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ROMANS, EPISTLE TO THE

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 583 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ROMANS, See also:EPISTLE TO THE . In this See also:book of the New Testament, the apostle See also:Paul begins, after a brief pregnant introduction (i. 1—7), by explaining that he had hitherto been prevented from carrying out his cherished project of visiting the See also:church of See also:Rome, whose faith was See also:world-wide (i. 8 f.). Mean-while, he outlines the See also:gospel which he preached as an See also:exhibition of See also:God's righteousness, etc lrla'rEWS ei 1rtarcv. This forms the leading theme of the epistle. Both See also:Gentile (i. 18-32) and See also:Jew (ii. 1, iii. 20)1 alike have missed this righteousness up till now, but the See also:revelation of God in Jesus See also:Christ (iii. 21–31) had brought the divine boon within reach of all. The See also:condition of its reception was not,See also:nationality but faith.

Hence, as Paul stops for a moment to argue (iv. 1-25), the Jew cannot claim any preference; See also:

Abraham himself, before See also:circumcision and the See also:law came into force, was a See also:man of faith, and consequently all believers (not all legal See also:Jews, iv. 16) are true descendants of Abraham.' Returning to the blissful results of this OiKatoauvm revealed in Jesus Christ (v. I-11), Paul proceeds to contrast these with the sombre effects produced in humanity by the fall of See also:Adam. See also:Life had now triumphed over See also:death, See also:grace over See also:sin (v. 12 f.). But the super-session of the law, which was See also:bound up with the regime of sin and death, does not mean the relaxation of the moral See also:bond. On the contrary (vi. t f.), the reception of God's grace and spirit implies the death of the believing man to sin. The struggle of the soul' between the thwarting See also:power of sin and the ethical demands of the law (vii. i f.) cannot. be ended happily See also:save by the interposition of Jesus Christ, whose Spirit guarantees a See also:sound life in this world and life eternal in the world to come (viii. 12 f.). The splendid and unfettered' prospects of faith, which thus break on the apostle's See also:vision, only serve to deepen his See also:distress in one direction.' As a theologian and as a patriot, he is confronted with the problem of See also:Israel's collective repudiation of a boon to which their own See also:history, as he read it, clearly pointed. Reverting to the thought of ii.

17 f. and iv. 1, Paul now essays, in ix.–xi., to show how this unbelief of Israel is to be reconciled with the See also:

justice and the promises of God. He begins by showing, as in Gal'. iv. 7 f. (cf. Rom. ii. 28–29), that See also:mere See also:physical descent could not entitle a Jew to the promises. Besides (ix. 1 29), no Jew has the right to See also:challenge God's See also:sovereign freedom. If God determines to extend the promise of faith to the Gentiles, who shall accuse Him of injustice? The rejection of the Jews is their own See also:fault, due .to their obstinacy and legalism (ix. 30–x.

21). Finally, Paul tries to see this fact of Israel's unbelief in the See also:

light of a wide religious See also:philosophy of history ; it (xi. 1–io) cannot be anything but a temporary and partial (xi. 11–24)6 phase; the future will clear up the See also:present; the final 1 On iii. cf. G. W. See also:Matthias's Exegetischer Versuch (See also:Cassel, 1857). 2 " Paul here unconsciously changes the conception of law. By introducing the example of Abraham he shows that the book of the law contains the See also:doctrine of See also:justification by faith, and through the latter, therefore, is not made of none effect. This See also:proof rests, objectively regarded, on a See also:fallacy; for the law, of which the validity is threatened by the doctrine of justification, is that See also:part of the book of the law which demands the observance of all commands, not that which relates anything about Abraham. But this See also:error of thought would be easily concealed from a mind with the rabbinical training of Paul's" (Schmiedel, in Hibbert See also:Journal, 1902, pp. 548—549) ' Cf.

See also:

Engel's exhaustive monograph, Der Kampf um Romer vii. (1902), and, for the ideas of i.–viii., Du Bose's The Gospel accbrding to St Paul (1907), and Titius, Der Paulinismus (1900), pp. 159 ff. ' The word all, as See also:Matthew See also:Arnold observes (St Paul and Protestantism, ch. i.), is " in some sense the governing word of the Epistle to the Romans." As arranged in the canonical edition, ix.–xi. are closely interwoven with i.–viii., and xi. 32-36 concludes not simply ix.–xi. but i.–xi. (cf. Buhl in Studien and Kritiken, 1887, 295–32. Certainly what Paul has in mind throughout the epistle is not a Judaizing tendency among the Jewish Christians at Rome, but the See also:general and perplexing question of Judaism in relation to the new faith. Cf. Hoennicke's Das Judenchristentum (1908), pp. 16o f. 6 In this passage Paul has generally been held to have erredresult will be the inclusion of all Israel in the heritage of the messianic See also:kingdom of Christ.

