The Epistle to the Romans is the theological testament of the apostle Paul and the most systematic doctrinal exposition of the New Testament. Addressed to the Christian community of Rome, which he has not yet visited, it articulates the universality of sin, justification by faith in Jesus Christ, life according to the Spirit, and the faithfulness of God towards Israel. Read by Augustine at his conversion (Confessions VIII, 12), commented on by Thomas Aquinas, rediscovered by Luther (1515-1516), it gave birth to the Reformation. Karl Barth reread it in the 20th century (Der Römerbrief, 1919-1922) and the New Perspective on Paul (Sanders, Dunn, Wright) has renewed it since 1977.
Overview
Author
Paul, apostle, a former Pharisee (Phil 3:5-6; Gal 1:13-14), seized by Christ on the road to Damascus (Acts 9; 22; 26; Gal 1:15-16). The undisputed author of the epistle throughout the critical tradition. The secretary is named: Tertius (Rom 16:22).
Date of composition
AD 57-58, probably in the winter of 57-58 or the spring of 58. Paul writes from Corinth at the end of his third missionary journey, just before his departure for Jerusalem with the collection (Rom 15:25-28; Acts 20:2-3).
Addressees
The Christians of Rome, a mixed community of Jews and gentiles (Rom 1:5-7; 11:13; 15:15-16). A community that Paul did not found but knows partially (Rom 16:3-16, a list of 26 persons greeted). The Edict of Claudius (AD 49) had expelled the Jews from Rome (cf. Acts 18:2), modifying the sociology of the community.
Place of composition
Corinth, in the house of Gaius (Rom 16:23), during a three-month stay in Achaia (Acts 20:2-3).
Occasion / context
Threefold: (1) to prepare his visit to Rome by presenting his theology to the Roman Christians who do not know him personally; (2) to solicit their support for his projected mission to Spain (Rom 15:24,28); (3) to announce his passage through Jerusalem with the collection of the Pauline Churches for the poor of the mother community.
Original language
Careful Koine Greek, rich in diatribe argumentation (dialogues with a fictitious interlocutor), Old Testament citations (LXX), and ethical catalogues. The most elaborate style of the Pauline corpus.
Place in the canon
Received universally from the 2nd century. Present in first position in most manuscripts of the Pauline corpus (according to the current canonical order). Marcion (c. 140) kept it at the heart of his Apostolikon. Present in the Muratorian Canon (c. 170).
Authenticity and authorship criticism
The Pauline authenticity of the Epistle to the Romans has never been seriously contested in critical history. F. C. Baur himself, who restricted the authentic corpus to four epistles (the Hauptbriefe), included Romans. The stylistic, theological, and historical coherence with Galatians and Corinthians is exemplary.
The textual question: chapter 16. A few manuscripts (P46, certain minority witnesses) present the epistle in a short form (chaps. 1-14 or 1-15) without the list of greetings. T. W. Manson and others have proposed that Rom 16 was a letter of introduction for Phoebe (Rom 16:1-2) to Ephesus, integrated secondarily. But the majority of critics (Lampe, Jewett) hold to the original integrity, emphasising that Paul knew many persons who had migrated from the East to Rome after the Edict of Claudius.
The final doxology (Rom 16:25-27). This passage is attested in various places depending on the manuscripts: after 16:23 (P61, א A), after 14:23 (L Ψ minuscules), after 15:33 (P46), absent (G F). Origen attributed to Marcion the suppression of chaps. 15-16. The debate on the original position remains open; the doxology could be a late liturgical addition.
Coherence and structure. The epistle presents a remarkable coherence: doctrinal exposition (1-11) followed by ethical exhortation (12-15) and greetings (16). The division is traditional: (1) propositio (1:16-17); (2) the universal condemnation of sin (1:18 – 3:20); (3) justification by faith (3:21 – 5:21); (4) the sanctified life in the Spirit (6-8); (5) the destiny of Israel (9-11); (6) paraenesis (12-15); (7) greetings (16).
Epistolary genre. A Pauline letter, but also a doctrinal treatise (logos protreptikos) according to Stanley Stowers. Stuhlmacher considers it a "theological manifesto" intended to fix the Pauline preaching. The diatribe is omnipresent (objections from a fictitious interlocutor, μὴ γένοιτο "by no means!" frequent).
Literary structure
Address and thanksgiving(Rom 1:1-15)
An extended salutation (1:1-7) with a presentation of the gospel, thanksgiving (1:8-15), the plan of a visit.
