ROMANS, EPISTLE TO THE, in a doctrinal point of view, the most profound and elaborate composition of St. Paul. That it proceeded from the pen of the great apostle of the Gentiles has never been seriously doubted by any competent scholar. Much discussion has taken place regarding the compositdcrn of the church at Rome, and—con nected therewith—the design or object of the epistle. Were the members of the church Jewish or Gentile Christians? The general opinion of commentators is that the church was a mixed congregation, the majority of members being probably of pure Gentile , descent, and the minority Jewish Christians, who perhaps formed the original nucleus of the church. Dr. Jowett, in his Epistles of St. Paul to the Romans, Galatians, and Thes salonians, suggests that the phenomena of the text—for example, the frequent appeals to the authority of the "law" addressed to the Gentiles—may be best explained on the hypothesis that the apostle is speaking to a Gentile congregation which had passed through a phase of Jewish proselytism. The great value of the Epistle to the Romans cotsists in this, that it exhibits what may be called the rationale of Christianity. The immediate object of the apostle was probably nothing more than to prevent au outbreak in the church at Rome of those violent antipathies of religious sentiment which had shown themselves elsewhere (for instance, at Corinth), and had produced such disastrous consequences; but with a view to the more complete accomplishment of this object, he takes a broad ethical view of human nature, and finds all men—Jews and Gentiles alike —to be estranged from God, and in need of pardon and reconciliation. He does not
underrate the advantages which his Jewish countrymen possessed—nay, he extols them; but he points out at the same time that the "oracles" or "law" could not make the Jews holy: they could only condemn them for being unholy. The Gentiles were declared guilty not less decisively by their own consciences—the law was plainly enough "writ ten in their hearts." Hence Paul's grand argument, that if men are to stand as "right eous" in the sight of God, it cannot be by their "works," but in virtue of a divine jus tification graciously vouchsafed to them, and received into their hearts by an act of faith. This leads him to unfold the purpose and significance of Christ's work, to dilate on the "freeness" of God's grace toward "simmers." He concludes by predicting the conver sion of his " kinsmen according to the flesh," exhorting the Gentiles to humility, charity, mutual forbearance, and the practice of all the Christian virtues. The epistle is believed to have been written from Corinth during Paul's third missionary-journey, about 58 A.D. The commentaries upon it, or upon special chapters, are innumerable; and almost all the great doctrinal controversies that have agitated Christendom owe their origin to it.