Episode Synopsis:

When Paul writes his letter to the church in Rome, he is still in Corinth, having made a difficult visit there to deal with the ongoing problems in the Corinthian church, which we addressed in Season Four (when we covered 2 Corinthians). But things have improved in Corinth to the point that Paul is making plans to continue his Gentile mission. Before that can happen, Paul must make the journey to Jerusalem to deliver the offering collected from the churches in Greece. Having done that, Paul hopes to go on to Spain (at the opposite end of the Mediterranean Sea). The midpoint between Jerusalem and Spain is the Italian peninsula and the city of Rome. So Paul writes a letter of introduction to the church there, a letter which we now know as Paul’s Epistle to the Romans.

Paul is unquestionably the author of Romans. His epistle was sent by messenger – a woman named Phoebe – from Corinth to Rome early in 57 CE. In this letter, the apostle addresses a number of matters which we will discuss in great detail in future episodes. But if we are to boil down the contents of Romans to a single word, that word would be “gospel.” Paul does not say much about the church to which he is writing–he’s never been there. But we do know from the contents of this letter that like other churches of the Gentile mission, the Roman church was predominantly Gentile, though a number of Jews in Rome had come to faith in Jesus Christ. And so Paul must explain how these two groups fit in God’s larger plan and how they are to get along with each other despite their cultural and religious differences. Paul does this by stressing that both Jews and Gentiles are reckoned righteous, reconciled to the same God through the work of the same Savior in the power of the Holy Spirit, and this through the preaching of the one gospel.

Many Christians are familiar with the Book of Romans, but are likely far less familiar with the city, the situation there, and the recipients of this letter. What was Rome like in the days of Paul? What was it like to be an inhabitant of the city? How did you live, and under what circumstances? Where did you eat or work? What was it like to live under the reign of Nero? Life was brutal and cruel for many of the city’s inhabitants, but luxurious by first-century standards for others. Why were the Jews expelled twice from the city? And how did the gospel first arrive in the capital of this powerful pagan empire? It is an interesting story and I’ll do my best to tell it.

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