Really living

I wonder who read Paul’s letter to the Romans? How was it delivered? Did it get passed around? Were copies made? Did small groups read it aloud as they met in homes? Did they hold business meetings and read this letter out in the “general correspondence” section of their meetings?

It is wonderful to read about when Paul finally got to Rome, albeit as a prisoner. Acts 28 (from The Message by Eugene Petersen):

“We spent a wonderful three months on Malta….

“And then we came to Rome. Friends in Rome heard we were on the way and came out to meet us. One group got as far as Appian Court; another group met us at Three Taverns – emotion-packed meetings, as you can well imagine. Paul, brimming over with praise, led us in prayers of thanksgiving. When we actually entered Rome, they let Paul live in his own private quarters with a soldier who had been assigned to guard him.

“Three days later, Paul called the Jewish leaders together for a meeting at his house. … They said, ‘Nobody wrote warning us about you…The only thing we know about this Christian sect is that nobody seems to have anything good to say about it.’”

But let’s back-track to around 30 years earlier. Eugene Petersen writes enthusiastically:

“…when this letter arrived in Rome, hardly anyone read it, certainly no one of influence. There was much to read in Rome – imperial decrees, exquisite poetry, finely crafted moral philosophy – and much of it was world-class. And yet in no time, as such things go, this letter left all those other writings in the dust. Paul’s letter to the Romans has had a far larger impact on its readers than the volumes of all those Roman writers put together…

“The letter to the Romans is a piece of exuberant and passionate thinking. This is the glorious life of the mind enlisted in the service of God. Paul takes the well-witnessed and devoutly believed fact of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth and thinks through its implications…”

No wonder verses drawn from its sixteen chapters are so frequently included in Christian Science Bible Lessons!   

Stephen Harris writes in “The New Testament – A Student’s Introduction”:

“Unlike other Pauline letters, Romans is addressed to a congregation the writer has neither founded nor previously visited. In form, the work resembles a theological essay or sermon rather than an ordinary letter, lacking the kind of specific problem-solving advice that characterizes most of Paul’s correspondence.  Some commentators regard Romans as a circular letter…intended to explain Pauline teachings to various Christian groups…”

Harris points out that this letter was a means of opening up communications with Rome in order to gather support for his proposed Spanish mission (15:24) and garner endorsement and understanding of his teachings from prestigious Rome, the capital of the civilized world. 

Harris also explains that “most scholars view Chapter 16, which contains greetings to 26 different persons, as a separate missive.”

The Message has Romans 1: 17 like this - “God’s way of putting people right shows up in the acts of faith, confirming what Scripture has said all along: ‘The person in right standing before God by trusting him really lives.’”

Really living sounds like a good choice to me.

Julie Swannell