The, prospect of this consummation stirs him to an outburst of See also:

adoration, with which the whole See also:section ends (xi. 33–36)•' Applying the thought of God's See also:mercy to the obligations of believing men (xii. 1–2), Paul proceeds now to See also:sketch, the ethical duties of Christians in the church (xii. 3-21), in society, and in the vtate (xiii. 1-7); love is the supreme law (xiii. 8-1o), and the nearness of the end the supreme See also:motive to morality (xiii. 11–14). These considerations are still before Paul's mind, as he descends from general counsels to a See also:special problem of See also:practical See also:ethics, raised by the varying attitude of Christians at Rome towards See also:food offered to idols (xiv. i f.). After laying down the principle of individual responsibility, he appeals for charity and mutual See also:consideration (xiv. 13–xv. 6), and for See also:Christian, forbearance.' Finally, he exhorts all, Gentile and Jewish Christians alike (xv. 8–13), to unite in thanksgiving for God's mercy to them in Christ.

In 'a brief See also:

epilogue, the apostle justifies himself for having thus addressed the See also:Roman Christians. He alleges (xv. 14 f.) his apostolic vocation and informs them of his future movements. With an See also:appeal for their prayers and a brief See also:benediction, the epistle then closes (xv. 30-33). It ends as it began (i. 8 f.) with the apostle's See also:hope and See also:plan of visiting Rome on a subsequent missionary tour' Rom. xvi. contains a See also:separate See also:note (1-23), together with a See also:doxology (25—27). The former came from Paul's See also:pen, but it did not belong originally to this epistle, In all likelihood it is a See also:letter of See also:Commendation for crl probleblems. See also:Phoebe ii which includes vers. 1-23 (so e.g. See also:Weizsacker, See also:McGiffert and Pincher), though most break it off at ver. 2o (so See also:Eichhorn, See also:Ewald, Schulz, See also:Renan, See also:Weiss, See also:Lipsius, von See also:Soden, &c.), while others do not begin it Until ver.

3 (so e.g. Ewald, Scharer, See also:

Reuss and Mangold: Der Ronierbrief, pp. 136 f.). Vers. 21—23 might indeed follow xv. 33, but it, is not, Paul's way to add See also:salutations after a final See also:Amen, and the passage connects as well with xvi. 20, though it may have lain originally (Pincher) between, 16 and 17. The See also:main reasons 12 for conjecturing that this section was addressed separately, not to Rome but to a See also:city like See also:Ephesus, See also:lie in its contents. Paul was as yet a stranger to Rome, and it is extremely difficult to suppose that he already knew so many individuals there. The earlier See also:tone of Romans shows that he was See also:writing as a See also:comparative stranger to strangers. Any touches of familiarity with the See also:local circumstances (as in xiv.—xv.) are no more than might have percolated to him through See also:hearing and botanically in his See also:allegory. For a See also:defence of his accuracy, see W.

M. See also:

Ramsay's Pauline and other Studies (1907), 219 f. ' On the method of See also:dialectic in this section, see See also:Bishop See also:Gore's See also:paper in Studia Biblica (vol. iii.). The literature up to 1907 is summarized in H. J. See also:Holtzmann's Neutest. Theologie, ii. pp. 171 f., one of the most significant essays being that of See also:Beyschlag on See also:Die Paulin. Theodicee (1868). Weenie (Beginnings of See also:Christianity, i. pp. 315 f.) sums up his discussion by pointing out that " the Jesus of history is simply non-existent for St Paul when he treats apologetic problems of this nature. No mention whatever is made of him in the three chapters of Romans which. treat of Israel's See also:fate.

