Romans Introduction 1:1-15
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Author
Author
A little background of Paul, who was born Saul, after the first king of Israel and like king Saul, Saul/Paul was born into the tribe of Benjamin around the same time as Jesus in Tarsus, a city off the northeastern Mediterranean coast in the province of Cilicia, in what is modern Turkey. Paul learned the trade of tentmaking from his father, as was Jewish tradition, and also inherited his Roman citizenship from his father as well which was a prized and highly beneficial asset at that time. At around thirteen he went to Jerusalem and studied and memorized the Scriptures from a rabbi named Gamaliel who was the grandson of Hillel, perhaps the most famous rabbi of all time. It was probably during his time in Jerusalem that he became a Pharisee. Paul probably returned to Tarsus after his education and never encountered Jesus during His earthly ministry. While back in Tarsus he, by his own account became a zealous legalist, totally committed to the law in every detail, a “Hebrew of Hebrews” Philippians 3:5-6 “circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.” While back in Tarsus is when he probably began hearing the reports of the new “sect” of what would become known as Christianity spreading throughout Jerusalem. Paul like most of the Jewish leaders was deeply offended by Jesus’ claim to be the messiah and dedicated himself to stamping out the presumed heresy. He traveled back to Jerusalem and soon became a leader in persecuting the church. Acts 8:3 “But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.” In John MacArthur’s introduction to his commentary on Romans he compares Paul with Haman from Esther, Haman was “the enemy of the Jews” determined to exterminate every Jew from the vast Persian empire, Paul wanted to rid all the region of Christianity. Paul in his determination went to the high priest for permission to bring anyone, men and women, following and proclaiming Jesus bound back to Jerusalem. Acts 9:1-2 “But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.” It was on his way to Damascus Paul had a divine encounter and conversion from Jesus Christ, Acts 9:3-5 “Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” After his time in Damascus where he was proclaiming Jesus Christ in the very synagogues he had sought permission to arrest any Christians that he found among them, he traveled to Arabia for three years and recieved direct revelation from the Lord. Galatians 1:11-12 “For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.”
There really is not any kind of controversy about Paul being the author of Romans, the only point of discussion on authorship is that Paul did not himself put “quill to papyrus” he dictated the epistle to a scribe named Tertius Romans 16:22 “I Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord.” But there is no evidence that Tertius influenced the letter in any way as the style of Romans is very close to that of Galatians and 1 Corinthians and there is no evidence that Tertius was involved in inscribing either of those letters. Thought Romans is placed first among the epistles it was not the first to be written, as 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, and Galatians were written before Romans. It is placed first among the epistles because of either the excellency of contents of the letter, or to where the persons lived that it was written to, Rome. I believe that it is because of the contents of the letter which covers such a vast and deep amount of what Christianity is to be the reason it is placed first among the epistles. Paul most likely wrote Romans while in or near Corinth around 56-58 AD, as Paul mentions several people from Corinth in the letter, Phoebe, by whom the letter is sent to Rome was from Cenchreae, a town near Corinth, Erastus the city treasurer of Corinth, and Gaius his host who was a Corinthian. Romans 16:1 “I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae,” Romans 16:23 “Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer, and our brother Quartus, greet you.” At this time Paul was at the end of his third missionary journey before he traveled back to Jerusalem with an offering he had taken up for the poor believers there which he hoped would help heal the rift between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians, after which he planned on visiting Rome and then on to another missionary journey to Spain. It was his planned missionary trip to Spain as one of the reasons he wrote to the Roman Christians. Paul did not write to them to discuss any wrong teachings or major sin in the church at Rome as some of the other epistles written by him. The Roman church or churches, as there may have been several home churches in Rome, were sound but had never received any apostolic instruction. Catholic tradition says that the church in Rome can be traced back to Peter, or Peter and Paul as its founders but Paul himself says that he has not been there and also says at the end of the letter that he was determined not to build upon another man’s foundation or not to instruct and lead a congregation that had been founded by another Apostle or Christian leader, Romans 15:20 “and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation,” The foundations of the Roman church most likely stem from Jewish Romans who were present at the day of Pentecost and witnessed the descent of the Holy Spirit and heard the apostles speak in their own native tongues then hearing Peter’s powerful sermon were among the three thousand souls who believed and were baptized. This letter to the Romans was Paul’s introduction of himself and his qualifications for his planned visit to make Rome a base of operations for his next missionary journey to take the Gospel further that ever and into Spain and Europe. This missionary trip to Spain ultimately does not happen after he is imprisoned and ultimately martyred in Rome.
While there is not mentioned theological issues with the Roman church, other than needing some apostolic instruction, there was some issues there. Because of the expulsion of Jews from Rome by Claudius in 41 and again in 49 AD, the Gentile Christians would have come into greater prominence as a result of the absence of all or most of the Jewish Christians, Theologically this would mean the acceleration of the movement of the Christian community away from it Jewish origins so when the Jewish Christians returned, probably in the following years after the death of Claudius who gave the decree of expulsion, would be a recipe for divisions between the Jewish and Gentile Christians but in the opposite way of Jerusalem where the Jewish Christians would have the greater prominence. Also the church in Rome was not centralized but consisted of sever house churches confirmed in chapter 16 when Paul greets several of them individually. This could lead to further divisions and loyalties to the individual groups.
There was also a mention of a 14 chapter version of Romans in existence but this is probably an edited version of the 16 chapter letter trimmed down for general circulation to other churches, the 16 chapter version that is in the Bible is accepted as the original and definitive one.