Epistle to the Romans

The Epistle to the Romans is one of the epistles, or letters, included in the New Testament canon of the Christian Bible. When it is clear that the Bible is being discussed, it is often referred to as simply "Romans". Romans is one of the seven currently (as of 2004) undisputed letters of Paul and even among the four letters accepted as authentically his (in German scholarship, the Hauptbriefen) by F. C. Baur and the Tübingen School of historical criticism of texts in the 19th century.

Purposes of writing

The purposes of the apostle in writing to this church were fourfold and are articulated in the second half of chapter 15.

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• Paul asks for prayers in his coming journey to Jerusalem and that the offering collected from the Gentile churches would be accepted there.
• Paul is planning to come to Rome from Jerusalem and spend some time there before moving on to Spain. He hopes the Roman church will support his mission to Spain.
• In that Paul has never been to Rome he writes the letter to outline his gospel so that his teaching will not be confused by that of "false teachers".
• Paul is aware that there is some conflict between Gentile and Jewish Christians in the Roman church and he writes to address those concerns (Chapters thirteen and the first half of fourteen). While the Roman church was founded by Jewish Christians, the exile of Jews from Rome in 49 A.D by Claudius resulted in Gentile Christians taking leadership positions. Upon the return of Jewish Christians after Claudius's death in 54 A.D. tensions resulted over the keeping of Jewish food laws and observance of Jewish holy days.