Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/robertsn/rwp-ro/pro.int

Text File | 1993-03-13 | 6KB | 104 lines

                    THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
                        SPRING OF A.D. 57

                      BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION


                     INTEGRITY OF THE EPISTLE

        The genuineness of the Epistle is so generally admitted
by scholars that it is unnecessary to prove it here, for Loman,
Steck, and the Dutch scholars (Van Manen, etc.) who deny it as
Pauline are no longer taken seriously. He wrote it from Corinth
because he sent it to Rome by Phoebe of Cenchreae (#Ro 16:2|) if
chapter 16 is acknowledged to be a part of the Epistle. Chapter
16 is held by some to be really a short epistle to Ephesus
because of the long list of names in it, because of Paul's long
stay in Ephesus, because he had not yet been to Rome, and
because, in particular, Aquila and Priscilla are named (#Ro
16:3-5|) who had been with Paul in Ephesus. But they had come
from Rome before going to Corinth and there is no reason for
thinking that they did not return to Rome. It was quite possible
for Paul to have many friends in Rome whom he had met elsewhere.
People naturally drifted to Rome from all over the empire. The
old MSS. (Aleph A B C D) give chapter 16 as an integral part of
the Epistle. Marcion rejected it and chapter 15 also for reasons
of his own. Renan's theory that Romans was a circular letter like
Ephesians sent in different forms to different churches (Rome,
Ephesus, Thessalonica, etc.) has appealed to some scholars as
explaining the several doxologies in the Epistle, but they cause
no real difficulty since Paul interjected them in his other
epistles according to his moods (#2Co 1:20|, for instance). That
theory raises more problems than it solves as, for example,
Paul's remarks about going to Rome (#Ro 1:9-16|) which apply to
Rome. Lightfoot suggests the possibility that Paul added #Ro
16:25-27| some years after the original date so as to turn it
into a circular letter. But the MSS. do not support that theory
and that leaves #Ro 15:22-33 in the Epistle quite unsuitable to a
circular letter. Modern knowledge leaves the Epistle intact with
occasional variations in the MSS. on particular points as is true
of all the N.T.

                        THE TIME AND PLACE

        The place is settled if we accept #Ro 16:1|. The time of
the year is in the spring if we combine statements in the Acts
and the Epistle. He says: "I am now going to Jerusalem
ministering to the saints" (#Ro 15:25|). In #Ac 20:3| we read
that Paul spent three months in Corinth. In II Corinthians we
have a full account of the collection for the poor saints in
Jerusalem. The account of the journey from Corinth to Jerusalem
is given in #Ac 20:3-21:17|. It was in the spring between
passover at Philippi (#Ac 20:6|) and pentecost in Jerusalem
(#20:16; 21:17|). The precise year is not quite so certain, but
we may suggest A.D. 57 or 58 with reasonable confidence.

                           THE PURPOSE

        Paul tells this himself. He had long cherished a desire
to come to Rome (#Ac 19:21|) and had often made his plans to do
so (#Ro 1:13|) which were interrupted (#Ro 15:22|), but now he
definitely plans to go from Jerusalem, after taking the
contribution there (#Ro 15:26|), to Rome and then on to Spain
(#Ro 15:24,28|). Meanwhile he sends this Epistle that the Romans
may know what Paul's gospel really is (#Ro 1:15; 2:16|). He is
full of the issues raised by the Judaizing controversy as set
forth in the Epistles to Corinth and to Galatia. So in a calmer
mood and more at length he presents his conception of the
Righteousness demanded by God (#Ro 1:17|) of both Gentile (#Ro
1:18-32|) and Jew (#Ro 2:1-3:20|) and only to be obtained by
faith in Christ who by his atoning death (justification) has made
it possible (#Ro 3:21-5:21|). This new life of faith in Christ
should lead to holiness of life (sanctification, chapters #Ro
6-8|). This is Paul's gospel and the remaining chapters deal with
corollaries growing out of the doctrine of grace as applied to
practical matters. It is a cause for gratitude that Paul did
write out so full a statement of his message. He had a message
for the whole world and was anxious to win the Roman Empire to
Christ. It was important that he go to Rome for it was the centre
of the world's life. Nowhere does Paul's Christian statesmanship
show to better advantage than in this greatest of his Epistles.
It is not a book of formal theology though Paul is the greatest
of theologians. Here Paul is seen in the plenitude of his powers
with all the wealth of his knowledge of Christ and his rich
experience in mission work. The church in Rome is plainly
composed of both Jews and Greeks, though who started the work
there we have no way of knowing. Paul's ambition was to preach
where no one else had been (#Ro 15:20|), but he has no hesitation
in going on to Rome.

                           COMMENTARIES

No one of Paul's Epistles has more helpful modern commentaries on
it than this one, such as those by Barth (1919), Beet (9th ed.,
1901), Cook (1930), Denney (1901), Feine (1903), Garvie (1901),
Gifford (1881), Godet (Tr., 1883), Gore (Expos.), Grey (1910),
Griffith-Thomas (1913), Hodge (1856), Hort (Intr., 1895), Jowett
(3rd ed., 1894), Julicher (2 Aufl., 1907), Kuhl (1913), Lagrange
(1916), Lard (1875), Liddon (Anal., 1893), Lietzmann (2 Aufl.,
1919), Lightfoot (chapters 1-7, 1895), Luetgert (1913), Monk
(1893), Plummer, Richter (1908), Sanday and Headlam (1895), Shedd
(1893), Stifler (1897), Vaughan (1890), Weiss, B. (Meyer Komm., g
Aufl., 1899), Westcott, F. B. (1913), Zahn (1910).