When was the book of Romans written?

When Paul was writing the Epistle to the Romans he was going to go to Jerusalem. The mention of the servant Phebe from Cenchrea (Rom. 16:1-2) and of Gaius (Rom. 16:23; compare with 1 Cor. 1:14) indicate that Paul wrote the Epistle to the Romans shortly before his leaving Corinth for Jerusalem. This was around the year 57/58 AC.

But then Paul left Ephesus (maybe because of the revolt described in Acts 19:22-41). He first preached the gospel in Troas (2 Cor. 2:12) but had no inner peace and proceeded to Macedonia (Acts 20:1; 2 Cor. 2:13). There he met Titus who was on his way back from Corinth (2 Cor. 7:5-6). From Macedonia Paul wrote the Second Epistle to the Corinthians in the year 57 AD (2 Cor. 9:2-4) which he probably had delivered by Titus (2 Cor. 8:16-18). In Acts we read of one journey to Macedonia and Greece only (Acts 20:1-3) during which Paul obviously had been to Corinth and from where he wrote the Epistle to the Romans (57/58 AD). For in this epistle he mentions the fact that contributions had been made in Macedonia and Achaia for the saints in Judea which he now wanted to bring to Jerusalem (Rom. 15:25-28). These statements go hand in hand with the ones in the Epistles to the Corinthians. The mention of Phebe (Romans 16:1-2) from Cenchrea (which was the harbour of Corinth) and of Gaius (Rom. 16:23; compare 1 Cor. 1:14) would indicate that Paul wrote the Epistle to the Romans shortly before leaving for Jerusalem when still at Corinth. His journey from Greece to Jerusalem is described in detail in Acts 20 to 21.

The Epistle to the Romans is not the first Epistle which the Apostle Paul wrote. The First Epistle to the Thessalonians was written six years prior to the Epistle to the Romans, that is in 52 A.D. and the Second Thessalonian Epistle a few months later. The place given to this great document, immediately after the Book of Acts, is the right place, for the Epistle to the Romans has for its leading theme the Gospel of God, and that needs to be unfolded first of all.

This Epistle was written by Paul in the year 58. Paul was staying in the house of Gaius (Romans 16:23). He was a wealthy Corinthian whom Paul had baptized (1 Corinthians 1:14). His amanuensis was Tertius, who makes the statement himself, "I Tertius, who wrote this Epistle, salute you in the Lord" (16:22). It was during the brief visit to Corinth (Acts 20:3) when the Apostle wrote the Epistle. He was on his way to Jerusalem, with the great desire in his heart "I must also see Rome" (Acts 19:21). Of this he speaks in the Epistle. "But now having no more place in these parts, and having a great desire these many years to come unto you; whensoever I take my journey into Spain, I will come to you, for I trust to see you in my journey, and to be brought on my way thitherward by you, if first I be somewhat filled with your company. But I go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the Saints." (15:23-25). And in the beginning of the Epistle he expressed the same wish. "Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you. For I long to see you that I may impart some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established" (1:10-11).

When a Greek Christian woman, Phoebe, was about to visit Rome, he was constrained to write this letter and she was undoubtedly the bearer of this Epistle. This we learn from Chapter 16:1-2. "I commend unto you Phoebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea (the port of Corinth ); that ye receive her in the Lord, as becomes the Saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you; for she hath been a succorer of many, and of myself also." The genuineness of this Epistle has never been doubted. The critics have never been able to attack its authenticity. Universally it has been believed, and that from earliest time, to be the production of the Apostle Paul.

The epistle was written by Paul when at Corinth, about A.D. 58: cf. Acts 20:1-3. It is an exhaustive dissertation, and evinces the energy and wisdom of the Spirit of God in each point discussed. It is apposite that such an epistle should have been addressed to the saints at the then metropolis of the civilised world, not, however, that that metropolis should be in any way a centre of the church of God. Paul had not introduced the gospel there, and there is no evidence that Peter did so. It may have been carried to that city by some who were converted at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost.

The well-known capital of Italy and the metropolis of the Roman empire. There were 'strangers' from Rome at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, where they would doubtless hear the gospel, some may have been converted, and carried the gospel back with them. Acts 2:10. Paul wrote his epistle to the saints at Rome about A.D. 58. He was a prisoner there in his own hired house for two years, about A.D. 61, 62, being, as was usual, chained to a soldier. But the gospel spread thereby, and entered Caesar's household. Phil. 1:13; Phil. 4:22.