The central theme: the righteousness of God revealed(Rom 1:16-17)
The doctrinal propositio: the gospel, the power of God for the salvation of every believer, the Jew first then the Greek; the righteousness of God (δικαιοσύνη θεοῦ) is revealed therein by faith for faith, a citation of Habakkuk 2:4 ("the righteous shall live by faith").
The universality of sin and the necessity of revelation(Rom 1:18 – 3:20)
The wrath of God on gentile impiety (1:18-32), the judgement of God on all, Jews included (2:1-29), the value and limit of the Jewish advantage (3:1-8), the conclusion: "all, Jews and Greeks, are under the dominion of sin" (3:9-20) with an Old Testament catena.
Justification by faith in Christ(Rom 3:21 – 4:25)
The manifestation of the righteousness of God apart from the Law (3:21-26): Christ as hilastērion (mercy seat). The elimination of "boasting" (3:27-31). Abraham, the model of faith (4:1-25): justified before circumcision (Gen 15:6 cited, 4:3,9,22), the father of all believers.
The consequences of justification: peace, hope, Christ the second Adam(Rom 5:1-21)
Peace with God (5:1-11), the Adam-Christ parallel (5:12-21): the universality of sin in Adam and of grace in Christ. The expression pollō mallon ("how much more") underlines the superabundance of grace.
Life in Christ: liberation from sin, the Law, and death(Rom 6:1 – 7:25)
Baptism and death to sin (6:1-14), the service of righteousness and not of sin (6:15-23), liberation from the Law (7:1-6), the Law holy but incapable of saving (7:7-13), the inner conflict of the "man" (7:14-25, the famous passage of the Pauline "I").
Life according to the Spirit(Rom 8:1-39)
New life in the Spirit (8:1-17), the groaning of creation and of the Spirit (8:18-30), predestination, calling, justification, glorification (8:28-30), the final hymn to the love of God in Christ (8:31-39): "neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities...".
The destiny of Israel: Rom 9-11(Rom 9:1 – 11:36)
Paul's grief for Israel (9:1-5), the sovereignty of God in election (9:6-29), the stone of stumbling (9:30 – 10:21), the faithful remnant of Israel (11:1-10), the provisional hardening and final salvation of Israel (11:11-32), the doxology on the inscrutable designs of God (11:33-36).
Ethical exhortations(Rom 12:1 – 15:13)
The reasonable sacrifice (12:1-2), life in the body of Christ and the charisms (12:3-8), brotherly love (12:9-21), submission to the authorities (13:1-7), love, the fulfilment of the Law (13:8-10), eschatological vigilance (13:11-14), mutual welcome between the strong and the weak (14:1 – 15:13).
Travel plans and greetings(Rom 15:14 – 16:27)
Paul's ministry (15:14-21), the plan for Spain via Rome (15:22-29), the request for prayer for Jerusalem (15:30-33), the recommendation of Phoebe the deaconess (16:1-2), greetings to 26 persons (16:3-16), a warning (16:17-20), final greetings (16:21-23), the doxology (16:25-27, textually disputed).
Principal theology
Justification by faith (δικαίωσις ἐκ πίστεως)
The central theme of the epistle is the revelation of the righteousness of God (δικαιοσύνη θεοῦ, Rom 1:17; 3:21-26) in the gospel. This "righteousness of God" has been the object of major interpretive debates: subjective genitive (the saving faithfulness of God, Käsemann) or genitive of origin (the status of righteous given by God, Bultmann, Sanders).
The Pauline mechanism. All (Jews and Greeks) are under sin (3:9-20). Christ was put forward by God as hilastērion, "mercy seat" or "propitiation" (3:25), by his blood received through faith. The righteousness of God is manifested apart from the Law (3:21), received through faith (πίστις, the central term), given freely by grace (χάρις).
Abraham as example. Rom 4 cites Gen 15:6 ("Abraham had faith in God and it was counted to him as righteousness") as the paradigm: justified before circumcision, Abraham is the father of believers from the circumcision and from the uncircumcised (4:11-12). Pauline faith is not only intellectual assent (fides quae) but personal trust (fides qua) and participation in Christ.
The expression pistis Christou. Rom 3:22,26; Gal 2:16; 3:22; Phil 3:9. Subjective genitive ("the faithfulness of Christ," Hays, Wright) or objective genitive ("faith in Christ," the classical tradition)? The pistis Christou debate has been renewed since Richard Hays (The Faith of Jesus Christ, 1983).
The Reformation reception. Luther discovers in Rom 1:17 "the righteous shall live by faith" the sola fide, by contrast with his earlier reading of righteousness as a punitive demand (the Wittenberg tower experience, c. 1515). Calvin systematises the iustitia imputata (imputed righteousness). This doctrine remains at the heart of the Lutheran confessions (Augsburg 1530, art. IV) and the Reformed confessions (Second Helvetic Confession 1566, ch. XV).
