PAUL WRITES TO UNIFY THE JEWISH AND GENTILE BELIEVERS AT ROME

ROMANS

Throughout the first century, Rome was the city that controlled the world. So it is only fitting that this city with its finger on the pulse of an empire might also find itself touched by the Kingdom of God. A church consisting of Gentiles and Jews came to life in Rome, and that community received a letter from the apostle Paul for a reason.

The introduction of Paul’s letter to Rome indicates that it was not addressed to the church in Rome but “to all who are in Rome” (Rom. 1:7). That and other clues throughout the letter suggest that there was significant fragmentation in the city. The early church at Rome initially developed under the influence of three powerful factors: the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, Gentile believers in Jesus moving to Rome, and Paul’s imprisonment at Rome. By the middle of the first century, the city of Rome had a Jewish population of around twenty thousand.25 Luke tells us that at least some of these Jews had been in Jerusalem and were filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2:10). Once they returned to their homes, they surely would have shared their experiences in Jerusalem with other Jewish families in Rome. Thus the earliest evidence we have for the church in Rome is linked to this event.

Carcere Mamertino (Mamertine Prison) was believed to be the place where Paul and Peter were imprisoned while in Rome.

Palatine Hill contained the palatial residences of Roman emperors, including Augustus, Tiberius, and Domitian.

Rome was also touched by Gentiles who had become disciples of Jesus and traveled to this city from the eastern Mediterranean. That is because Rome was a transportation hub that connected to its empire through sea-lanes and roadways. A brief glance at a map suggests that the Italian Peninsula is ideally suited to sea traffic, with the Tyrrhenian, Ionian, and Adriatic seas marking three of its four borders. But it is particularly in Rome where land travel meets sea travel. Here sea-borne travelers could move up the navigable waters of the Tiber River from Ostia and connect to the famous Roman road system that radiated to all the major cities of the ancient world.26 Among those travelers and merchants were Gentiles who had come to know Jesus through their encounter with the churches of the eastern Mediterranean.27

It was this church, comprised of both Jewish and Gentile believers in Jesus, that Paul visited when he was imprisoned in Rome. While he awaited trial, he lived under some form of arrest while still having access to those who wished to visit him (Acts 28:11–31). But before Paul arrived there physically (see Rom. 1:10–15), he sent a letter, known to us as the book of Romans, to this community. Paul wrote this letter from Corinth during his third journey and addressed it “to all in Rome who are beloved by God and called to be saints” (Rom. 1:7). These followers of Jesus not only needed to hear the basics of God’s teaching from an apostle but also needed to unite themselves in the face of growing opposition. Prior to Paul’s arrival we know of no apostle who had personally traveled to Rome. Consequently, this church required a briefing on the basics of the faith, and that is what they get in Paul’s letter to the Romans (e.g., Rom. 3:9–31).

Paul wrote to unify the Jewish and Gentile believers at Rome for a reason. Division between Jew and Gentile may have roots in Claudius’s expulsion of the Jews from Rome due to rioting over Chrestus. It is assumed that this reflects a heated debate within the Jewish and Gentile church in Rome, and it is possible that bad feelings may have continued.28 But a new age was dawning, that of Nero,29 who as emperor of Rome persecuted Jewish and Gentile followers of Jesus like never before. Thus Paul’s letter to the church at Rome was written as an urgent call for the disciples of Jesus to unite for mutual support in the face of upcoming persecution by Nero.

Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (AD 37–68), the fifth and final Roman emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty.