《The Pulpit Commentaries – Romans (Vol. 1)》(Joseph S. Exell)
Contents and the Editors
One of the largest and best-selling homiletical commentary sets of its kind. Directed by editors Joseph Exell and Henry Donald Maurice Spence-Jones, The Pulpit Commentary drew from over 100 authors over a 30 year span to assemble this conservative and trustworthy homiletical commentary set. A favorite of pastors for nearly 100 years, The Pulpit Commentary offers you ideas and insight on "How to Preach It" throughout the entire Bible.
This in-depth commentary brings together three key elements for better preaching:
· Exposition-with thorough verse-by-verse commentary of every verse in the Bible.
· Homiletics-with the "framework" or the "big picture" of the text.
· Homilies-with four to six sermons sample sermons from various authors.
In addition, this set also adds detailed information on biblical customs as well as historical and geographical information, and translations of key Hebrew and Greek words to help you add spice to your sermon.
All in all, The Pulpit Commentary has over 22,000 pages and 95,000 entries from a total of 23 volumes. The go-to commentary for any preacher or teacher of God's Word.
About the Editors
Rev. Joseph S. Exell, M.A., served as the Editor of Clerical World, The Homiletical Quarterly and the Monthly Interpreter. Exell was also the editor for several large commentary sets like The Men of the Bible, The Pulpit Commentary, Preacher's Homiletic Library and The Biblical Illustrator.
Henry Donald Maurice Spence-Jones was born in London on January 14, 1836. He was educated at Corpus Christi, Cambridge where he received his B.A. in 1864. He was ordered deacon in 1865 and ordained as a priest is the following year. He was professor of English literature and lecturer in Hebrew at St. David's College, Lampeter, Wales from 1865-1870. He was rector of St. Mary-de-Crypt with All Saints and St. Owen, Gloucester from 1870-1877 and principal of Gloucester Theological College 1875-1877. He became vicar and rural dean of St. Pancras, London 1877-1886, and honorary canon since 1875. He was select preacher at Cambridge in 1883,1887,1901, and 1905, and at Oxford in 1892 and 1903. In 1906 he was elected professor of ancient history in the Royal Academy. In theology he is a moderate evangelical. He also edited The Pulpit Commentary (48 vols., London, 1880-97) in collaboration with Rev. J. S. Exell, to which he himself contributed the section on Luke, 2 vols., 1889, and edited and translated the Didache 1885. He passed away in 1917 after authoring numerous individual titles.
00 Introduction
Introduction.
§ 1. AUTHENTICITY
THE authenticity of this Epistle is indisputable, and acknowledged; except that Baur has questioned that of the two concluding chapters. The relation of these two chapters to the body of the Epistle, and the evidence of their having been written as well as the rest by St. Paul, will be considered in loco. The internal evidence of the Epistle as a whole is in itself convincing. In tone of thought, method of argument, and style, it has all the peculiar characteristics of St. Paul. It may be safely said that no one could possibly have written it but himself. The external evidence is no less complete, including the testimony of such early Fathers as Clement of Rome, Polycarp ('Ad Philip.'), Justin Martyr, Ignatius, and Irenaeus.
§ 2. TIME AND PLACE.