Israel and the Church: the faithfulness of God (Rom 9-11)
Chapters 9-11 constitute one of the culminating points of Pauline thought. Far from being a parenthesis, they are the theological summit of the epistle. Paul addresses there the burning question: how to reconcile the universal gospel and the particular election of Israel?
Grief and acknowledgement (Rom 9:1-5). Paul begins by expressing an immense grief for his people, ready to be anathema for his brethren according to the flesh, to whom belong "the filial adoption, the glory, the covenants, the Law, the worship, the promises, the patriarchs, and from whom the Christ comes according to the flesh." This sevenfold enumeration honours Israel and preserves its historical privilege.
Divine sovereignty (Rom 9:6-29). Paul argues from the sovereign freedom of God: true Israel is not the only carnal Israel; God freely chose Isaac, Jacob, and called from both sides (Jews and gentiles). The potter and the clay (Rom 9:21 citing Is 29:16; Jer 18:6) illustrate this sovereignty.
The righteousness of faith (Rom 9:30 – 10:21). Israel pursued a Law of righteousness and did not attain it; the gentiles, without pursuing, attained it by faith. The cause: Israel stumbled over "the stone of stumbling" that is Christ. The gospel is proclaimed freely, accessible.
Provisional hardening and final salvation (Rom 11:1-32). Paul denies the rejection of Israel: "God has not rejected his people, whom he foreknew" (11:2). There is a faithful remnant. The partial hardening of Israel (πώρωσις) is providential and provisional, until "the fullness of the nations" enters. Then "all Israel will be saved" (πᾶς Ἰσραὴλ σωθήσεται, 11:26).
The olive tree (Rom 11:17-24). A decisive metaphor: the gentiles are branches grafted onto the Israelite olive tree; they have not replaced the natural branches. A warning: "do not boast against the branches." This text grounds, since Vatican II (Nostra Aetate § 4, 1965), the rejection of supersessionism in Catholic theology. A major reception too in Dabru Emet (the Jewish declaration, 2000) and the document The Gifts and Calling (the Commission for Religious Relations with Judaism, 2015).
Doxology (Rom 11:33-36). "O depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgements, how unsearchable his ways!"
Pauline anthropology and the "I" of Rom 7
Paul develops in Rom 5-8 a theological anthropology articulated around the pairs Adam/Christ, sin/grace, Law/Spirit, flesh (σάρξ)/spirit (πνεῦμα). The "I" of Rom 7:14-25 has been the object of major interpretive debates since Augustine and Luther.
The Adam-Christ parallel (Rom 5:12-21). By one man (Adam), sin entered the world, and by sin death; thus death reached all men because all have sinned (5:12, whose translation is disputed: "in whom"? "because"? — Augustine read in quo and grounded original sin). By one man (Christ), grace and justification were given to all. Grace superabounds over the transgression.
Baptismal death and life (Rom 6:1-14). Baptism plunges into the death of Christ to rise in newness of life. The baptised is freed from the slavery of sin and becomes a slave of righteousness. This theology of baptism nourished the whole Catholic-Orthodox-Lutheran tradition of the sacrament and the Anabaptist practice of believers' baptism.
The status of the Law (Rom 7). The Law is holy, just, good (7:12), but sin uses it to produce death. Is the "I" of Rom 7:14-25: (a) Paul before his conversion (the young Augustine, Oecolampadius)? (b) Paul as a Christian describing the permanent struggle of the believer (the late Augustine, Luther, Calvin)? (c) A rhetorical persona representing humanity under the Law (Krister Stendahl, Sanders, Dunn, NPP)?
The liberation of the Spirit (Rom 8). Chapter 8 is the summit: no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (8:1), the life of the Spirit, filial adoption (8:15 "Abba, Father"), the groaning of creation (8:18-25), the groaning of the Spirit (8:26-27), the "golden chain" (8:29-30: foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, glorification), the final invincible hymn to the love of God (8:31-39).
Major theological disputes
The following disputes draw on the six great confessional voices (Catholic, Orthodox, Reformed, Lutheran, Anglican, Anabaptist), with interjections from Professor Tryphon Goldberg, the site's Jewish pedagogical persona.
Justification by faith: sola fide or faith formed by charity?
Rom 3:28 states: "a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the Law" (λογιζόμεθα γὰρ δικαιοῦσθαι πίστει ἄνθρωπον χωρὶς ἔργων νόμου). Luther translated into German: "allein durch den Glauben" (by faith alone), a polemical addition to the Greek text but, in his view, in conformity with the Pauline intention. This translation gave birth to the sola fide and the rupture with Rome.
