Epistle to the Romans (Classic Reprint): A Commentary Logical and Historical: A Commentary Logical and Historical (Classic Reprint) - Tapa blanda

Excerpt from Epistle to the Romans: A Commentary Logical and Historical

I. The origin OF the roman church is historically obscure. There is no record, and little from which a record can be constructed, either of the date of its beginning or of the agent or agents of its founding. When the Epistle to the Romans was written the church had already a world-wide reputation (i. But little can be inferred from this as to the length of time which the church had already existed. In five years it might have become known throughout the whole world. The Thessa Ionian church in less than a year after Paul's first Visit was widely known; for Paul writes them from Corinth (a.d. 52 or 53) In every place your faith to Godward is Spread abroad; so that we need not to speak anything (i Thess. I. That the Roman church was not much if any older than the earlier Gentile churches is probable. It was a Gentile Church. It is not easy to conceive how such a one could have come into existence before the church in Antioch in Syria (acts xi. 19 many years after Pente cost. And this first Gentile church did not get its authority to be strictly such until after the council in Jerusalem (a.d. The matter and the spirit of the Epistle to the Romans show that the latter were thoroughly settled on the question of their right to be just what they were - a Gentile church, grounded on'faith in Christ. N ow who made them such? Who was qualified to teach them that in Christ there was no distinction between Jew and Gentile, a doctrine that was not promulgated before Peter's visit to the household of Cornelius (acts and that did not gain authoritative recognition until a good while (acts xv.) afterward? It seems almost necessary to believe that the Roman church was founded by teachers from some of the Gentile centers, and that, too, after such teachers had come to clear vision of the intent of the gospel for Gentiles as such, and that they could be saved as Gentiles. The Gentile character of the church is now pretty generally admitted, and this admission makes necessary the other, that its founders must have been men of Paul's way of presenting the gospel.

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This book has no other aim than to make the somewhat difficult Epis tie to the Romans better understood to report to the reader what the apostle has written. It is not put forth in the interest of any theological system; it has no theory of any kind to advocate and no point to make, except by dispassionate study to ascertain the meaning of Paul slanguage. The commentator, even more than the preacher of the gospel, is under solemn obligation not to bear false witness against the sacred penman, not to misinterpret him, not to overlay his thought with personal views; the commentators work is to follow down the stream of the inspired text, to measure its width and if possible its depth, but not to dig new channels for it and not to divert its flow to water his own garden. This book is not a hasty product, but the result of many years of labor. The author has had the privilege and pleasure of guiding more than twenty classes of theological students through the Epistle to the Romans, fourteen of these using the original text. The instruction has not been given by means of lectures read or dictated by the teacher. Each word and each idea in the epistle have been discussed with the class, every member of which had the utmost liberty to suggest his difficulty, to ask questions, to oppose, to deny, or to call up the contrary view of any commentator. This book is the outcome of these years of study and discussion. While the very words written by the apostle have been considered and weighed one by one, the result is not presented in that form, nor with any but the very least reference to the Greek There is a large class of men, educated men, who, after all, can read a commentary with most satisfaction and profit in English. This book is especially designed for them. The voluminous works of Meyer and of Godet, even when translated, of A lford, of Sanday and Headlam, and
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)