Jews. Paul's goal is that the gentiles would also hear the gospel (1.5). He commends the Romans for their faith (1.8). The word for faith in Greek is "pistis." Paul also speaks of the past obstacles that have blocked his coming to Rome earlier (1.11-13).
[edit] Unashamed (Rom 1.16-17)
Paul's announcement that he is not "ashamed" (evpaiscu, nomai) of his gospel because it holds power (dunamis). These two verses form a backdrop for the rest of the book. First, we note that Paul is unashamed of his love for this gospel that he preaches about Jesus Christ. He also notes that he is speaking to the "Jew first" (1.16). There is signifiance to this, but much of it is scholarly conjecture. We are hardpressed to find an answer to such a question without knowing more about the audience in question. Wayne Brindle argues, based on Paul's former writings against the Judaizers in Galatians and 2 Corinthians, that rumors had probably spread about Paul totally negating the Jewish existence in a Christian world. Paul may have used the "Jew first" mentality to counter such a view.[14]
[edit] The Judgment of God (Rom 1.18-32)
Paul now begins into the main thrust of his letter. He begins by suggesting that some among them have taken up ungodliness and wickedness for which there will be wrath from God (1.18). These people have taken God's invisible image and made him into an idol. Paul draws heavily here from the Jewish book Wisdom of Solomon--an apocraphal edition in the Catholic Canon.[15] He condemns homosexuality and warns that such behavior will result in a depraved body and mind (1.26 - 27) and says that people who do such things (including murder and wickedness (1.29)) are worthy of death (1.32). Paul may undercut the idol worship system for the same reason that he undercuts the Jewish law later in the gospel--to bring the people together under Christ.
[edit] Paul's Judgment of Hypocrites (Rom 2.1-4)
Paul here calls out Jews who are condemning others for not following the law when they themselves are also not following the law.
[edit] Assurance of salvation
In chapters five through eight, Paul argues that believers can be assured of their hope in salvation, having been freed from the bondage of sin. Paul teaches that, through faith (3:28; 4:3), the faithful have been joined with Jesus (5:1) and freed from sin (6:1–2, 6:18). Believers should celebrate in the assurance of salvation (12:12). This promise is open to everyone since everyone has sinned (3:23) save the one who paid for all of them (3:24).
In chapters nine through eleven, Paul addresses the faithfulness of God to Israel, where he says that God has been faithful to His promise. Paul hopes that all of Israel will come to realize the truth (9:1–5) since he himself was also an Israelite (11:1) and had in the past been a persecutor of Christ. In Romans 9–11 Paul, talks about how the nation of Israel has been cast away, and the conditions under which Israel will be God's chosen nation again: when the Body of Christ (believers in Christ's payment for sin) stops being faithful (11:19–22).
[edit] Transformation of believers
In Romans 7:1, Paul says that humans are under the law while we live: "Know ye not . . . that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?" However, Jesus' death on the cross makes believers dead to the law (7:4, "Wherefore, my brethren, ye are also become dead to the law by the body of Christ").
From chapter 12 through the first part of chapter 15, Paul outlines how the Gospel transforms believers and the behaviour that results from such a transformation. He goes on to describe how believers should live: not under the law, but under the grace of God. If believers live in obedience to God and to rightfully delegated authority, (12:9–21; 13:1–10) study the scriptures, (and share them with others) and love everybody, believers are not going to need to sin. As Paul says in Romans 13:10, "love (ἀγάπη) worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of law".
[edit] Concluding verses
The concluding verses contain a description of his travel plans and personal greetings salutations. One-third of the twenty-one Christians identified in the greetings are women, some of whom played an important role in the early church at Rome.
[edit] General characterization
Paul sometimes uses a style of writing common in his time called a "diatribe". He appears to be responding to a "heckler", and the letter is structured as a series of arguments. The letter is addressed to the church at Rome, which consisted of both Gentile and Jewish Christians. In the flow of the letter, Paul shifts his arguments, sometimes addressing the Jewish members of the church, sometimes the Gentile membership and sometimes the church as a whole.
[edit] Protestant interpretation
Martin Luther described Paul's letter to the Romans as the "most important piece in the New Testament. It is purest Gospel. It is well worth a Christian's while not only to memorize it word for word but also to occupy himself with it daily, as though it were the daily bread of the soul".[16]
The Romans Road refers to a set of scriptures from Romans that Christian evangelists use to present a clear and simple case for personal salvation for each person.
Romans has been at the forefront of several major movements in Protestantism. Martin Luther's lectures on Romans in 1515–16 probably coincided with the development of his criticism of Roman Catholicism which led to the 95 Theses of 1517. In 1738, while reading Luther's Preface to the Epistle to the Romans, John Wesley famously felt his heart "strangely warmed", a conversion experience which is often seen as the beginning of Methodism. In 1919 Karl Barth's commentary on Romans, The Epistle to the Romans, was the publication which is widely seen as the beginning of neo-orthodoxy.
[edit] Critique
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It is often the starting point of those who argue against the Protestant understanding of Romans, specifically in regard to the doctrine of sola fide, to point out that the same apostle who wrote Romans is also quoted in Philippians as saying "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil 2:12).[17]
An insightful critique of the traditional Protestant view of Paul's salvation theology was given by Lutheran scholar and bishop Krister Stendahl in his 1976 book Paul Among Jews and Gentiles. The following is an excerpt:
The main lines of Pauline interpretation -- and hence both conscious and unconscious reading and quoting of Paul by scholars and lay people alike -- have for many centuries been out of touch with one of the most basic of the questions and concerns that shaped Paul's thinking in the first place: the relation between Jews and Gentiles.
