THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

Transcription

1 THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS 1. Who wrote the Letter to the Romans 1.1. What does Rom 1:1 indicate about the author of the Letter to the Romans? 1.2. Unlike his other letters, Paul includes a lengthy introduction of himself as an apostle. After the typical identification of himself as Paul...called to be an apostle (1:1), he sets forth in nuce the contents of the gospel that he is called to proclaim (1:2-4). He then adds that it was through Christ that we received grace and apostleship for the purpose of the obedience of faith among all the gentiles. (The use of the first person plural [ we ] no doubt refers to Paul and his associates.) By the phrase grace and apostleship, Paul probably means the grace of apostleship, so that he understands his call to be an apostle as a bestowal of grace, insofar as it is an undeserved privilege. He says that his particular call as an apostle is to the gentiles, and his ultimate goal in relation to them is their obedience of faith. This phrase may mean faith s obedience, the implication being that obedience belongs to faith as its natural and expected possession or correlation, or it may mean the obedience originating in faith, so that obedience is inseparably tied to faith as its basis and faith inevitably produces obedience. As will become evident, most likely, Paul goes into such detail about his understanding of his apostleship because his intended readers are not personally acquainted with him According to Rom 16:22, who was Paul s amanuensis for the Letter to the Romans? The identity of this Tertius is otherwise unknown, for this is the only time his name occurs in the New Testament. His exact contribution to the letter is also unknown. It is possible that Paul dictated the entire letter to him, but it also possible that Tertius had a more creative role in its composition. Tertius wrote a personal greeting to the readers, so that presumably he knew some of them at least.

2 Romans Since Paul indicates that she is traveling to Rome and he provides her with an introduction in the Letter to the Romans (Rom 16:1-2), it is possible that Phoebe carried the letter to its intended destination. 2. To whom was the Letter to the Romans written? 2.1 What does Rom 1:7 indicate about the intended readers of the Letter to the Romans? 2.2. What Paul says in Rom 1:13 Many times I have wanted to come to you but was prevented implies that he has never been to Rome as an apostle at least. (The first time that Paul went to Rome as an apostle was as a prisoner.) If he has not been to Rome at the time of writing of his letter, Paul obviously could not have founded the church in Rome. This means that the church in Rome has come into existence independently of his apostolic work, so that he is not its founder. In later tradition, Peter is associated with the Roman church, but there is no evidence that Peter founded the church. How the Roman church began is a historical mystery. What evidence does exist, however, suggests that it did not have an apostolic founder What might Paul s statement of his apostolic policy in Rom 15:20 and 2 Cor 10:15-16 imply about the origin of the Roman church?

3 244 Introducing the New Testament That the church in Rome had no apostolic foundation is implied by the fact that Paul says nothing in his Letter to the Romans about the founder of the church. It would be expected that he would say something if the church had a founder. Rather, what Paul says in Rom 1:6, implies that he sees the church in Rome as following under his apostolic jurisdiction insofar as he is the apostle to the gentiles What relevance may the fact that there were Jews and proselytes from Rome present on the Day of Pentecost have in explaining the origin of the Roman church (Acts 2:10)? 2.3. There was a sizable population of Jews living in Rome in the first century. A little more than a century earlier, Pompey took many Jewish prisoners to Rome and resettled them there (Josephus, Ant ; War ; Appian, Syr. 51; Mithr. 117; see Philo, Leg. ad. Gaium ); no doubt, many of their descendants formed the nucleus of the Jewish population of the city in Paul s day. Not surprisingly, there were several synagogues in Rome. Cicero indicates that by the middle of the first century BCE, there were many Jews (multitudo Iudaeorum) in Rome, some of whom were citizens and elected to the popular assemblies (Pro Flacc. 28/66-69); Cicero himself saw the great number of Jews in Rome as a potential threat to Roman interests. (In that speech, he refers to the Jews barbarian superstition [barbara superstitio].) Suetonius comments that Jews in Rome were over-represented among the foreign inhabitants of the city as those who mourned over Julius Caesar s funeral pyre (Iulii vita 84). In the year 4, more than 8,000 Jews in Rome joined a delegation of fifty from Jerusalem sent to oppose the installation of Archaleus, Herod s son (Ant ); later, the emperor Tiberius drafted some 4,000 Jews from Rome into military service (Ant ). These two large numbers indicate that the Jewish population of Rome must have been significant. Dio Cassius explains that Jews in Rome, in spite of official actions taken against them, were able to gain enough influence among the ruling class as to find protection for their religious beliefs and practices (37.17). He also reports that Claudius in 41, noticing that their number had grown to a dangerous level, did not expel them the Jews, but did forbid them from meeting together (Dio Cassius, ). Philo claims that in the time of Augustus that Jews is Rome were so numerous that they inhabited the great section of Rome accross the Tiber (Leg. ad. Gaium ). From funerary inscriptions found in the catacombs of Rome, it is clear that Jews in the city were divided into thirteen synagogues, by which is meant thirteen groups or congregations; each of these was governed by a council of elders (gerousia), the leader of which was called the ruler of the council of elders (gerousiarchês) (CII l.lvi-ci).

4 Romans 245 It seems that some of the many Jews in Rome came to believe in Jesus as the Christ. There is indirect evidence of this from Suetonius, the Roman historian. He records that the emperor Claudius (41-54) expelled all Jews from Rome. According to the fifth-century Christian historian Orosius, who quotes from Suetonius text, the expulsion took place in Claudius ninth regnal year (Jan. 25, 49 to Jan 24, 50) (Hist. adv. pag ). (Orosius claims Josephus as his source, but Josephus nowhere mentions the expulsion.) What is interesting is the reason that Suetonius provides for this extreme official action. He writes, He expelled the Jews at Rome because they caused continuous disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus (impulsore Chresto) (Claudius, 25.4). (This expulsion of the Jews from Rome is referred to in Acts 18:1-3.) It is probable that by Chrestus is meant Christus, so that what Suetonius describes is a very public dispute among the Jews in Rome over whether Jesus was the Christ. (Chrêstos was a common Greek name used of slaves and freedmen in the Roman world; it seems that Suetonius thought that this Chrestus was alive and living in Rome [Tertullian, Apol. 3.5; Ad. nat. 1.3; Lactantius, Inst ].) If so, then this incident in the reign of Claudius implies that there were Jewish Christians in Rome as early as the mid-40 s, since it would take some time for the dispute to escalate to the point where it was necessary for Claudius to expel Jews from the city. (It is arguable that Claudius did not expel every Jew from Rome; rather, it may only have been those Jews directly involved in the dispute over Christ, which would have included many believing Jews.) Moreover, the fact that this religious dispute among the Jews must have been considerable in order for Claudius to take notice of it and take such a drastic action as expelling all Jews from Rome implies that there must have a significant number of Jews who believed that Jesus was the Christ in Rome at that time. (See Acts 13:50; 14:19; 17:5 for other examples of Jewish resistance to the good news spilling over into the pubic domain) From what Paul says in various places in his letter, it is clear from the Letter to the Romans that the church at Rome was composed of both Jews and gentiles; many of the gentile converts may have had a previous association with one the many Jewish synagogues in Rome. In Rom 9-11, Paul instructs the gentiles not to become arrogant towards the Jews because of their acceptance by God and the temporary rejection of Israel; Paul s intention is to promote good relations between Jewish and gentile believers by discouraging undue conceit (see Rom 11:13: I am talking to you gentiles ). Similarly, in Rom 14, in the matter of eating ritually unclean meat, he warns the strong, which includes all gentile believers, though not exclusively, not to despise the weak, which includes some Jews. He then exhorts both groups in Rom 15:7 to accept one another, and explains that Christ became a servant of the circumcised in order that gentiles may glorify God because of his mercy (Rom 15:8-9). The realization of this truth will serve to unify Jews and gentiles. Furthermore, of those in the list to whom Paul sends greetings in Rom 16, Aquila is a Jew (Acts 18:2), as well as Andronicus, Junias and Herodion, whom Paul calls his kinsmen (suggeneis). In addition, the Maria mentioned in 16:6 is probably a Jew since her name is Jewish. The rest of the people listed, however, are probably gentiles. (Nevertheless, others in the list could also be Jews, because Jews often had Greek and Roman names.) Doubtless, the first believers in Rome were Jews, who somehow heard the gospel and believed; later gentiles believed and were assimilated into the church at Rome in great numbers. What needs to be determined in order to understand Paul s purpose in writing is whether, at the time that he writes his letter, the church in Rome had a majority of Jews or gentiles. The expulsion of all Jews from Rome by Claudius, including Jewish Christians, certainly would have

5 246 Introducing the New Testament had a negative impact on the relative number of Jews relative to gentiles in the Roman church, but his death in 54 probably resulted in the rescinding of this edict, so that Roman Jews were free to return to the city. (Priscilla and Aquila, it seems, took advantage of this change of policy towards Jews and returned to Rome [see Rom 16:3].) What can be inferred about the composition of the church in Rome from the following passages? Rom 1: Rom 1: Rom 6:19

6 Romans Rom 9:3-4; 10:1-2; 11:28, Taking all the evidence into consideration, what do you conclude about the ethnic composition of the church in Rome? 2.5. It may seem strange that Paul used Greek to write a letter to the Roman church, since its membership no doubt consisted of Latin-speaking gentiles and Jews. This is evidence, however, of how widespread Greek was as the lingua franca of the Mediterranean world (see Cicero, Pro Archia 23; Juvenal, Satire ).

7 248 Introducing the New Testament 3. When was the Letter to the Romans written? 3.1. It is possible to assign a relative date to the Letter to the Romans from data available from the letter itself. There are clues in the letter concerning when, relative to his apostolic career, Paul wrote his letter Rom 15:19, In Rom 15:19, Paul says that he has preached the gospel from Jerusalem to Illyricum, a Roman province northwest of Macedonia. Since we have no record of his going to Illyricum, Paul could be referring to the regions in Macedonia inhabited by people of the Illyricum race. In any case, Paul must be writing during the second or third missionary journey, not the first, since he did not visit Macedonia during his first missionary journey. What Paul writes in Rom 15:23-24, however, allows one to delimit further the date of the composition of the letter. Paul says that it is his intention soon to go to Spain because he sees his evangelistic work in the eastern Mediterranean as complete: Now there is no more place for me to work in these regions, and since I have been desirous for many years of coming to you, I plan to come when I go to Spain. The fact that Paul plans to move his base of operation from Antioch to the west, presumably Rome, implies that he is writing after or near the end of his third missionary journey, because he apparently did not consider shifting his evangelistic focus to the western Mediterranean any sooner than that. Paul must also have written before his arrest in Jerusalem and subsequent imprisonment, which compelled Paul to change his plans about going to Spain immediately after his visit to Jerusalem to deliver the gift of money collected from the churches that he founded Rom 15:25-26 (1 Cor 16:1-4; 2 Cor 8-9) The relative date of Paul s composition of his Letter to the Romans can be further narrowed down based on what Paul writes about his collection project. He writes that he is on his way to Jerusalem with a collection for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem from the churches in Macedonia and Achaia (Rom 15:26). The collection that Paul describes in his letter as having been completed, but not yet delivered, is probably the same one described as not yet completed in 1 Cor 16:1-4 and 2 Cor 8-9. If so, then the church in Corinth must be included among the churches from Macedonia and Achaia. It should also be noted that what Paul writes in 1 Cor 16:3-4 indicates that he has not yet decided to accompany those chosen from the Corinthian church to convey the money collected to Jerusalem ( and if it is fitting for me to go also, they will go with me ). By contrast, in Rom 15:25 he says that he plans to lead the delegation that goes to Jerusalem with the money. What is implied about when Paul wrote his letter based on what he says about the collection project in Rom 15:25-26 and his planned visit to Jerusalem to deliver the money?

8 Romans From all the above data and a knowledge of Pauline chronology, assign an absolute date or a range of dates for the composition of the Letter to the Romans. (Remember that the dating the letter must fall between the two known dates proximate to this event: the founding of the church at Corinth between 50 and 52 and Paul s arrest in Jerusalem between 55 and 58.) 3.3. Paul wrote his letter during what is known as the five-year period of Nero (Neronis quinquennium), the first five years of Nero s reign as emperor, between 54 and 59 (Aurelius, Caesares 5, epit. 12). This period in Roman history was considered the best period of the Roman Empire since the time of Augustus, unlike the latter part of Nero s reign (when the church was persecuted). This may explain why Paul makes no reference to any problems between the Roman believers and the civil authorities. If fact, he enthusiastically recommends that they submit themselves fully to every ruling authority (13:1). 4. Where was the Letter to the Romans written? 4.1. From Acts 20:1-6, 1 Cor 16:6; Rom 16:1 determine the likely place of the composition of the Letter to the Romans. (Acts 20:1-6 describes events during the last part of Paul s third missionary journey, after he left Ephesus.)

9 250 Introducing the New Testament 4.2. That Paul was in Corinth when he wrote his Letter to the Romans is confirmed by two of the people from whom he sends greeting to the church in Rome. In Rom 16:23, Paul sends a greeting from Gaius, identified as the one who shows hospitality to me and the whole church. This Gaius is no doubt the same man mentioned in 1 Cor 1:14, whom Paul baptized on his first visit to Corinth. In addition, Paul sends a greeting from Erastus, identified as the director of public works (oikonomos) of the city. He is connected to Corinth in 2 Tim 4:20: Erastus remained at Corinth. This man may be the same Erastus of the so-called Erastus inscription found at Corinth Paul was not alone in Corinth when he wrote his letter, but was in the company of Timothy, Lucius, Jason and Sosipater (Sopater), not to mention his amanuensis, Tertius, who sent their greetings to the Romans (Rom 16:21-22; see Acts 20:4; 17:6). 5. What is the Letter to the Romans? 5.1. The Letter to the Romans more than any of Paul s other letters was intended as a compendium of Paul s teaching; although he does not touch upon every possible topic, it seems that Paul attempts to set out his understanding of Jesus death and resurrection and the implications of these. In so doing, he dealt with topics such as the nature of sin (Jew and Gentile), the means of being made righteous, the Law, election, and eschatology Outline of the Letter to the Romans A. 1:1-17: This represents the introduction of the letter. 1. 1:1-7: This is the salutation of the letter. 2. 1:8-17: Paul offers a thanksgiving to God on behalf of the Roman Christians, and tells them that he wants to visit them in order to impart some spiritual gift. Paul also takes the opportunity to comment on the nature of the gospel and his role as a preacher of the gospel. B. 1:18-15:33: This represents the main body of the letter

10 Romans :18-3:20: In this section, Paul establishes the universal need of a means of being made righteous apart from the Law, by grace through faith. a. 1:18-32: Paul says that gentiles know God from what God has made, but have suppressed the truth in unrighteousness, having chosen to be unrighteous. b. 2:1-16: Paul speaks in general terms about the coming judgment of all human beings on the basis of works. Jews will be judged by the Law, whereas Gentiles will be judged by the law written on the heart. c. 2:17-3:8: Paul concedes that the Jews have been privileged by being given the Law, but says that Jews who break the law will be condemned along with Gentiles. The true Jew is the one circumcised of heart, not of the flesh. Paul rebuts the charge that he advocates sin, since supposedly the more sin there is when God judges, the more glory God receives. d. 3:9-20: Paul concludes by saying that both Jew and Gentile stand condemned before God. In so doing he cites a catena of Old Testament texts to prove his point. 2. 3:21-5:21: In this section, Paul explains the nature of God s saving work and humanity s appropriation of it. a. 3:21-31: Paul says that God has provided a means of being declared righteous that comes apart from the law, the sacrificial death of Jesus, which is appropriated by faith. Thus, there are no grounds for boasting in works. b. 4:1-25: Paul proves that being declared righteous is by grace through faith by citing the example of Abraham, who believed, was declared righteous because of his faith and only then was given the command to circumcise. Abraham is intended to serve as a paradigm for believers. c. 5:1-21: Paul explains that the result of the sacrificial death of Christ is peace with God and salvation from the coming wrath. Paul contrasts Adam and Christ as two representatives of humanity: whereas sin and death entered the world through Adam resulting in condemnation of all human beings, being declared righteous, the gift of God s grace, came through the second Adam, Christ, and passes to all who believe. 3. 6:1-8:39: In this section, Paul writes about the new life in Christ, the implications of being declared righteous by grace for living. a. 6:1-23: In answering to the charge that his teaching on being declared righteous by grace will encourage believers to sin, Paul explains that those who are baptized into Jesus Christ, into his death, have died to sin. Believers are no longer slaves to sin, but now slaves to righteousness. b. 7:1-6: Paul draws the conclusion that the believer is released from the Law, having died to it. To this end, he uses the analogy of marriage: in the same way that a woman is legally free from her marriage vow when her husband dies, so the believer is free from the Law, having died to it.