The' literal See also:

text of the See also:Septuagint seems to be the only decisive authority, and that is so sacred and almighty, that, whenever it comes into collision with the human See also:conscience, the latter is silenced when the See also:voice of revelation speaks." ' The weaker minority probably were a Jewish-Christian circle (cf. Riggenbach in Studien and Kritiken, 1893, pp. 649–678). For the religious aspect of See also:vegetarianism in these and other circles, see von Dobschutz's Christian Life in the See also:Primitive Church (1904), pp. 125 L, 396 f. 9 " It was a sufficient See also:reason for writing to the Romans that Paul was expecting to visit them, but was obliged once more to postpone an event to which he had See also:long looked forward. There was nothing in the circumstances of the church that required his intervention, and, as he was therefore See also:free to choose his subject, he wrote out of the' fullness of his See also:heart that See also:grand defence of the gospel which, though shaped by the conditions of the times, is animated by the timeless Spirit, and has proved to be a See also:possession for ever (See also:Drummond, p. 246). 10 For the literature, cf. the present writer's See also:Historical New Testament (1901), pp. 209-213. The See also:hypothesis has won very wide See also:acceptance, but several editors and critics (including See also:Harnack, Zahn,. and Clemen) remain unconvinced. Cf. also Wabnitz in Revue de theologie et See also:des quest. religieuses (1900), 461–469.

11 On her functions, see Zscharnack's der Dienst der Frau in den ersten Jahrhunderten derchristlichen Kirche (1902), pp. 45 f. 12 Cf. Lucht (Ober die beiden letzten Kapitel des'Romeebriefes, 1871, pp. 126 f.), with Weizsacker's brilliant pages in his Apostolic See also:

Age, 1. PP. 39 f•). See also:report; they do not imply the presence of See also:friends upon the spot who kept him supplied with See also:information. On the other See also:hand, the circle of See also:people addressed in xvi. 1-23, with its See also:wealth of individual See also:colour and See also:personal detail, presupposes a See also:sphere where Paul had worked for long. He can appeal to these Christians. He can speak sharply with authority to them.

Now, as he wrote from See also:

Corinth, the only other city which answers to this description is Ephesus, the centre of Paul's long See also:Asiatic See also:mission. With that city and See also:district several of the names in xvi. 1-23 are more or less directly connected, e.g. Epaenetus (5), See also:Aquila and Priscilla (3), who were at Ephesus immediately before Romans was written (Acts xviii. 18, 26; cf. I See also:Cor. xvi. 19), and apparently were there (cf. 2 Tim. iv. 19) not long afterwards. These are the first people mentioned in the note, nor is there any likelihood that they or the See also:rest of Paul's friends' had made a sudden See also:migration to the See also:capital. Doubt-less, there was fairly See also:constant communication between Rome and the provinces, and in the course of See also:time these friends may have gradually followed the apostle thither. Hence it is not remarkable that almost all the names mentioned in this note have been found by archaeologists (cf.

See also:

Lightfoot's See also:Philippians, pp. 171 f.) within the Roman Corpus Inscriptionum. Most of them, anyhow, are fairly See also:common throughout the Roman world (cf. Lietzmann, p. 73), whilst See also:half are to be found in the See also:Greek Corpus Inscriptionum for See also:Asia See also:Minor (e.g. Epaenetus, See also:Hermes, See also:Hermas)' Furthermore, the See also:sharp warning against errorists and heretics (xvi. 17-20) suits Rome at this See also:period much less aptly than Ephesus (cf. 1 Cor. xvi. 8-9; Acts xx. 29 f.; Rev. ii. 2 f.), where trouble of this See also:kind was in the See also:air. Controversy against false teachers is conspicuously absent from Romans.

Nor is it possible to regard (with Zahn) such counsels as merely prophylactic; they are too definite and pointed. They imply the existence of a community with which Paul was personally acquainted, and to which he See also:

felt himself bound and free to address keen, authoritative reproaches. The textual phenomena of the doxology (xvi. 25-27), which occurs in--some See also:MSS. after xiv. 23, are sufficiently See also:strange; they suggest that the epistle must have passed through a certain See also:process of editing, during the 2nd See also:century, previous to its final See also:incorporation in the See also:canon of the epistles.' It may further be conjectured that the epistle does not lie before the See also:modern reader in the precise shape in which it See also:left Paul and his See also:amanuensis at Corinth. Opinions, indeed, vary on the doxology. Either it is See also:authentic but irrelevant, added by Paul as a See also:post-script, or it is unauthentic,' due to some copyist who added it as ' Erbes (Zeitschrift See also:fur Kirchengeschichte, Igo', 224–231) makes xvi. 1–16a a note forwarded by Paul to Rome during his last voyage thither, in See also:order to advise some of the local Christians of his arrival (Acts See also:xxviii. 15), but this theory is no improvement upon that of See also:Semler, who regarded xvi. 3–16 as designed for Paul's friends outside Rome, to introduce the bearers of the larger epistle. The point of such hypotheses is to explain how the note came to be attached to Romans, but this can be shown otherwise (cf. Deissmann's Licht vain Osten, 1908, pp.