Catholic
The Council of Trent (session VI, Decretum de iustificatione, 1547) responds to Luther. Justification is a free gift of God and includes: (1) the remission of sins; (2) sanctification and inner renewal through the voluntary acceptance of grace. Faith is "the principle and root of all justification" (DH 1532), but it is formed by charity (fides caritate formata) and inseparable from works of charity. The Joint Declaration on Justification (Augsburg, 31 October 1999) signed by the Vatican and the Lutheran World Federation established a differentiated consensus: both confess that by grace alone, through faith in the saving action of Christ, sinners are justified.
Orthodox
The Orthodox Church did not receive the Western debate on justification in the same way. Orthodox soteriology privileges theōsis (deification, 2 Pet 1:4): participation in the divine life by grace. Justification is integrated into this synergistic process. Maximus the Confessor, Gregory Palamas. Vladimir Lossky (The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, 1944) emphasises that the faith/works opposition is badly posed: salvation is the work of Christ received by human freedom. The Synod of Jerusalem (1672, Dositheus) responded to the Calvinist confessions but without adopting the sola fide. The joint declaration of 2017 between the Vatican and the Patriarchate of Constantinople on ecumenism nuances these positions.
Reformed
John Calvin (Institutes III, 11-19) defends justification by faith alone through an imputed righteousness (iustitia imputata): the righteousness of Christ is imputed to the believer who remains a sinner in himself but is declared righteous before God. This doctrine is forensic (juridical): God declares righteous the one who remains objectively marked by sin (simul iustus et peccator, the received Lutheran formula). Heidelberg Catechism (1563), q. 60-62; Westminster Confession (1647), ch. XI. Sanctification is the subsequent work of the Spirit, inseparable but distinct from justification. The WCRC signed the Joint Declaration on Justification in 2017.
Lutheran
Martin Luther (Disputatio de iustificatione, 1536) makes justification by faith alone "the article by which the Church stands or falls" (articulus stantis et cadentis ecclesiae, attributed to Luther but formulated by Valentin Loescher in 1718). Augsburg Confession (1530, art. IV): we obtain the remission of sins and justification before God not by our merits but by grace, through faith in Christ. Apology of the Augsburg Confession (Melanchthon, 1531). Formula of Concord (1577), art. III. Lutheran doctrine strictly distinguishes Law and Gospel, sin and grace. The Joint Declaration of 1999 marks the first Catholic-Lutheran recognition of a differentiated consensus on this article.
Anglican
The Thirty-Nine Articles (art. 11, 1571) receive the sola fide: "we are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Faith, and not for our own works or deservings. Wherefore, that we are justified by Faith only is a most wholesome Doctrine, and very full of comfort." The Homily of Salvation (Cranmer, 1547) develops it further. The Anglican Communion co-signed the Joint Declaration on Justification in 2016. A classical position: N. T. Wright (What Saint Paul Really Said, 1997) renews it in the direction of the NPP.
Anabaptist
The Anabaptist tradition generally received the Luthero-Reformed doctrine of justification by faith, while strongly emphasising the inseparability of faith and concrete discipleship. For Menno Simons (d. 1561), true faith necessarily produces the new birth, baptism upon profession of faith, and the imitation of Christ (Nachfolge Christi). The Schleitheim Confession (1527) does not deal explicitly with justification but centres on separation, community, and non-violence. The Dordrecht Confession (1632) receives grace but accentuates visible holiness. John Howard Yoder (The Politics of Jesus, 1972) renews it by accentuating the political dimension of salvation.
Synthesis
The six traditions confess that salvation is a gift of God received by faith. The classical divergences (16th century) between Protestant sola fide and Catholic fides caritate formata have been significantly reduced by the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (Augsburg, 31 October 1999, the anniversary day of the Reformation), signed between the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation, then ratified by the World Methodist Council (2006), the Anglican Communion (2016), and the World Communion of Reformed Churches (2017). This document recognises "a differentiated consensus": the Churches confess together that by grace alone, through faith in the saving action of Christ, sinners are justified. Orthodox theology maintains its own framework of theōsis, without rupture but without signature. The Anabaptists accentuate the inseparability of faith and imitation. Tryphon's interjections show that a reading of chapter 2 of James and of rabbinic Judaism invites us to move beyond too sharp an opposition between faith and works.
Israel and the Church: substitution, dual covenant, or continuity (Rom 9-11)?
