Romans
Author: Paul
Good old Paul always started off his epistles with his name.
Paul used a scribe named Tertius, as revealed in Romans 16:22!
Confirmed by Eusebius in Book 3, Chapter 25, Verse 2, of Ecclesiastical History.
Date: 56 A.D. (Dr. Cartledge) (1)
Language: Greek (Dr. Keener) (2)
Place: Corinth (Professor Tafoya)
Purpose: To tell of the salvation available for Jewish and Gentile people through faith, in the midst of much tension which had mounted between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians due to some varying practices between them, following the return of some Jewish Christians to Rome at least six years after being expelled by Emperor Claudius.
What kind of book?: Epistle, (a letter to a group), regarding a particular occasion.
Reflection: 2 Peter 3:16 states: "[Paul] writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction" (NIV).
I think the sole reason we can know that Paul's letters are Scripture is this affirmation by Peter, the apostle. Paul was not one of the twelve, and Paul did not see Jesus until after Jesus ascended into heaven. So extraordinary was Paul's encounter with Christ that I think verification by Peter, who had the opportunity to learn if Paul's ministry was legitimate, was a must.
Hunter Irvine
(1) Samuel A. Cartledge, A Conservative Introduction to the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1938).
{The definition of "conservative" in this context means giving the biblical text the upmost of authority, working to interpret the writing as the author intended.}
(2) Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary, New Testament (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 1993).
