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. Not all climbers have taken the same route up its sheer sides, and there is frequent disagreement on the best approach. Not all onlookers have viewed it in the same light or from the same angle, and their snapshots and paintings of it are sometimes remarkably unalike. It dwarfs most of his other writings, an Alpine peak towering over hills and villages. neither a systematic theology nor a summary of Paul's lifework, but it is by common consent his masterpiece. 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." Īnglican bishop N.
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. 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. Some of these recensions lacked all reference to the original audience of Christians in Rome making it very general in nature. Consisting of 16 chapters, versions with only the first 14 or 15 chapters circulated early. The epistle was probably transcribed by Paul's amanuensis Tertius and is dated AD late 55 to early 57.
Romans was likely written while Paul was staying in the house of Gaius in Corinth. Biblical scholars agree that it was composed by Paul the Apostle to explain that salvation is offered through the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Epistle to the Romans is the sixth book in the New Testament, and the longest of the thirteen Pauline epistles.