Origin of the Assembly in Rome. — Written by Paul from Corinth during his third great missionary tour, and when he was on his way to Jerusalem, accompanied by the alms-bearers from the Churches of Galatia, Macedonia, and Achaia (Rom. 15:25-26; 1 Cor. 16:1), it was the latest in date of those six apostolic letters that we possess written before his first imprisonment, which commenced at Jerusalem and ended at Rome. The Church of the Thessalonians, as well as that at Corinth and those in Galatia, had all been founded by the personal labours of the Apostle Paul. With that at Rome, however, which in this resembled the Church at Colosse, it was different. God had begun the work in those cities without the direct intervention of any of the apostles, and to the assemblies in each of these cities Paul, when he wrote, was personally a stranger. The assembly, or Church, in Rome owed its origin to the labour of one or more saints of God, whose names and works recorded and remembered on high, have not found a place in history upon earth. The Apostles Paul and Peter are said to have died there, martyred about the same time by the Emperor Nero; but neither Peter nor Paul founded the Church in that city, though Rome was comprised in the especial province of labour committed to the latter (Rom. 1:13; 15:15-22). Many years indeed before our epistle was written, there had been Christians in Rome (Rom. 15:23). And remembering its position as the capital of the empire, which in boastful language was called in Greek oikoumene, i.e., the inhabited earth (Luke 2:1), it is not difficult to suppose that, with a constant flow of people from various parts of the empire up to the capital, some Christians may have reached it in very early days, and have formed the nucleus of that company in Rome, designated by the apostle as "beloved of God."

The epistle to the Romans was written from Greece, and probably from Corinth (Rom. 16:23), during Paul's third missionary journey, which terminated abruptly at Jerusalem, whither he went with the collection raised by the churches of Galatia, Macedonia, and Achaia for the poor saints in that city. The immediate occasion of his writing appears to have been to commend to them Phebe, a deaconess of the church in Cenchrea, the eastern port of the city of Corinth, and distant but a few miles from it. (Rom. 16:1.)

Here then, after the uproar had ceased, Paul sent for and exhorted the disciples, and, after bidding them farewell, departed to go into Macedonia the scene of his former labours. There too we find him passing through those quarters, and, after exhorting the saints with much discourse, he came into Greece. It was during the three months spent there that he wrote the Epistle to the Romans. He had long desired to visit Rome in person, but was hindered hitherto. Urgent duties detained him elsewhere; and God had it in His purpose that His servant should enter Rome only as a prisoner. It was not so that even the apostle would have ordered matters, still less the saints themselves. It is good, however, to learn and accept God's profound wisdom in all these dealings of His.

58.-[Spring.] The Epistle to the Romans written (Rom. 15:25-28; 16:21-23; Acts 20:4). Paul leaves Corinth-passes through Macedonia-sails from Philippi-preaches at Troas-addresses the elders at Miletus-visits Tyre and Caesarea (Acts 20; 21:1-14).

IT IS contended by Bullingerites, and others of like ilk, that Paul did not receive the revelation of the mystery of the one Body until he was imprisoned in Rome, 63 A. D. Generally, too, the ground is taken that this revelation was given to him alone, and that the twelve knew nothing of it. Let us see if these assertions will stand the test of Holy Scripture. We shall turn, first of all, directly to the writings of the apostle Paul, and examine the passages in which he refers to this subject. The first one is found in the Epistle to the Romans which was written, according to the best authorities, in the year A. D. 60, at least three years before Paul's imprisonment, and certainly some time before he reached Rome, as in that letter he tells the Romans that he is contemplating the visit to them, and asks them to pray that it might be a prosperous one. It might seem as though his prayer was not answered inasmuch as he reached Rome in chains, a prisoner for the Gospel's sake. But God's ways are not ours, and we can be sure that in the light of eternity, we shall see that this was indeed one of the most prosperous voyages that anyone ever made. Now in closing this epistle to the Romans, the apostle says in chapter 16, verses 25 to 27:

The Apostle Paul wrote the Epistle to the Romans about the year A.D. 60. According to the Romanists, Peter was then Bishop of Rome. Is it not passing strange that in that epistle to the saints at Rome, while Paul sends his salutations to no less than twenty-six of the saints by name in addition to the Church that met in the house of Priscilla and Aquila, the members of the household of Aristobulus, and of Narcissus, besides other companies noted in Romans 16:14-15, yet he sends no greeting to Peter, who must have been the most prominent of all the saints at Rome, if he were then Bishop of Rome?