Writer: Paul

1. What does Paul discuss in his letter to the Romans?

IN Acts we watched Paul, formerly a violent persecutor of Jewish Christians, become Christ’s zealous apostle to the non-Jewish nations. With Romans we begin the 14 books of the Bible that the holy spirit inspired this former Pharisee, now a faithful servant of God, to write. By the time he wrote Romans, Paul had already completed two long preaching tours and was well along on the third. He had written five other inspired letters: First and Second Thessalonians, Galatians, and First and Second Corinthians. Yet it seems appropriate that in our modern Bibles, Romans precedes the others, since it discusses at length the new equality between Jews and non-Jews, the two classes to whom Paul preached. It explains a turning point in God’s dealings with his people and shows that the inspired Hebrew Scriptures had long foretold that the good news would be proclaimed also to the non-Jews.

2. (a) What problems does Paul discuss in Romans? (b) What is firmly established by this letter?

² Paul, using Tertius as secretary, laces rapid argument and an astounding number of Hebrew Scripture quotations into one of the most forceful books of the Christian Greek Scriptures.

5. What facts establish the authenticity of Romans?

⁵ The letter’s authenticity is firmly established. It is, as its introduction says, from “Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ and called to be an apostle, . . . to all those who are in Rome as God’s beloved ones, called to be holy ones.” (Rom. 1:1, 7) Its outside documentation is among the earliest to be found for the Christian Greek Scriptures. Peter uses so many similar expressions in his first letter, written probably six to eight years later, that many scholars think he must have already seen a copy of Romans. Romans was clearly regarded as a part of Paul’s writings and was cited as such by Clement of Rome, Polycarp of Smyrna, and Ignatius of Antioch, all of whom lived in the late first and early second centuries C.E.