Romans Blog 1

The author of Romans is Paul and the person who wrote it down is Tertius, “I Tertius, the writer of this letter, greet you in the Lord” (Romans 16:22 NRSV). Romans was written around 57 AD “give or take a year” (Edwards, 2007), and was probably composed in Corinth (Tafoya) or Ephesus (Edwards, 2007) to Rome. The Church in Corinth was started by unknown believers. In the year 49 AD, Emperor Claudius tells all of the Jews in Rome to leave because he got tired of hearing disputes about “Chrestus” or Christ. From that time to Emperor Claudius’ death, the Church is completely Gentile. Once Claudius passed away, the Jews were allowed to return to Rome. As far as we know, Paul never visited the Church in Rome. The genre of Romans is an epistle. The argument presented in Romans is to persuade readers (Keener 413). The form of the letter is called ‘diatribe’ which is when an argument is stated and then all of the possible objections are refuted.


Paul writes concerning a few conflicts between Christian Jews and Christian Gentiles because they both have different ways of living as Christians. For example, Jews were more careful in picking out their food so that they would not offend God by eating food that was associated with idols of Roman religion while Gentiles were not as concerned about where the food came from. Craig S. Keener also points out that this dispute also arose from the two groups having different ways of expressing their faith (Keener, 412). The purpose of Romans is pretty much answering the question “How do Gentiles fit in?” and the key is that all people are justified by faith. The first thing that Paul establishes in the book of Romans is that all humans, Jews and Gentiles alike, are sinful and are therefore guilty. There are three main issues that Paul addresses in Romans. The first is in chapter seven and is the issue with the law, the second is in chapter 11, which addresses the Christian Gentiles’ arrogance, and the third issue is admonitions of the strong versus the weak in chapters fourteen and fifteen (Tafoya).

Romans 1:1 says “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ…” (NRSV). In my notes that go with the New Revised Standard Bible says that ‘servant’ could be changed to ‘slave.’ I have thought about this a lot. The commentary by Craig S. Keener has a note on this verse. He says “A slave of someone in high position had more status, authority and freedom than a free commoner; the emperor’s slaves were some of the highest-ranking people in the empire as the Roman Christians would know. In the Old Testament, prophets from Moses on were generally called ‘servants’ or ‘slaves’ of God” (Keener 414). I just thought that it was very interesting that being free of God is really an imprisonment. Of course I have heard that if you don’t serve God, then you have a different master. But even taking that into my mind, God is of higher status. So, either you are free from God and ‘independent’ which makes you have less freedom or you are serving a master who is not as high in society as God. If this master is not as high up, then his slaves are still under him and therefore have less freedom than he does. If we serve God and He is ultimately free, then in our slavery to Him we have more freedom because He has more freedom to give.

Romans 3:29-30 says “Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also, since God is one; and he will justify the circumcised on the ground of faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.” This was an interesting thing to read because there is this amazing flow of logic that I had never caught before. Surely, there is only one God. Certainly that God is the same God for Jews as for Gentiles. Therefore, why would Gentiles not be able to enter His kingdom on the same grounds as the Jews?

Romans 4:13 says, “For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham to his descendants through law but though righteousness of faith.” Abraham entered into the covenant with God through faith. The Hebrew word for “land” could also mean “earth” (Keener 422). Actually, now that I think about it, I wrote a paper on the Great Flood last semester at the University of Idaho. One of the arguments is that the word for “earth” could mean “land” which means that the flood could have been simply a local flood and not a global flood. My main point, because I was writing to Christians, was that if God only judged the world partly back during Noah’s time, then he would not judge the world as a whole on the Judgment Day. I have always taken the Hebrew world “earth/land” as earth. Nothing will change my opinion. In church about two weeks ago, I heard the pastor say something about Abraham actually being told that the earth would be given to his descendants. The pastor rushed the reference and all I got was “Romans” so I was excited to find the verse in this reading of the book of Romans. I have found my self making the same conclusions as always: The Bible is pretty cool! And of course, that is a major understatement!

WORKS CITED
Books:
Edwards, James R. “The Letter of Paul to the Romans.” Pages 2007-2009 in The New Interpreter’s Study Bible with the Apocrypha. Edited by Walter J. Harrelson et al. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2003.
Keener, Craig S. “Romans,” Pages 411-450 in The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1993.
Class Lecuture:
Tafoya, Stace. “Intro to Romans.” Bible 114 Early Christian Literature. Colorado Christian University. 22 Oct 2008.