164, 201). Eichhorn (Einleit. in das N.T. iii. 243 f.) regarded xvi. 1–20 as addressed to Corinth, while See also:

Schenkel viewed it as designed for all the churches which Phoebe was to visit. 2In the Ephesian Ada Johannis (c. A.D. 16o) the See also:house of Andronicus (Rom. xvi. 7 ?) is one centre of Christian activity. E. H. See also:Gifford (pp. 27–30) evades the difficulty by taking xvi.

3—20 as part of a second letter written by Paul after, not before, his See also:

release from imprisonment. 3 The most See also:recent and See also:radical analyses are those of See also:Spitta (Urchristentum, iii. 1902) and Volter (See also:Paulus u. See also:seine Briefe, 1905). The former detects a See also:short letter written (xii.–xv. 7, xvi. 1–20) after Acts xxviii. 30, during a tour of the Gentile churches (A.D. 63-64), and another (i.–xi. 10, xv. 14–33) written to believing Jews in order to justify the Gentile mission and afterwards edited for Gentile readers with the addition of xi. i i f., xv. 8–13, &c, Witter (pp. 135 f.) distinguishes an See also:original letter (in i.

1, 5b–7, 8–17, V. 1—12, 15–19, 21, vi. 1-13, 16-23, Xii.—XV. 6, xv. 14-16, 231)-33, xvi. 21–24) from editorial additions, and also from still later accretions in ii. 14–15, iii. 23-26, Vii. 25b, xi. 11 f., xv. 7-13, 17-23a, xvi. 17 f., 25 f.

Spitta's views are properly set aside by Feine and Bahnsen (Protest. Monatshefte, 1902, 331 f.) amongst others. ' It suggests a stereotyped See also:

form (cf. Mangold, Der Romerbrief, 44–81, and Holtzmann, Ephes. See also:Col. Brief, 307–310). " In spite of the vindication of the See also:style word by word, the impression it bears upon the mind is hardly Pauline. It seems artificial rather See also:thana suitable See also:finale at the See also:close. In the Pauline canon Romans originally occupied the last See also:place. It would therefore be natural that a note like that of xvi. 1-23 should be put in here, especially if this canon was See also:drawn up at Rome, whither Phoebe probably travelled eventually. The doxology would then be shifted from after xiv.

23 or inserted for the first time for ecclesiastical purposes. The material conditions of such a process are lucidly stated by Dr C. R. See also:

Gregory in his Canon and Text of the New Testament (1907), pp. 319 f. The problems presented by the structure of these chapters' cannot be solved adequately by the mere hypothesis, worked out variously by critics like Paulus, See also:Griesbach (Curarum in historiam textus Graeci epistolarum See also:Pauli spec. i. pp. 45 f.), Eichhorn and Flatt, that they are a See also:series of postscripts or afterthoughts, much less by the conjecture that, in whole or in part, they are unauthentic (See also:Baur, Volkmar, &c.). The only tenable See also:line of See also:argument, in the present See also:state of See also:criticism, is to regard their phenomena as due to compilation, at the time when the canon (perhaps of Paul's epistles) was first formed. If the hypothesis already outlined is set aside, it is open to the critic to regard large portions of the canonical Romans as having originally occupied a separate setting,' or to ascribe the textual See also:variations to the exigencies of church See also:reading after the formation of the canon (which might explain the See also:absence of iv `Ptaµp in i. 7, 15, and the duplicate position of the doxology)? The uncertainty as to the See also:literary structure of the epistle naturally renders it hazardous to infer the See also:character of the Christians who are addressed, but it may be said that the results of the long debate on this point are converging upon the belief that the predominant class in the local church or churches were Gentile Christians, while proselytes must have swelled the ranks to no inconsiderable degree. Since Weizsacker wrote, the older view of Baur (cf. his Paul, Eng. tr. i. pp.

321 f.) has steadily lost ground. Zahn is now its main supporter, and his contentions are not convincing. Even were ix.-xi. taken as the See also:

kernel of the epistle, its obvious motive is to be found in the need of explaining to Gentile Christians the reasons for Israel's apparent rejection, and passages like i. 5 f., 13, xi. 13, xv. 15 f., are, if not decisive, at any See also:rate See also:superior to any references which can be urged fairly on the opposite See also:side. To a church of this kind, in the capital of the See also:Empire, Paul writes out his gospel more fully than in any other of his extant epistles. It is the essence of the gospel that he treats, and that is the revelation of God's righteousness to man by faith in Jesus Christ. Neither sacraments nor organization come within his purview. Even See also:eschatology lies quite in the background. Paul writes of the inspired " (Denney, p. 582).