11 252 Introducing the New Testament The believer is free now to serve God in the new way by the Spirit and not in the old way of the letter. c. 7:7-25: Paul discusses the nature of Israel s life under the Law. The person under the Law agrees that the Law is good and is intended to bring life, but has no power to do what the Law requires. Deliverance from this comes through Jesus Christ. d. 8:1-39: Paul explains that those in the Spirit do not live according to the flesh, the sinful nature. The Spirit and the flesh are two mutually exclusive modes of being. 4. 9:11-11:36: In this section, Paul discusses the place of Israel in the working out of God s plan of salvation. a. 9:1-29: Paul takes up the problem and Israel s unbelief and consequent rejection. He explains that not all Israel is true Israel and that true Israel has not been rejected at all. He also affirms God s prerogative to choose or reject whomever he will. b. 9:30-10:21: Paul says that the cause of Israel s rejection was its lack of recognition of the possibility of righteousness that comes apart from the Law. They stumbled over the stone of stumbling. Interpreting Deut 30:12-13, Paul says that the righteousness by faith is available to all who will believe the Christian proclamation. Israel, however, has refused to believe. c. 11:1-36: Paul says that God has engrafted believing Gentiles into the remnant of believing Jews. He warns his Gentiles readers not to become arrogant about this, because God can just as easily remove the engrafted branches. Paul says that the rejection of Israel is only temporary, and holds out the promise of future restoration for the nation, citing Isa 59:20-21 and Isa 27:9 as scriptural proof of this :1-15:33: Based on what he has said previously, Paul exhorts his readers morally, drawing out practical implications. a. 12:1-21: Paul gives miscellaneous exhortations, including to present bodies as living sacrifices and to make use of spiritual gifts. b. 13:1-14: Paul explains that it is the believer s duty to submit to all civil authorities, for God has established these. c. 14:1-15:13: Paul deals with the problem of the conflict between Jews and Gentiles in the Roman church over the observance and food laws and the festival calendar. Paul advocates that the strong act out of love and not pressure the weak to sin by acting in unbelief. He warns that all believers must stand before the judgment seat of God :14-33: Paul discusses his present situation and his future plans. He hopes to come to Rome and from there go to Spain in order to preach the gospel.