Equally certain is our knowledge of the time and place of writing, derived from intimations in the Epistle itself, in conjunction with what is found in other Epistles and in the Acts of the Apostles. It was written from Corinth, in the spring of A.D. 58 (according to the received chronology of the Acts), when St. Paul was about to leave that place to take the alms he had collected to Jerusalem for the relief of the poor Christians there, as related in Acts 20:3. The proofs of this conclusion are briefly these: It appears from the Acts of the Apostles that St. Paul, after staying for more than two years at Ephesus, "purposed in the Spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there, I must also see Rome" (Acts 19:21). He sent Timotheus and Erastus before him into Macedonia, intending to follow them before long. His departure seems to have been hastened by the tumult raised by Demetrius the silversmith, after which he proceeded at once to Macedonia, and thence to Greece (i.e. Achaia), remaining three months at Corinth. His intention at first was to sail thence direct to Syria, so as to reach Jerusalem without unnecessary delay; but, in order to elude the Jews who laid wait for him, he changed his plan at the last moment, and returned to Macedonia, whence he hastened towards Jerusalem, hoping to reach it before Pentecost (Acts 20:1-6,13-16). His purpose in going there was, as just stated, to carry the alms from various Gentile Churches which he had long been soliciting from them for the poor Jewish Christians in Palestine; and his previous tour through Macedonia and Achaia had been for receiving these alms. He declared this to have been the purpose of his visit to Jerusalem, in his defence before Felix (Acts 24:17); and in both his Epistles to the Corinthians his design is distinctly spoken of. In the first, written probably during his stay at Ephesus, he alludes to "the collection for the saints" as something already going on, and already urged upon the Corinthians; he directs them to offer for the purpose every Lord's day, so as to have the money ready for him when he comes for it, as he hopes to do before long, after first passing through Macedonia (1 Corinthians 16:1-8). In the Second Epistle, written probably from Macedonia, after he had left Ephesus and was on his way to Achaia, he refers to the subject at length, saying how liberal the Macedonians had been, and how he had incited them by boasting to them of the Corinthians having been ready a year ago; and he implores the latter not to let his boasting be in vain in this behalf, having sent certain brethren to them to get the contributions ready in preparation for his own arrival (2 Corinthians 8, 9.). Now, inasmuch as in Romans 15:25, seq., of this epistle he speaks of being on the point of going unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints, and of both the Macedonians and Achaians having already made their contribution for the purpose, it is evident that he wrote his letter to the Romans after he had been in Achaia, but before going to Jerusalem. And, further, he must have sent it before leaving Corinth, or its port Cenchrea; for he commends to them Phoebe of Cenehrea, who was on the point of going thence to Rome, and who was probably the bearer of the letter (Romans 16:1, 2); he sends salutations from Erastus the chamberlain of the city (which, after mention of Cenchrea, must be concluded to be Corinth); and from Gaius, then his host, who was probably the Gains mentioned in 1 Corinthians 1:14 as having been one of the two baptized at Corinth by himself (Romans 16:23). Further, the time of year may be gathered from the narrative in Acts. The letter was sent, as we have seen, on the eve of his departure for Jerusalem; navigation after the winter season had then begun; for he had first intended to go by sea to Syria (Acts 20:3): after his journey, in consequence of his change of intention, to Macedonia, he spent Easter at Philippi (Acts 20:6); and he hoped to reach Jerusalem by Pentecost (Acts 20:16). Thus the time must have been early spring — the year, according to received dates, having been, as said above, A.D. 58. We may conclude the letter to have been finished and committed to Phoebe before he changed his intention of going by sea in consequence of the discovered plots of the Jews against him (Acts 20:3); for in the letter, though he expresses apprehension of danger from the Jews in Judaea after his arrival there (Romans 15:31), he gives no intimation of any plots against him known of at the time of writing; and he speaks as if he were about to go at once to Jerusalem.
Thus our knowledge of the time and circumstances of the sending of this Epistle is exact, and the correspondence between the references to them in the Epistle and elsewhere complete. Further correspondence of this kind is found in Romans 1:10-13 and 15:22-28 compared with Acts 19:21. In the Epistle is expressed his fixed intention of visiting Rome after carrying the alms of the Churches to Jerusalem, as well as his desire to do so having been entertained for some time past; and from Acts 19:21 it appears that the desire had been already in his mind before he left Ephesus for Macedonia. His further intention, expressed in the Epistle, of proceeding from Rome to Spain, does not indeed appear in Acts 19:21; but he may have had it, though there was no need to mention it there; or he may have enlarged the plan of westward travel subsequently. For consideration of the reason of his strong desire to visit Rome, of his having been "let hitherto" (Romans 1:13), and of his finally determining to take Rome only on his way to Spain, see notes on Romans 1:13 and 15:21, etc.
§ 3. OCCASION OF WRITING.
Thus the occasion and reason of St. Paul's sending a letter to the Roman Christians at the time he did are sufficiently obvious. He had long been intending to visit them as soon as he had finished the business he had in hand; he had probably been for some time preparing his long and important letter, which could not have been written hastily, to be sent at the first favourable opportunity; and Phoebe's voyage to Rome afforded him one. But why his letter took the form of an elaborate dogmatic treatise, and what was the then condition, as well as the origin, of the Roman Church, are further questions that have been much discussed. So much has been written on these subjects, to be found in various commentaries, that it has not been thought necessary here to go at any length over beaten ground. It may suffice to show briefly what is obvious or probable with regard to these questions.