Especially in the Protestant tradition -- and particularly among Lutherans -- it is Paul's epistle to the Romans which holds a position of honor, supplying patterns of thought...
A doctrine of justification by faith was hammered out by Paul for the very specific and limited purpose of defending the rights of Gentile converts to be full and genuine heirs to the promises of God to Israel...
We tend to read him as if his question was: On what grounds, on what terms, are we to be saved? ... But Paul was chiefly concerned about the relation between Jews and Gentiles -- and in the development of this concern he used as one of his arguments the idea of justification by faith...
If we read Paul's answer to the question of how Gentiles become heirs to God's promises to Israel as if he were responding to Luther's pangs of conscience, it becomes obvious that we are taking the Pauline answer out of its original context...
Paul's primary focus on Jews and Gentiles was lost in the history of interpretation... Justification no longer "justified" the status of Gentile Christians as honorary Jews, but became the timeless answer to the plights and pains of the introspective conscience of the West.[18]
[edit] Catholic interpretation
Catholics accept the necessity of faith for salvation but point to Romans 2:5–11 for the necessity of living a virtuous life as well:[19]
Who [God] will render to every man according to his deeds: To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: For there is no respect of persons with God.
[edit] Critique
To argue their claim that sincere profession of Christ takes precedence over good works in God's eyes, Protestants hold up Romans 4:2–5 (emphasis added):
- "For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted unto him for righteousness".
They also point out that in Romans 2, Paul says that God will reward those who follow the law (as opposed to antinomianism) and then goes on to say that no one follows the law perfectly (see also Sermon on the Mount: Interpretation). Romans 2:21–25:
- Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God? For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written. For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Jospeh A. Fitzmyer, "Romans," Anchor Bible Commentary (New York: Doubleday, 1992), xiii
- ^ Leander E. Keck and others, eds., The New Interpreter's Bible: A Commentary in Twelve Volumes (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2002) 395
- ^ Acts 18:2; Suetonius' Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Claudius XXV.4
- ^ a b Fitzmyer 77
- ^ Leander E. Keck, The New Interpreter's Bible, 407
- ^ Fitzmyer 77 also argues that this may be what Paul is referring to when he talks about the "strong" and the "weak" in Romans 15; this theory was originally put forth by W. Marxsen, Introduction to the New Testament: An Approach to its problems (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1968) but is critiqued and modified by Fitzmyer. Fitzmyer's main contention is that Paul seems to be purposefully vague. Paul could have been more specific if he wanted to address this problem specifically.
- ^ Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book III,3,2
- ^ "The Expositor's Bible Commentary", (Ed. F.E.Gaebelein, Zondervan, 1976-92) Commentary on Romans (Introduction)
- ^ A. Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East, 2nd ed (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1927), 218, 220
- ^ Fitzmyer 69
- ^ a b Fitzmyer 74
- ^ Fitzmyer 74 who notes that the Ekklesia, Eucharist and eschatology (espeically the parousia) are not present in Romans
- ^ For a discussion of the current scholarly viewpoints on the purpose of Romans, along with a bibliography, see Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, s.v. "Romans, Letter to the"
- ^ W.A. Brindle, "To The Jew First: Rhetoric, Strategy, History, or Theology?" Bibliotheca Sacra 159 (2002): 221
- ^ for all of these comparisons see Ben Witherington's commentary on Romans, p. 63 which is available on a limited preview basis from google books.
- ^ Martin Luther's Preface to the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans cf. Luther's comments in his treatise on The Adoration of the Sacrament (1523) in which he refers to the words of institution of the Eucharist as being "the sum and substance of the whole gospel". Luther's Works, American Edition, St. Louis and Philadelphia: Concordia Publishing House and Fortress (Muhlenberg) Press, vol. 36 (Word and Sacrament II (1959)) , [1], p.277.
- ^ Aren’t We Saved by Faith Alone? (This Rock: March 2003)
- ^ Krister Stendahl, Paul Among Jews and Gentiles, Fortress Press, 1976, pp. 1-3, 5.
- ^ For an authoritative discussion of the Catholic viewpoint, see Catholic Encyclopedia, s.v. "Epistle to the Romans"
[edit] External links
[edit] Translations
- "Bible Gateway 35 languages/50 versions" - GospelCom.net
- "Unbound Bible 100 + languages/versions" - Biola University
- "Online Bible" - gospelhall.org
- "Romans, Online Bible" - ChristNotes.org
- "Epistle to the Romans" - Early Christian Writings
- oremus Bible Browser (New Revised Standard Version)
- oremus Bible Browser (New Revised Standard Version - "Anglicized Edition")
[edit] Other
- Romans Overview by Mark Dever
- Romans the Greatest Letter Ever Written: John Piper
- John Calvin on Romans
- Matthew Henry on Romans
- A Wesleyan Interpretation of Romans 5-8 - Jerry McCant
- Epistle to the Romans - Catholic Encyclopedia
- Epistle to the Romans - Biblical Resource Database
This entry incorporates text from the public domain Easton's Bible Dictionary, originally published in 1897.
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Epistle to the Romans
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| Preceded by Acts |
New Testament Books of the Bible |
Succeeded by 1 Corinthians |
