The Background of the Roman Epistle

The Book of Romans “stands first among the epistles because it is the longest and because it has always been considered the most significant apostolic letter.”1 The letter claims to “be written by Paul the apostle – or, we might more accurately say, composed by Paul, who uses Tertius as his 'amanuensis', or scribe, to 'write down' what Paul dictates to him...His reference to Cenchrea in 16:1 suggests he is staying in Corinth at the time, for Cenchrea was the seaport next to Corinth.”2 Looking at references such as these it is “clear that Paul writes Romans while in Corinth during the third missionary journey. This is probably in A.D. 57, give or take a year.”3

The recipients of the letters is where the discussion becomes tougher to discuss, as Acts does not mention the founding of the church. Luke does mention, however, that there were Jews from Rome visiting Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2:10-11. We “We may surmise that some of them were among the three thousand converted that day and they brought their new belief in Jesus as Messiah back with them to Rome. So the church in Rome, as the church father Ambrosiaster later claimed, probably had its origins in the synagogue.”4

The letter was, of course, hand written, and would have had to be hand carried to Rome. This was done “presumably by his associate Phoebe. For obvious reasons, therefore, it was far preferable to put the letter into the hands of someone the sender knew and trusted. So it is not surprising to find clear indications in his letters that Paul used a number of his associates, including Phoebe, in this way.”5 This would have been delivered to one of Paul's associates in Rome, and “Priscilla and Aquila were among those who had a church in their home in Rome.”6

The circumstances of the church in Rome were in a bit of an upheaval, due to an edict passed by Emperor Claudius. In “A.D. 49 Emperor Claudius issued an edict that required all Jews to leave Rome. Jewish-Christians would have been included. Therefore, the church in room became virtually 100 percent Gentile almost overnight. By the time Paul writes Romans, Jews were allowed back in to the city. But they came back to a church dominated by Gentiles.”7 So the church in Rome was busy finding out what the future would hold with these two groups again merging into one church.

There are three main theories focusing on Paul's circumstances as to why he wrote Romans: 1) That Romans is a kind of summary of Paul's theological beliefs that he draws up during his hiatus in missionary work while at Corinth. 2) Paul uses Roman's as almost a practice speech for his report that he plans on delivering to the church in Jerusalem. 3) Paul's ultimate destination was Spain, and he hoped, among other things, to get the Romans to hep him with that mission.8 There are several main reasons for writing Romans: “The past battles to define and defend the gospel, the coming crisis in Jerusalem, the need to secure a logistical base for his outreach in Spain, the importance of unifying the Roman Christians around a common vision of the gospel-all these specific purposes conspire to lead Paul to rehearse his understanding of the gospel.”9

The Book of Romans is clearly an important piece of the New Testament. It's positioning after the book of Acts, but before the rest of the epistles, is designed to form a framework for all of the other works to build off of. Even though it was Paul's ultimate desire to head on to Spain, Rome would end up ultimately being a crucial place for Paul to spread the Gospel.



BIBLIOGRAPHY

Chapple, Allan, "Getting Romans to the right Romans: Phoebe and the delivery of Paul's letter." Tyndale Bulletin 62, no. 2, 2011.

Moo, Douglas J. Romans. The NIV Application Commentary. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Publishing House, 2000.

Towns, Elmer L., and Ben Gutierrez, eds. The Essence of the New Testament: a Survey / Elmer Towns,

Ben Gutierrez, Editors. Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2012.


1 Elmer L. Towns and Ben Gutierrez, eds., The Essence of the New Testament: a Survey / Elmer L. Towns, Ben Gutierrez, Editors. (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2012), 133.


2 Douglas J. Moo, Romans, The Niv Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, Mich.: ZondervanPublishingHouse, 2000), 17.


3 Ibid., 17.


4 Ibid., 17.


5 Allan Chapple, "Getting Romans to the right Romans: Phoebe and the delivery of Paul's letter." Tyndale Bulletin 62, no. 2 (2011), 197.


6 Elmer L. Towns and Ben Gutierrez, eds., The Essence of the New Testament: a Survey / Elmer L. Towns, Ben Gutierrez, Editors. (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2012), 132.


7 Douglas J. Moo, Romans, The Niv Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, Mich.: ZondervanPublishingHouse, 2000), 18.


8 Ibid., 21-22.




9 Ibid., 23.