12 Romans 253 C. 16: This represents the conclusion of the letter. Paul commends Phoebe to the church, sends greetings, warns them against certain false teachers and concludes with a doxology Some scholars hold that Rom 16 is not original to the letter, which they claim ended at Rom 15:33. The evidence marshaled for this position, however, is not conclusive The doxology found in Rom 16:25-27 is suspected of not being original to Paul s Letter to the Romans. Not only does it appear in different positions in different manuscripts, but it is non- Pauline in its vocabulary and style. Yet it is quite possible that Paul appended a doxology to his letter and that in the transmission of the text of the Letter to the Romans it was displaced from its original position Many scholars hold that Rom 16:1-23, which for the most part is a list of greeting sent to and greeting sent from, is not original to the Letter to the Romans, but is a detached note originally sent to the church at Ephesus that later came to be appended to the wrong letter. A. It is pointed out that, if Paul has not visited the Roman church at the time of the composition of the Letter to the Romans, he should not have known so many of the Roman believers, those to whom he sends greeting in Rom 16. Until Rom 16, Paul betrays no personal, firsthand knowledge of the Romans, except perhaps for the issue over eating ritually unclean meat (Rom 14-15), but is writing as a stranger to strangers. But for Paul to know so many of his readers would make sense if Rom 16 were actually the ending of a lost letter to the Ephesians, because, at the time of writing, Paul had twice visited Ephesus, spending three years in the city during his second sojourn there. Yet it is possible that Paul knew individual members of the Roman church, having met them on their travels outside of Italy; this is certainly the case with Priscilla (Prisca) and Aquila. B. Paul sends greetings to Priscilla (Prisca) and Aquila (Rom 16:3), and refers to the church that meets in their house (Rom 16:5). Paul lived and worked with this couple while in Ephesus (Acts 18:3; 1 Cor 16:19). There is such a short interval of time between Paul s departure from Ephesus, at which time, it seems, Priscilla and Aquila are still in the city (1 Cor 16:19), and his sending of his Letter to the Romans that its seems improbable that Priscilla and Aquila could have left Ephesus, gone to Rome and have a church meeting in their house in the city, as they had in Ephesus. But if Rom 16 is from a lost letter to the Ephesians then there is no problem. It is not impossible, however, that, after their exile in Ephesus, Priscilla and Aquila did, in fact, return to Rome, where they resumed their lives. C. Paul sends a greeting to a certain Epaenetus, who is said to be the first convert in Asia (16:5). This could be taken to mean that Epaenetus was in the Roman province of Asia, where Ephesus was situated. Yet Paul could easily have identified Epaenetus as the first convert in Asia for the benefit of the Roman believers among whom Epaenetus now lived. D. Paul includes a commendation of Phoebe in Rom 16:1-2. It seems more probable that he would send such a commendation to a church that he knew and over which he exercised authority, such as the church at Ephesus, rather than the Roman church, with which Paul had no contact

13 254 Introducing the New Testament and with which he had little influence at the time of writing. Nevertheless, Paul could have used whatever influence he did have among the Roman believers as the apostle to the gentiles for the benefit of Phoebe, as opposed to saying nothing on her behalf. E. The warning included in Rom 16:17-19 seems out of place in light of the rest of the letter, because Paul has said nothing of the potential danger of false teachers previously. Until Rom 16:17-19, the only potential source of disunity concerns the issue of eating meat that may have been sacrificed to idols (Rom 14-15). Yet such a warning would fit an Ephesian destination for the letter, because false teachers were lurking in the shadows there (see 1 Cor 16:8-9; Acts 20:29-30; Rev 2:2-3). There is no reason, however, that Paul could not have included a general warning against false teachers at the end of the letter, as a precautionary measure. F. Rom 15 ends with what could be construed as a concluding benediction: May the God of peace be with you all, Amen. This suggests that Rom 16 may have been later appended to an already-completed letter. If so, however, Rom 15:23 would be an untypical ending of a Pauline letter, for Paul usually includes a longer conclusion to his letters. 6. Why was the Letter to the Romans written? In Rom 15:15-16, he makes his only explicit statement about why he wrote his letter: But I have written very boldly to you on some points so as to remind you of them again, because of the grace that was given me from God, to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the gentiles, ministering as a priest the gospel of God, in order that my offering of the gentiles may become acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. This statement is, however, somewhat vague; all that one can conclude is that Paul s general purpose in writing was to instruct the Roman believers on some points of doctrine that he thought that they already knew. He did so presumably because he believed that he had a responsibility for the church in Rome since it was predominantly gentile and he was the apostle to the gentiles. It is probably impossible to know with certainty the particular reasons that Paul wrote his letter to the church in Rome, a church that he did not establish. There are, however, a few clues in the letter itself. What may the following passages indicate about Paul s purposes in writing his Letter to the Romans? 6.1. Rom 1:10-15

14 Romans Rom 15: Rom 1:16; 3:8, 31; 6:1, 15; 7:7, 13; 9:1-4

15 256 Introducing the New Testament 6.4. Rom 15: Rom 14