Epistle to the Romans

Biblical scholars agree that it was composed by Paul the Apostle to explain that salvation is offered through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Other textual variants include subscripts explicitly mentioning Corinth as the place of composition and name Phoebe, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae, as the messenger who took the epistle to Rome.

Prior to composing the epistle, Paul had evangelized the areas surrounding the Aegean Sea and was eager to take the gospel farther to Spain, a journey that would allow him to visit Rome on the way.

Christians in Rome would have been of both Jewish and Gentile background and it is possible that the church suffered from internal strife between these two groups.

Martin Luther in his translation of the Bible controversially added the word "alone" (allein in German) to Romans 3:28 so that it read: "thus, we hold, then, that man is justified without doing the works of the law, alone through faith".

[3] In the opinion of Jesuit biblical scholar Joseph Fitzmyer, the book "overwhelms the reader by the density and sublimity of the topic with which it deals, the gospel of the justification and salvation of Jew and Greek alike by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, revealing the uprightness and love of God the Father.

"[4] Anglican bishop N. T. Wright notes that Romans is: ...neither a systematic theology nor a summary of Paul's lifework, but it is by common consent his masterpiece.

What nobody doubts is that we are here dealing with a work of massive substance, presenting a formidable intellectual challenge while offering a breathtaking theological and spiritual vision.

[19][20][21] This conclusion is partially based on the fact that a variety of Church Fathers, such as Origen and Tertullian, refer to a fourteen-chapter edition of Romans, either directly or indirectly.

There is evidence from patristic commentaries indicating that Boernerianus is not unique in this regard; many early, no longer extant manuscripts also lacked an explicit Roman addressee in chapter 1.

[23] It is notable that, when this textual variant is combined with the omission of chapters 15 and 16, there is no longer any clear reference to the Roman church throughout the entire epistle.

Harry Gamble speculates that 1:7, 1:15, and chapters 15 and 16 may have been removed by a scribe in order to make the epistle more suitable for a "general" audience.

Several scholars have argued, largely on the basis of internal evidence, that Chapter 16 represents a separate letter of Paul – possibly addressed to Ephesus – that was later appended to Romans.

The fact that Papyrus 46 places Paul's doxology at the end of chapter 15 can also be interpreted as evidence for the existence of a fifteen-chapter recension of the epistle.

[20][21] Some manuscripts have a subscript at the end of the Epistle: For ten years before writing the letter (c. 47–57 AD), Paul had traveled around the territories bordering the Aegean Sea evangelizing.

[29]From Adam Clarke: The occasion of writing the epistle: [...] Paul had made acquaintance with all circumstances of the Christians at Rome [...] and finding that it was [...] partly of heathens converted to Christianity, and partly of Jews, who had, with many remaining prejudices, believed in Jesus as the true Messiah, and that many contentions arose from the claims of the Gentiles to equal privileges with the Jews, and from absolute refusal of the Jews to admit these claims, unless the Gentile converts become circumcised; he wrote this epistle to adjust and settle these differences.

[30]At this time, the Jews made up a substantial number in Rome, and their synagogues, frequented by many, enabled the Gentiles to become acquainted with the story of Jesus of Nazareth.

[40] He also argues that this may be what Paul is referring to when he talks about the "strong" and the "weak" in Romans 15;[41] this theory was originally put forth by W. Marxsen in Introduction to the New Testament: An Approach to its problems (1968) but is critiqued and modified by Fitzmyer.

"[44] Philip Melanchthon, a writer during the Reformation, suggested that Romans was caput et summa universae doctrinae christianae ("a summary of all Christian doctrine").

He appears to be responding to a critic (probably an imaginary one based on Paul's encounters with real objections in his previous preaching), and the letter is structured as a series of arguments.

These two verses form a backdrop of themes for the rest of the book; first, that Paul is unashamed of his love for this gospel that he preaches about Jesus Christ.

Stanley Stowers, however, has argued on rhetorical grounds that Paul is in these verses not addressing a Jew at all but rather an easily recognizable caricature of the typical boastful person (ὁ ἀλαζων).

[65] He describes justification – legally clearing the believer of the guilt and penalty of sin – as a gift of God,[66] and not the work of man (lest he might boast), but by faith.

Paul hopes that all Israelites will come to realize the truth,[75] stating that "Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect.

For God shows no partiality.Catholics would also look to the passage in Romans 8:13 for evidence that justification by faith is only valid so long as it is combined with obedient cooperation with The Holy Spirit, and the passage in Romans 11:22 to show that the Christian can lose their justification if they turn away from cooperating with The Holy Spirit and reject Christ through mortal sin.

In the Protestant interpretation, the New Testament epistles (including Romans) describe salvation as coming from faith and not from righteous actions.

5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted unto him for righteousness.In the Protestant interpretation it is considered significant that in Romans chapter 2:9, Paul says that God will reward those who follow the law and then goes on to say that no one follows the law perfectly (see also Sermon on the Mount: Interpretation) Romans 2:21–29: 21 Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself?

[92] In 1738, while hearing Luther's Preface to the Epistle to the Romans read at St. Botolph Church on Aldersgate Street in London, John Wesley famously felt his heart "strangely warmed",[This quote needs a citation] a conversion experience which is often seen[citation needed] as the beginning of Methodism.

Luther controversially added the word "alone" (allein in German) to Romans 3:28 so that it read: "thus, we hold, then, that man is justified without doing the works of the law, alone through faith".

[3] The word "alone" does not appear in the original Greek text,[93] but Luther defended his translation by maintaining that the adverb "alone" was required both by idiomatic German and Paul's intended meaning.