Chapters 9-11 structured the whole Christian theology of Israel. The olive tree of Rom 11, the "all Israel will be saved" of Rom 11:26, and the doxology of Rom 11:33-36 remain the major references of Jewish-Christian dialogue. Since the Shoah, since Nostra Aetate (1965), and since Dabru Emet (2000), these chapters are at the heart of a renewed ecumenical and interreligious reflection.
Catholic
Vatican II, Nostra Aetate § 4 (28 October 1965), constitutes a historic rupture: the Catholic Church recognises the permanent faithfulness of God towards Israel (Rom 11:28-29), rejects all discrimination against the Jews, and confesses the Jewish root of Christianity. Dei Verbum receives the First Covenant as the living word of God. The document of the Commission for Religious Relations with Judaism, The Gifts and the Calling of God Are Irrevocable (10 December 2015), affirms that the Catholic Church conducts no organised mission to the Jews and recognises the non-revocation of the Covenant. John Paul II: "the Jews are our elder brothers in the faith" (Synagogue of Rome, 1986). Benedict XVI maintained this line. Francis continued it.
Orthodox
The Orthodox Church has no central magisterium comparable to Rome. Patristic theology (John Chrysostom, Adversus Iudaeos) was sometimes marked by a regrettable anti-Judaism, but the liturgical tradition preserves the Psalms and the first Covenant as a living word. The Pan-Orthodox Council of Crete (2016) condemns all racism and antisemitism. The Ecumenical Patriarchates (Bartholomew I) have multiplied the declarations of dialogue with Judaism. The theologian Olivier Clément (d. 2009) wrote remarkable pages on the faithfulness of God to Israel. Still a systematic theological work in progress.
Reformed
The Reformed tradition went through several phases. Calvin (Commentary on Romans, 1539) reads Rom 11:26 "all Israel will be saved" as the whole of the elect people, Jewish and gentile. Theodore Beza maintains a strict reading. The Puritanism of the 17th century saw the flowering of millenarian hopes linked to Israel (John Owen, Increase Mather). Karl Barth (Church Dogmatics II/2, IV/3) renewed it radically: Israel and the Church are the two forms of the one Community of God, never separated. The WCRC (World Communion of Reformed Churches) adopted a declaration on relations with Judaism (2017). The Reformed Churches in France (EPUdF) and in Switzerland (EERS) condemned supersessionism.
Lutheran
A complex position. Luther, in That Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew (1523), expresses a sympathetic hope of Jewish conversion. But in 1543, On the Jews and Their Lies utters terrible accusations that Lutheran history bears as a painful scar. After the Shoah, the LWF multiplied the declarations of repentance: Düsseldorf 1947; Vienna 1990; Sibiu 2007. The LWF co-signed the Joint Declaration on Justification (1999) with Rome. The Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) published in 2016 Inseparable Companions, rejecting supersessionism and affirming the non-revocation of the Covenant. Wolfhart Pannenberg, Jürgen Moltmann, Hans Joachim Iwand: to rethink Rom 9-11 without anti-Judaism.
Anglican
The Anglican Church showed an early commitment to dialogue with Judaism. The Way of Dialogue (Lambeth 1988) recognises the permanent faithfulness of God towards Israel. The report Jews, Christians and Muslims (1988) refuses supersessionism. The Anglican Communion Office maintains a regular dialogue with the International Council of Christians and Jews. Rowan Williams (Why Study the Past?, 2005) proposes a theology of coexistence without absorption. The Anglican Communion co-signed the Joint Declaration on Justification (2016).
Anabaptist
The Anabaptist tradition, itself historically persecuted, often showed a natural solidarity with the Jews. Menno Simons (d. 1561) refuses violence against the Jews. The Dutch Mennonites welcomed persecuted Jews in the 17th century. But classical Anabaptist theology did not develop a systematic doctrine of Israel. Contemporary Mennonites (John Howard Yoder, despite his personal failings; Stuart Murray) have engaged in a renewed dialogue. Mennonite Church USA published a declaration of repentance on anti-Judaism (2009).
Synthesis
On this question, the historical turning point lies after the Shoah and around Nostra Aetate (1965). The six traditions have, to varying degrees, integrated the faithfulness of God towards Israel (Rom 11:28-29) and rejected strict supersessionism. The Catholic documents (The Gifts and Calling, 2015), Lutheran (Vienna 1990; EKD 2016), Reformed (WCRC 2017), Anglican (Lambeth 1988), Mennonite (MC USA 2009), and the Joint Declaration on Justification in five stages (1999-2017) constitute an unprecedented ecumenical corpus. On the Jewish side, Dabru Emet (2000) and the Orthodox Declaration on Christianity (2015) open a reciprocal dialogue without confusion. The theological debate remains lively on the question of the two covenants (one people or two?), mission, and eschatology. Tryphon's interjections recall that the declarations must pass into concrete pastoral acts and that the rectification must be embodied in the preaching.
Civil authority (Rom 13:1-7): unconditional submission, critical obedience, or resistance?
Rom 13:1-7 is one of the most used and most controversial texts of the New Testament. "Let every person be subject to the higher authorities; for there is no authority that does not come from God" (13:1). This text legitimised monarchical absolutism (Bossuet), justified civil obedience in times of peace, but also fed controversies in the face of oppressive regimes. How is Rom 13 to be read in the face of the Third Reich, apartheid, or contemporary dictatorships?
Catholic
The Catholic Church teaches that legitimate authority comes from God (Rom 13:1) and that one must obey it in everything that does not contradict the divine law (Acts 5:29: "it is better to obey God than men"). Catechism of the Catholic Church § 2238-2243. Catholic social doctrine: Rerum Novarum (Leo XIII, 1891); Quadragesimo Anno (Pius XI, 1931); Pacem in Terris (John XXIII, 1963); Gaudium et Spes (Vatican II, 1965); Centesimus Annus (John Paul II, 1991); Fratelli Tutti (Francis, 2020). The right of resistance to tyranny is recognised under strict conditions (CCC § 2243).
Orthodox
The Orthodox Church long lived under the mode of the Byzantine "symphony" between Empire and Church, formalised by Justinian (Novella VI, 535). Imperial authority is sacred but relative to fidelity to orthodoxy. The resistance to Byzantine iconoclasm (John of Damascus, Theodore the Studite) attests that one can refuse authority when it violates the faith. The Orthodox Churches sometimes suffered under communism (the new Russian, Romanian, Bulgarian martyrs). The Bases of the Social Concept of the Patriarchate of Moscow (2000) deal with civil duty and its limits. Patriarch Bartholomew has supported human rights.
Reformed
John Calvin (Institutes IV, 20) teaches obedience to the authorities but recognises a right of resistance by the lesser magistrates (magistratus inferiores) against tyranny. Theodore Beza (On the Right of Magistrates, 1574) and the Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos (Junius Brutus, 1579, the Huguenot monarchomachs) systematise this right. Calvinism nourished the Dutch, English, and American revolutions. The Barmen Declaration (May 1934, drafted by Karl Barth) resists Nazism: "Jesus Christ, as he is attested to us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God whom we have to hear." The Belhar Confession (1986) against South African apartheid. Bonhoeffer (d. 1945) in practice.
Lutheran
Luther distinguishes the two kingdoms (Zwei-Reiche-Lehre): the spiritual kingdom (Church) and the temporal kingdom (State), both instituted by God but distinct. On Secular Authority (1523) defends obedience to the legitimate State. But in 1530, before the Protestant princes, Luther recognises a right of resistance against the Catholic Emperor. This ambiguity marked the Lutheran tradition. Tragically, the doctrine of the two kingdoms sometimes served to justify Lutheran passivity in the face of Nazism. Bonhoeffer (d. 9 April 1945, Flossenbürg), Niemöller (d. 1984), the Confessing Church embodied the resistance. Wolfhart Pannenberg, Jürgen Moltmann renewed Lutheran political doctrine after the war.
Anglican
The Anglican Church has been the established Church in England since 1534. Article 37 of the Thirty-Nine Articles (1571): the sovereign has supreme authority over all domains, without however administering the sacraments. A tradition of Establishment nuanced by the opposition to the Catholicising Stuarts (the Glorious Revolution 1688). Anglican social Christianity (F. D. Maurice, William Temple) renewed political thought. Living with Difference (Lambeth 1988, 1998, 2008) deals with contemporary pluralism. Archbishop Desmond Tutu embodied non-violent resistance to apartheid in South Africa. Rowan Williams (Faith in the Public Square, 2012) proposes a political theology critical of the establishment.
Anabaptist
The Anabaptist tradition developed the most distinctive political theology. Schleitheim Confession (1527), article VI: the refusal of the oath, the refusal of the sword, separation from the world. The State is ordained by God on account of sin but cannot be Christianly assumed: Christians do not bear the sword and do not swear oaths. This "theology of the two kingdoms" (not to be confused with Luther's) is radical. Persecuted by Catholics and Protestants in the 16th century, the Anabaptists survived on the margins. Mennonites, Amish, Brethren maintain conscientious objection and pacifism. John Howard Yoder (The Politics of Jesus, 1972) systematises a Christian politics founded on the non-violence of Christ. Stanley Hauerwas (Resident Aliens, 1989) extends it.
Synthesis
The six traditions confess that all authority comes ultimately from God (Rom 13:1) and recognise the primacy of "obeying God rather than men" (Acts 5:29). The divergences bear on the modalities: Byzantine symphony (Orthodox), magisterial social doctrine (Catholics), resistance of the lesser magistrates (Reformed), complex doctrine of the two kingdoms (Lutherans), Establishment and social Christianity (Anglicans), refusal of the sword (Anabaptists). The catastrophes of the 20th century (two world wars, totalitarianisms, Shoah, apartheid) obliged all the traditions to revisit Rom 13: the Barmen Declaration (1934), the Belhar Confession (1986), Pacem in Terris (1963), Gaudium et Spes (1965), and contemporary Anabaptist political theology constitute a common heritage to be received. Tryphon's interjections recall that the reading of Rom 13 must always be articulated with Rev 13 (the bestial power) and that the memory of the martyrs (Bonhoeffer, Maximilian Kolbe, Stephen, and the whole cloud of Heb 11) remains normative for discernment.
Historical reception
Patristic reception (2nd-5th c.)
The Epistle to the Romans shaped the patristic age. Justin Martyr (Dialogue with Trypho, c. 160) uses Rom 4 to defend the justification of Abraham apart from circumcision. Irenaeus (Adversus Haereses, c. 180) cites Rom 5:12-21 (Adam-Christ) at the heart of his theology of recapitulation. Tertullian (Adversus Marcionem, c. 207) defends the unity of the God of the Old and New Testaments through Rom 4-11. Origen (Commentarii in Romanos, c. 244) delivers the first great scientific commentary in 10 books, of which only 9 have come down to us (in Rufinus' Latin): a founding work of the Roman exegetical tradition.
Augustine (d. 430) receives Rom 1:17 at his conversion in 386 (Confessions VIII, 12: Tolle, lege) together with Rom 13:13-14. His anti-Pelagian controversy (Ad Simplicianum, c. 397; De Spiritu et Littera, 412; De Praedestinatione Sanctorum, 428-429) rests massively on Rom 5, 7, 9. Augustine reads Rom 5:12 in quo ("in whom," all sinned in Adam), grounding the Western doctrine of original sin. John Chrysostom (d. 407) delivers 32 homilies on Romans, the reference pastoral and moral reading for the East.
Medieval reception
In the Middle Ages, the Epistle to the Romans continues to structure dogmatics. Thomas Aquinas (Super Epistolam ad Romanos lectura, c. 1272) delivers a systematic commentary articulated with his Summa. For Thomas, justification is the gift of sanctifying grace that inwardly transforms the sinner. The Ordinary Gloss gathers Augustine, Ambrosiaster, and the Latin tradition. Peter Lombard (Sentences, c. 1150) uses Rom 5 for original sin. Bonaventure and Albert the Great comment.
The De Auxiliis controversy (1597-1607) between Dominicans (Báñez: physical premotion) and Jesuits (Molina: middle knowledge) on grace and freedom finds its roots in the interpretation of Augustine and of Rom 8-9. Rome did not decide. The Schola Augustiniana Moderna (Gregory of Rimini, Hugolino of Orvieto) prepares the Augustinian radicalisation of the 16th century.
Byzantine reception
John Chrysostom (d. 407) remains the reference commentator for the Byzantine tradition. His 32 homilies on Romans, delivered at Antioch then at Constantinople, are a summa of pastoral exegesis. Theodore of Mopsuestia (d. 428) and Theodoret of Cyrus (d. 466) left important commentaries, partially preserved in the catenae. Photius (d. 893) cites and summarises.
Byzantine exegesis privileges the ethical and christological dimension: Christ the second Adam, baptism as participation in death and resurrection, love as the fulfilment of the Law. Theōsis is read in Rom 8:29 (conformed to the image of the Son). The medieval Byzantine commentaries (Euthymios Zigabenos, 12th c.) compile. Orthodox modernity (Florovsky, Lossky, Romanides) renewed it without rupture.
Reformation reception
The Epistle to the Romans is the founding text of the Reformation. Martin Luther gives his lectures on Romans at Wittenberg in 1515-1516; his notes (the Römerbriefvorlesung) show the genesis of his doctrine of justification. His Preface to the Epistle to the Romans (1522) profoundly influences John Wesley (Aldersgate Street, 24 May 1738) who feels his heart "strangely warmed." The Preface is a summit of theological prose.
