The Writing of Romans

Disclaimer: Im a fiend for sources and horrible about making suppositions without coming to actual conclusions. And if you can actually follow my thought processes, God Bless you. 1

In discussing the basic matters of the Epistle of Romans with regard to occasion, date, etc, its worth noting that there are a great deal of opinions, with a great deal of analysis, a lot of commentary, and unfortunately only fragmentary evidence to work with. The reading doesnt come to many conclusions on some of these categories, but that doesnt mean theres not enough for logical deduction. While the authorship is considered without contest to be genuinely Pauline, like the two Corinthian epistles there is a question of transmission integrity. This mainly concerns whether or not Chapter 16 was included in the original letter or added later.2

Date and Location of Writing A number of biblical scholars point to the winter of AD 57/58 as the time of writing.3 Part of this rationale comes from archaeological evidence placing Pauls encounter with Gallio in Acts 18:12 at AD 51, and of Felixs supersession by Festus in AD 59 (Acts 24:27).4 The writing itself is believed to have occurred during Pauls three month stay in Corinth (Acts 20:1-2; Romans 15:26) after collecting offerings for the poor in Jerusalem and preparing for his return there.5 In AD 45-46 a terrible famine had ravaged Judea and many in Jerusalem were killed or left poor. While Queen Helena of Adiabene (not to be confused with the mother of Constantine)

With respect to Dr. Moo, no doubt he wrote a great commentary, if I were to ever exegete scripture based on a single source Id feel unclean. Yes the assignment is only worth 60 points, but its the principal of the matter. Keener, Craig, The Ivp Bible Background Commentary: The New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), p.411. Viola, Frank, The Untold Story of the New Testament Church (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image Publishers, Inc., 2004), p.128-9.; Metzger, Bruce Manning, The New Testament : Its Background, Growth, and Content, 3rd ed. (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2003), p.242; Towns, Elmer L., Bible Answers for Almost All Your Questions (Nashville: T. Nelson, 2003), p.498. Bruce, F.F., "Romans, Epistle to The," in The Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible, ed. ilva Tenney, ois s(Grand apids, ich.: ondervan, 2009), p.181-2.
5 4 3 2

errill C. and

Keener, p.382.

bought food for them at a hefty price, the Christians of Macedonia (Thessalonica and Philippi) and Achaea (Corinth and Cenchrea) felt compassion and collected money to be sent with Paul to Jerusalem.6 Additional evidence of this location includes Pauls stay with Gaius ( omans 16:23), a Corinthian Christian who was one of two men Paul claimed to have baptized (1 Cor. 1:14,17) and Erastus, the city treasurer of Corinth.7

Occasion of Writing There are two occasions, or incidents upon which Paul chose to write Romans. At the closing of Pauls Third issionary Journey, he is already eager to seek out new missionary

territory. As Paul has moved Westward in planting churches through the known world, one of his key strategies has been to plant churches in all the urban centers of Roman influence. Having come from one such city, the great Stoic center and academic city of Tarsus Paul knew that evangelizing these important merchant trade centers would lead to rapid exposure to the Gospel around the world.8 Having collected an offering from the churches of Macedonia and Achaea, Paul was preparing to return to Jerusalem with representatives of each of the Gentile churches to show the progress that was being made (Acts 19:21-22). Eager to preach the gospel where Christ is not known, that I am not building on someone elses foundation ( omans 15:20) Paul sets his sights on Spain (then called spania or Hispania), an older province of Rome with Jewish settlements dating back to the days of King Solomon. (1 Kings 10:22; 1 Chron. 9:21; Jonah 1:3)9

Josephus, Flavius, The Works of Flavius Josephus, trans., William Whiston (Hartford, CN: S.S. Scranton, 1905), Antiquities 20.2.5,; This event was also prophesied in Acts 11:27-30.
7 8

Bruce, p.181-2.

Longenecker, R.N., "Paul," in The Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible, ed. Merrill C. and Silva Tenney, ois s(Grand apids, ich.: ondervan, 2009), p.700. Singer, Isidore and Seligsohn, M., "Tarshish," Jewish Encyclopedia (1906). http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/14254-tarshish (accessed 0/28/2012). There is confusion as to whether Tarshish refers to Pauls home of Tarsus or Tartessos, a harbor city in pain near the Strait of Gibraltar.
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To get there Paul needed a strong launching point for his next mission, and that place he believed would be ome. Just as the old idiom all roads lead to ome was based on that feat of Roman engineering, so to were spread stories of Christian activity in the Eternal City.10 The Roman historian Suetonius recorded that Emperor Claudius expelled all Jews from the city in AD 49 due to an uprising over Chrestus, a common oman derision of Jesus Christ.11 This expulsion was lifted at the death of Claudius by the new Emperor Nero, the same man who would eventually persecute Christians and have Paul put to death. This leads us to the second occasion for Pauls writing of omans. In the Greco-Roman Empire social status ruled every aspect of life. Racial bias went beyond distinctions between men and women, Greek and Roman or Jew. Though two Christians are listed as Decurions in the Bible (the lower class of the aristocracy), most were middle class freedmen or slaves. The Jews initially had good relations with Rome in 161 BCE having signed a treaty with the Maccabees after the expulsion of the Seleucid Empire.12 Merchants came and slaves were brought from Judea as early as the Roman Republic. Julius Caesar was even known as a friend to the Jews, and when he was assassinated they mourned his passing as a nation. The ethical and community adhesiveness attracted many Gentile converts, and Jews enjoyed stature at every social level. The dispersion and lack of central authority over synagogues allowed Christianity to spread unchallenged without a single authority to contend with. It is thought that the expulsion of the

Considering Solomon imported apes from here, which are not indigenous to Palestine but are in Gibralter, this is more likely the city. Tartessos disappeared around the time of the Punic Wars, with local legend saying the whole city sank into the ocean. This has given rise to numerous claims that this was Platos Atlantis. Childress, D.H., Lost Cities of Atlantis, Ancient Europe & the Mediterranean (Adventures Unlimited Press, 1996), p.262.
10 11 12

Keener, p.415

I Maccabees 8; Josephus, Antiquities 12.10.6.

Jews in AD 49 was due to a misunderstanding of accusations that somehow they were responsible for the unfair crucifixion of a prominent man named Chrestus.13

By the time the expulsion was lifted in AD 54 a rift emerged between the Jewish and Gentile Christians in Rome. Part of the problem was the typical attitude of the Greco-Roman Empire over social status. There was also the attitude of the Jewish Christians who believed they were saved by their cultural heritage, and the Gentile Christians who didnt fully understand the Gospel.14 It would be these factors Paul needed to overcome to unite the Roman church.

Recipients Paul writes to all the Christians of Rome, Jew and Gentile. It may be worth noting that Paul is not writing to a specific gathering or group of churches (though he identifies five in particular)15 because Christianity was highly decentralized in the early years of this area. Which leads to a good question; who founded the church in Rome?

To be sure, there is no record of a name of an individual who planted the church in Rome. It is likely that the absence of any record of an initial Patron, the recorded nature of Jewish relations in Rome, and the content of the letter itself would indicate there was no prior structure to Christianity in Rome prior to the writing of Romans. Thus we are left with the following possibilities;

Jeffers, James S., The Greco-Roman World of the New Testament Era : Exploring the Background of Early Christianity (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1999), p.211-215. Cassius Dio Cocceianus, the second century Roman historian disputes that a full expulsion of the Jews occurred, and that Claudius only kept Jews from congregating. This may seem more likely the case as forcibly removing 50,000 Jews from the capitol is hardly likely. However since we have agreement between Luke and Suetonius we should defer to their testimony. Witherington, Ben and Hyatt, Darlene, Paul's Letter to the Romans : A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans, 2004), p.10. 15 Ibid. p.8. The five mentioned are sponsored by Priscilla and Aquila (Romans 16:5), Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, and Hermas (16:14), Philologus, Julia, Olympas, Nereus and his sister (16:15), Aristobolus (16:10), and Narcissus (16:11).
14

