Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Romans 1:1-7, A slave of the Messiah writes to Rome
Paul opens with his name and titles, a short summary of the good news about God's Son, and a greeting of grace and peace to believers in Rome he has never met.
Romans 1:1-7, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul opens the letter by naming himself and his commission to a church he has never met. In a few lines he sums up his message: it is about God's Son, Israel's promised king from David's line, shown to be Son of God by rising from the dead. In the emperor's own city, where Caesar was hailed as a son of the gods, this was a weighty way to begin.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/letters-and-letter-carriers\/","n":"Letters, scribes and carriers","s":"Letters were usually dictated to scribes, carried by trusted travelers because there was no public post, and read aloud to the people they were sent to.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/slavery\/","n":"Slavery and slave managers","s":"Slaves were everywhere in the Roman world, from field hands to stewards who ran whole estates and handled their master's money. A master away and slaves left in charge was a familiar story.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/messiah\/","n":"The Messiah, son of David","s":"The anointed king most Jews expected from David's line, who would free Israel from its enemies. Nobody expected him to be killed.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/imperial-cult\/","n":"Caesar worshiped as savior and lord","s":"Augustus and the emperors after him were hailed as savior, lord and son of a god, and in the eastern provinces they were worshiped. The titles the Gospels give Jesus were already being used for Caesar.","r":""}
No one seriously doubts that Paul wrote Romans. Carson, Moo and Morris place it at Corinth near the end of his third journey, about AD 57 (the Zondervan dictionary says the winter of 56-57). Why he sent so long an argument to a church he had never visited is debated: support for a mission to Spain, a summing up after the fights in Galatia and Corinth, a rehearsal for Jerusalem, or healing a split between Jewish and Gentile believers in Rome. Carson, Moo and Morris think several purposes meet, and they reject the view that chapter 16 was a separate letter, for which there is no textual evidence. Rome held close to a million people and perhaps 40,000 to 50,000 Jews, and Greek was the language of its Jewish community and of this letter (the cultural backgrounds article Rome). A slave of someone powerful had status: "the emperor's slaves were some of the highest-ranking people in the empire" (Keener). Gentiles called the emperor a son of the gods (Keener and his notes), and Wright hears in verses 3-4 a counter-claim to Caesar drawn above all from Israel's psalms and prophets.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Romans 1:1 and 1:4
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Romans 1:3, and article Rome
- N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: Romans, Part One, comment on Romans 1:1-7
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 8, Romans, Author, Provenance and Date, Integrity, Literary History, and Text, and Purpose
- J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entry Romans, Letter to the