Philip Melanchthon (Loci communes, 1521, the first Protestant dogmatics) orders his theology according to Romans. Calvin publishes in 1539 his Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, one of the greatest commentaries of all time: philological rigour, theological clarity, pastoral lucidity. Theodore Beza, Peter Martyr Vermigli, and the whole Reformed tradition comment. On the radical side, Thomas Müntzer, Andreas Karlstadt extend it diversely. The Anabaptists commented little on Romans in a systematic way.
The Council of Trent (session VI, 1547) responds to the Reformers with the Decretum de iustificatione, founded on a Catholic reading of Romans articulated with Jas 2. Robert Bellarmine (De Iustificatione, 1593) and Francisco Suárez systematise the post-Tridentine position.
Modern reception (19th-21st c.)
Modern exegesis of the Epistle to the Romans went through several great turning points. (1) F. C. Baur (Paulus der Apostel Jesu Christi, 1845) reads Paul as the antagonist of Peter, opposing Jewish Christianity and Hellenism. This reading is largely abandoned. (2) Adolf Schlatter (Der Brief an die Römer, 1935) marks post-liberal Lutheran exegesis. (3) Karl Barth (Der Römerbrief, 1st ed. 1919, 2nd ed. 1922) opens "dialectical theology": God is wholly other, the gospel is a crisis for everything religious in man. A "bombshell on the playground of the theologians" (Karl Adam).
(4) Rudolf Bultmann (Theologie des Neuen Testaments, 1953) reads Paul in existential terms: self-justification is the quintessence of sin; justification opens onto authentic existence. (5) Ernst Käsemann (An die Römer, 1973) renews it through Pauline apocalyptic: the righteousness of God is Gottesgerechtigkeit, a cosmic power of salvation. (6) Krister Stendahl (Paul and the Introspective Conscience of the West, 1963) criticises the anachronistic Lutheran reading of the Pauline "I."
(7) The New Perspective on Paul (NPP). E. P. Sanders (Paul and Palestinian Judaism, 1977) overturns the paradigm: Second Temple Judaism was not legalism but "covenantal nomism." James D. G. Dunn (The New Perspective on Paul, 1983) systematises: the "works of the Law" designate the markers of Jewish identity (circumcision, sabbath, food laws), not moral works in general. N. T. Wright (Paul and the Faithfulness of God, 2013) develops it into a global covenantal theology. (8) Apocalyptic Paul (J. Louis Martyn, Douglas Campbell, Beverly Gaventa) renews it through the divine invasion. (9) Contextual readings: feminist (Beverly Gaventa), postcolonial (Daniel Patte), Jewish (Pamela Eisenbaum, Paul Was Not a Christian, 2009).
The major contemporary commentaries: C. E. B. Cranfield (ICC, 1975-1979), James D. G. Dunn (WBC, 1988), Joseph Fitzmyer (AB, 1993), Douglas Moo (NICNT, 1996, 2nd ed. 2018), Robert Jewett (Hermeneia, 2007), Ben Witherington (2004), Thomas Schreiner (BECNT, 1998, 2nd ed. 2018), Frank Matera (Paideia, 2010).
Selected bibliography
References selected according to the conventions of the SBL Handbook of Style (2nd ed., 2014).
Barclay, John M. G. Paul and the Gift. Grand Rapids : Eerdmans, 2015.
Barth, Karl. The Epistle to the Romans. Translated by Edwyn C. Hoskyns. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1933.
Bell, Richard H. The Irrevocable Call of God : An Inquiry into Paul's Theology of Israel. WUNT 184. Tübingen : Mohr Siebeck, 2005.
Campbell, Douglas A. The Deliverance of God : An Apocalyptic Rereading of Justification in Paul. Grand Rapids : Eerdmans, 2009.
Cranfield, C. E. B. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans. 2 vols. ICC. Edinburgh : T&T Clark, 1975-1979.
Dunn, James D. G. Romans. 2 vols. WBC 38A-B. Dallas : Word, 1988.
Dunn, James D. G. The New Perspective on Paul. Rev. ed. Grand Rapids : Eerdmans, 2008.
Eisenbaum, Pamela. Paul Was Not a Christian : The Original Message of a Misunderstood Apostle. New York : HarperOne, 2009.
Fitzmyer, Joseph A. Romans : A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. AB 33. New York : Doubleday, 1993.
Gaventa, Beverly Roberts. When in Romans : An Invitation to Linger with the Gospel According to Paul. Grand Rapids : Baker Academic, 2016.
Hays, Richard B. The Faith of Jesus Christ : The Narrative Substructure of Galatians 3:1 – 4:11. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids : Eerdmans, 2002.