§ 4. ORIGIN OF THE ROMAN CHURCH,
First, as to the origin of the Roman Church. It had not been founded by St. Paul himself, since it is plain from the Epistle that, when he wrote, he had never been to Rome, and only knew of the Roman Church by report. Nor does the narrative of the Acts allow any time when he could possibly have visited Rome. The tradition, which in time came to be accepted, that St. Peter had already founded it, cannot be true. Eusebius ('Eccl. Hist.,' 2:14), expressing this tradition, says that he had gone to Rome in the reign of Claudius to encounter Simon Magus, and thus brought the light of the gospel from the East to those in the West; and in his 'Chronicon' he gives the second year of Claudius (i.e. A.D. 42) as the date, adding that he remained at Rome twenty years. The probable origin of this tradition is well and concisely shown in the Introduction to Romans in the 'Speaker's Commentary'. Enough to say here that it has no trustworthy evidence in its favour, and that it is inconsistent with the two facts — firstly, that certainly up to the time of the apostolic conference at Jerusalem (A.D. 52) Peter was still there (cf. Acts 12:4; 15:7; Galatians 2:1, seq.); and secondly, that in the Epistle to the Romans St. Paul makes no mention whatever of St. Peter, as he surely would have done if so prominent an apostle had founded, or even so far visited, the Roman Church. A different and independent tradition, to the effect that St. Peter and St. Paul jointly preached the gospel at Rome, and were both martyred there, is too well supported to be set aside. It is attested by Irenaeus, 3, c. 1. and c. 3:2, and by other early authorities quoted in addition to Irenaeus by Eusebius, namely, Dionysius of Corinth (Eusebius, 'Eccl. Hist.,' 2:25), Caius, an ecclesiastic of Rome in the time of Pope Zephyrinus (ibid.), and Origen ('Eccl. Hist.,' 3:1). Eusebius also quotes the aforesaid Caius as pointing in proof to the monuments of the two apostles in his time existing on the Vatican and on the road to Ostia (2:25). Indeed, even apart from this testimony, it would be very difficult to account for the general and early association of the see of Rome with the name of St. Peter, had that apostle had no connection with the Roman Church at some time before his death. But it must have been a considerable time after the writing of the Epistle to the Romans, and after the writing of the Epistle to the Philippians too, which was undoubtedly sent by Paul from Rome during his detention there, in which the history of the Acts leaves him. For in it, though he speaks much of the state of things in the Church at Rome, he says nothing about St. Peter. Further, the statement of Irenaeus that Peter and Paul together founded (qemeliou&ntwn) the Church in Rome cannot be accepted in the sense that either of them first planted it there; for St. Paul spoke of it as existing, and even notorious, when he wrote his letter. But still they may, at a later period, have founded it in the sense of consolidating and organizing it, and providing, as they are said to have done, for its government after their own decease. This is not the place for considering why, in after-times, the Church of Rome came to be regarded as peculiarly St. Peter's see, whereas in the early testimonies above referred to the two apostles are spoken of together without distinction. St. Paul at any rate, in point of time, has been seen to have had to do with it before St. Peter, though neither of them can have been its original planter.
It is further highly improbable that any other of the apostles properly so called had planted it. For not only are there no traces of any tradition connecting it with any apostles but Peter and Paul, but also the absence of allusion to any apostle in St. Paul's Epistle is strongly against the supposition. It is true that St. Paul's original agreement with James, Cephas, and John (Galatians 2:9), and his avowed principle of not building on any other man's foundation (Romans 15:20; 2 Corinthians 10:13-16), cannot properly be pressed as affording a conclusive argument. For if his way of addressing the Roman Church be considered, it will be seen that he carefully avoids assuming personal jurisdiction over it, such as we find him distinctly claiming over Churches of his own foundation. In virtue of his general apostleship to the Gentiles, he is bold in admonish and demand a hearing; but he does not propose in his letter to take the reins, or set things in order among them when he comes, but rather to be "filled with their company" with a view to mutual refreshment and edification, during a short stay with them on his way to Spain. Such a mode of address, accompanying a doctrinal treatise meant doubtless for the edification, not of the Romans only, but of the Church at large, is consistent with the supposition of even an apostle having first founded the Church addressed. Still, for the reasons above given, any personal agency of any of the apostles themselves in the first planting of the Roman Church is, to say the least, highly improbable.