TER XIII

THE EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE ROMANS

[Sidenote: The Author.]

The genuineness of this Epistle, like that of Galatians and 1 and 2
Corinthians, is practically undisputed. No one ever seems to have
questioned it between the time that Marcion drew up his _Apostolicon_,
about A.D. 140, and A.D. 1792. Before the time of Marcion it is quoted
by St. Clement of Rome, St. Ignatius, and St. Polycarp. And there seem
to be some reminiscences of it in 1 Peter. It is first definitely
mentioned by name in the writings of St. Irenaeus, who quotes it
several times. This early and frequent use postulates for the Epistle
a very authoritative source. There is no one that we know of among the
first Christians who could have written it except St. Paul. What he
tells the Romans about his personal wishes and intentions is exactly
consonant with what he says elsewhere. The notices that he gives them
of his movements perfectly accord with the notices in Acts. The
primary conceptions of the Epistle are more or less common to all St.
Paul's works. They are concerned with the guilt and the power of sin,
the eternal purpose which God has for man, the meaning of Christ's
death and the effect of His resurrection, the nature of our acquittal
by God and our new spiritual life.

The only serious question with regard to the criticism of the outward
letter of the Epistle, is connected with the last two chapters (xv.,
xvi.). Baur rejected both as spurious compilations, {159} intended to
reconcile "Paulinism" with the more Jewish school of early Christian
thought. But Baur's habit of pronouncing spurious every book or part
of a book which did not agree with his peculiar estimate of St. Paul,
is now discredited. In spite of this, many critics think that xv. and
xvi. do not belong to this Epistle. They are generally admitted to be
by St. Paul, but it is thought that they are simply pages which have
become detached from some other writings of the apostle. Chapter xvi.
in particular is supposed to be a fragment of an Epistle to Ephesus.
It abounds in personal greetings to intimate friends; and yet it is
difficult to believe that St. Paul had many friends in Rome before he
visited it. And among these friends are Prisca and Aquila (xvi. 3),
who certainly stayed at Ephesus, where St. Paul had laboured for two
years and must have had many friends. The tone of xvi. 17-20 is
thought to imply sectarian divisions which the rest o