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Book of Romans

Chapters

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Author

Author and Date
The writer of this letter was the apostle Paul (see and note). No voice from the early church was ever raised against his authorship. The letter contains a number of historical references that agree with known facts of Paul's life. The doctrinal content of the book is typical of Paul, which is evident from a comparison with other letters he wrote.

Date and Place of Writing

The book was probably written in the early spring of a.d. 57. Very likely Paul was on his third missionary journey, ready to return to Jerusalem with the offering from the mission churches for poverty-stricken believers in Jerusalem (see ). In it is suggested that Paul had already received contributions from the churches of Macedonia and Achaia, so he either was at Corinth or had already been there. Since he had not yet been at Corinth (on his third missionary journey) when he wrote 1 Corinthians (cf. ) and the collection issue had still not been resolved when he wrote 2 Corinthians (), the writing of Romans must follow that of 1,2 Corinthians (dated c. 55).

The most likely place of writing is either Corinth or Cenchrea (about six miles away) because of references to Phoebe of Cenchrea (see )and to Gaius, Paul's host (see ), who was probably a Corinthian (see ). Erastus (see ) may also have been a Corinthian (see ).

Major Theme

Theme and Purpose
Paul's primary theme in Romans is the basic gospel, God's plan of salvation and righteousness for all humankind, Jew and Gentile alike (see ). Although justification by faith has been suggested by some as the theme, it would seem that a broader theme states the message of the book more adequately. "Righteousness from God" () includes justification by faith, but it also embraces such related ideas as guilt, sanctification and security.

Purpose

Paul's purposes for writing this letter were varied:

    1. He wrote to prepare the way for his coming visit to Rome and his proposed mission to Spain (; ).
    2. He wrote to present the basic system of salvation to a church that had not received the teaching of an apostle before.
    3. He sought to explain the relationship between Jew and Gentile in God's overall plan of redemption. The Jewish Christians were being rejected by the larger Gentile group in the church (see and note) because the Jewish believers still felt constrained to observe dietary laws and sacred days ().
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