The Epistle to the Romans

The Epistle to the Romans is the longest and most systematic of the letters of Paul, and the first of his letters in the ordinary arrangement of the New Testament. It is the fullest surviving statement of his message — sin and grace, justification by faith, the place of Israel, and the relationship of Jew and gentile in the purpose of God. Unlike most of Paul's letters, it was written to a church he had neither founded nor yet visited, and so it doubles as a self-introduction ahead of a journey he hoped to make. For the study of Paul it belongs to the bedrock: it is one of the seven letters accepted as authentically his by the overwhelming majority of critical scholars, and therefore a first-order source in his own words. (Scholarship)

What it is

Romans is a letter, not a narrative, and it is autobiographically restrained compared with Galatians or 2 Corinthians. Yet it opens and closes with material that tells us a great deal about how Paul understood himself and his mission. He introduces himself in the first verse as "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God" (Romans 1:1, Douay-Rheims). (Scripture) The body of the letter sets out his gospel at length; the final chapters turn to his travel plans and to a long roll of personal greetings that is itself a prime source for the social world of the early Roman church.

Authorship and dating

Unlike the anonymous Acts of the Apostles, Romans names its author in its own opening line, and its Pauline authorship is undisputed — one of the seven letters that critical scholars across confessional lines accept as genuinely Paul's own composition. (Scholarship) The letter even names the scribe who took it down at Paul's dictation: "I Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the Lord" (Romans 16:22), a reminder that Paul commonly composed by dictation. (Scripture)

The letter is usually dated to about AD 57, with a range of roughly AD 55 to 58. The dating rests on internal evidence rather than tradition: Paul writes that he is about to carry a collection of money to Jerusalem — "now I shall go to Jerusalem, to minister unto the saints" (Romans 15:25) — which fits the end of his third missionary journey, most probably while he was staying at Corinth. (Scripture / Scholarship) The seven undisputed letters as a group are generally placed in the 50s AD, which makes them the earliest surviving Christian documents of any kind, written before any of the Gospels. (Scholarship)

What it tells us about Paul

Romans is one of the richest sources for Paul's own sense of his calling. Three threads stand out.

First, his self-description as the apostle to the gentiles. He states his commission plainly — "as long indeed as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I will honour my ministry" (Romans 11:13) — and describes his aim as bringing "obedience to the faith, in all nations, for his name" (Romans 1:5). (Scripture) This is the same vocation that Acts dramatises in the missionary journeys, here stated by Paul in his own words.

Second, his Jewish identity, which he affirms without qualification. Grieving for his own people, he calls them "my brethren, who are my kinsmen according to the flesh, Who are Israelites" (Romans 9:3–4), and insists, "I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin" (Romans 11:1). (Scripture) This tribal claim matches his self-description in Philippians 3:5 and is one of the fixed points of his biography. It is worth noting for readers of this reference project that Romans never names Tarsus; Paul's birthplace is reported only in Acts, and his own letters, Romans included, describe his origins in terms of tribe and people rather than city. Read more in our reference on the Apostle Paul and our guide to where Tarsus is.

Third, his westward missionary strategy. Paul explains that he has preached "not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man's foundation" (Romans 15:20), and reveals a plan to press on beyond Rome: "When I shall begin to take my journey into Spain, I hope that as I pass, I shall see you" (Romans 15:24). (Scripture) Whether Paul ever reached Spain is uncertain and debated; the plan itself, stated here, is the starting point for that later tradition, which the earliest external witness (1 Clement) echoes only obliquely. (Scholarship)

What it tells us about the early Church

The closing chapter, Romans 16, is an unusually detailed window onto a first-generation congregation. Paul commends Phoebe, "our sister, who is in the ministry of the church, that is in Cenchrae" (Romans 16:1), and greets Prisca and Aquila and a long list of named believers, women and men, in the house-churches of Rome. (Scripture) For the social history of the earliest Christian communities — their leadership, their networks, the prominence of women among Paul's co-workers — this list is a primary document in its own right.

Reading Romans as a source

Because Romans is undisputed, careful study treats it as first-order evidence for Paul's theology and self-understanding, to be read alongside his other genuine letters and weighed against the narrative of Acts where the two touch — for example, the collection for Jerusalem that Romans announces (Romans 15:25–26) and that Acts recounts. What Romans offers is not a biography but a self-portrait in the course of an argument: the apostle to the gentiles, an Israelite of the tribe of Benjamin, writing from the field to a church he longed to see. For short answers to common questions, see our questions and answers page.

Key passages for Paul

Romans 1:1–6 (self-introduction and apostleship); 9:1–5 and 11:1 (his Jewish identity, tribe of Benjamin); 11:13 (apostle to the gentiles); 15:15–24 (his missionary principle and the plan to reach Spain); 15:25–26 (the collection for Jerusalem); 16:1–16 (Phoebe, Prisca and Aquila, and the network of the Roman church); 16:22 (Tertius the scribe).