Proofs of its Pauline authorship are led fully by Zahn (Einleitung in das N.T. § 21 f.) and Jacquier (Histoire des livres du N.T., 1903, pp. 271 f.) ; cf. also See also:

Bacon in Journal of Biblical Literature (1899), pp. 184 f. The entire data of xv.–xvi. are discussed fully by Lightfoot and See also:Hort, in the former's Biblical Essays (pp. 287 f.) and in the latter's admirable See also:volume (Romans and See also:Ephesians), as well as in Sanday and Headlam's edition (pp. lxxxv. f.). See also:Ryder (Journal of Biblical Literature, 1898, pp. 184 f.) suggests that xv.–xvi. 24 form a letter or part of a letter written not by Paul but by his amanuensis, Tertius, to his friends at Rome, c. A.D. 64, previous to the Neronic persecution. e So J.

Weiss (in Theologische Studien, 1897, pp. 182 f.), as well as those who, like Renan (S. Paul, lxiii–lxxv), find different See also:

editions in the canonical epistle, one meant for Thessalonica (i.–xiv. 33, xvi. 25–27), one for Ephesus (i.–xiv., xvi. I–2o) and one for Rome (i.–xi., xv.), or who, like Lightfoot (Biblical Essays), see a See also:double recension, the original draft having been meant for Rome (i.–xvi. 23), the later being, like Ephesians, a circular epistle. 7 The epistle was so systematic in treatment and wide in See also:scope that it See also:lent itself readily to this " catholicizing " manipulation; thus the fact that xv.–xvi. are very rarely quoted in primitive tradition may be due to their fullness of local detail, which would have less See also:interest for the later church. But the question of course arises, May not the epistle, in whole or in part, have originally been more of a See also:treatise in epistolary form than at first sight appears? For various suggestions as to the problem of i. 7 see Harnack in Zeitschrift fur die neutest. Wissenschaft (1902), 83–86; R.

See also:

Steinmetz (ibid., 19o8, 177 f.) ; and Schmiedel in Hibbert Journal (1903), pp. 537 f heart of the gospel with all his heart, and while a certain controversial' See also:element inevitably enters into his exposition since he is writing with his See also:eye on the Roman Church—any such considerations are quite subordinate to his dominating aim. The epistle See also:dates itself. Paul is on his way to See also:Jerusalem with the moneys collected from the Macedonian and Achaian churches (xv. 19-32), and, after his visit to the Jewish capital, he proposes to visit the church of Rome en route for a mission in See also:Spain. The situation corresponds to that outlined in Acts xx. 2-3. Paul probably despatched the epistle from Corinth. This conclusion would be put almost beyond doubt were Rom. xvi. regarded as an integral part of the original epistle, since in that See also:case See also:Timothy and Sosipater (xvi. 21) would be with Paul as in Acts xx. 4, like Gains (xvi. 23) and See also:Erastus, both 'of whom were See also:Corinthians (r Cor.

14; 2 Tim. iv. 20). Phoebe of Cenchreae, the seaport of Corinth, would also be the See also:

bearer of the epistle (xvi. 1). But even apart from the See also:evidence of ch. xvi., the tone of the epistle (especially of xv. 19 f.) indicates that Paul regards his See also:work in the eastern provinces as done, and now turns to the See also:West. It is just possible, of course, that the epistle was written from some other See also:town, perhaps in Illyricum (so H. E. G. Paulus), but the facilities of communication point to Corinth? Not, however, in the sections bearing on the Law. " It has been customary to explain this feature of the epistle by the fact of its having been written to a church with which Paul had no personal relations, and this may See also:count for something.

But there is a deeper and a worthier reason for the contrast in tone between this epistle and those written to the Galatian and Corinthian churches. The whole-situation is changed. Then Paul was fighting for existence with his back to the See also:

wall; now he writes as one conscious that the cause of Gentile Christianity is safe " (A. B. See also:Bruce, St Paul's Conception of Christianity, 1894, p. 96). ' This is carefully worked out by See also:Paley in his Horae Paulinae (ed. Birks, 1825), pp. 8 f.air f., 465 f. On See also:Marcion's text of the epistle cf. Zahn'a Geschichte des N.T. Kanons, ii. pp.

515-521; on the See also:

early reception of the epistle in the church, Gregory's Canon and Text of the N.T. (1907), pp. 192 f., and Leipoldt's Geschichte des neut. Kanons (1907), is pp. 77 £., 188 f., 192 f., 209 f. (J.

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