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1. The original Christians in Rome were the Jews and God-fearers who heard the message of Peter at Pentecost (Acts 2:10-11) and brought the message of Christ back home with them. 2. It has been suggested that Aristobolus was the grandson of Herod the Great, and Josephus attests that he was friends with Emperor Claudius.16 While it seems he did Patron a house church, he was apparently not alive when Romans was written. 3. The church father Irenaeus recorded a tradition claiming both Peter and Paul founded the church. It is entirely unlikely that this is the case, both in biblical attestation and also that in the same sentence he mentions that during this time Matthew wrote his Gospel to the Hebrews in their language. Hebrew had not been used in 400 years, and there is no record of a New Testament manuscript written in Aramaic. The First Century witnessed the Jews move from Aramaic to Greek and other local languages.17 4. The 4th Century Latin writer Ambrosiaster wrote that the omans embraced the faith of Christ, albeit according to the Jewish rite, without seeing any sign of mighty works or any of the Apostles.18 Though far removed from the time, this is the likeliest answer. That said Id like to make the case that while Irenaeus was incorrect about the manner in which Peter and Paul founded the church in Rome, they were in fact responsible for its inception. The case is simple; if Christianity was brought to Rome from Pentecost then Peter was the man

Cranfield, C. E. B., A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, The International Critical Commentary on the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments (London; New York: T&T Clark International, 2004), p.791-2. 17 Irenaeus, Heresies. Book 3, Chapter 1.1. 18 Bruce, p. 179.

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who preached the Gospel to these early evangelists. The nature of synagogues and Jewish relations in Rome made it impossible to unite and order the church, which seems to have happened after Paul wrote Romans, or during his first incarceration there.

Conclusion As we know Paul never got around to making that visit to Rome, at least as planned. He did make it three years later in chains. Oral history tells us that eventually Paul did make that fourth missionary journey, and via Rome launched into Spain.19 In doing so Paul completed his commission from Acts 13:47; to take the Gospel to the ends of the Earth. Unfortunately no church in Spain claims to be founded by Paul, so this mission was unfruitful. Two years later Paul is imprisoned again; two years after that he is martyred. Truthfully, we dont exactly know how Christianity eventually made it to pain. We do know that the Visigoths captured this territory some years later and adopted the heretical Arian form of Christianity. In 711 AD the Moors conquered Spain and Islam became the national religion. That is not the case today however, because as we all know nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.

Bibliography Bruce, F.F. "Romans, Epistle to The." In The Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible, edited by Tenney, errill C. and ilva, ois s, 5, 181-2. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2009. Childress, D.H. Lost Cities of Atlantis, Ancient Europe & the Mediterranean: Adventures Unlimited Press, 1996. Cranfield, C. E. B. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans The International Critical Commentary on the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. London; New York: T&T Clark International, 2004.

19

Viola, p. 157.

Jeffers, James S. The Greco-Roman World of the New Testament Era : Exploring the Background of Early Christianity. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1999. Josephus, Flavius. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by Whiston, William. Hartford, CN: S.S. Scranton, 1905. Keener, Craig. The Ivp Bible Background Commentary: The New Testament. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993. Longenecker, R.N. "Paul." In The Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible, edited by Tenney, ilva, ois s, 4. Grand apids, ich.: ondervan, 2009. errill C. and

Metzger, Bruce Manning. The New Testament : Its Background, Growth, and Content. 3rd ed. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2003. Singer, Isidore and Seligsohn, M. "Tarshish." Jewish Encyclopedia (1906). http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/14254-tarshish [accessed 0/28/2012]. Towns, Elmer L. Bible Answers for Almost All Your Questions. Nashville: T. Nelson, 2003. Viola, Frank. The Untold Story of the New Testament Church. Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image Publishers, Inc., 2004. Witherington, Ben, and Hyatt, Darlene. Paul's Letter to the Romans : A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary. Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans, 2004.