Romans - Introduction

      As to the date and place of composition, there is hardly room to doubt that it was written at Corinth, during the three months' stay in Achaia (Greece), which is mentioned in Acts 20:3 . According to Rom. 15:25 , at the time of writing, he was about to proceed to Jerusalem with offerings for the poor saints, made by the churches of Macedonia and Achaia. At Corinth, the largest city of Achaia, he directed such collections to be made. Phoebe, who is commended in 16:1 , lived at Cenchreæ the eastern harbor of Corinth. Four of the seven persons named in Rom. 16:21-23 , as being with him, Timotheus, Sosipater, Jason and Gaius, can be shown from other sources, either to have lived at Corinth, or to have been there at that time. From these facts, and other circumstances, it seems clear that it was written at Corinth in the spring of A. D. 58.

      We have only space to add that even the most radical rationalistic criticism has always admitted that this Epistle had for its author the Apostle Paul. The testimony of the ancient church is unanimous; Renan has no doubt of its genuineness, and even Dr. Baur, of the Tubingen school of critics, admits that it is one of the Epistles which must be ascribed to the authorship of the great Apostle to the Gentiles. While not the first in order of time, for the two Epistles to the Thessalonians, that to the Galatians, and the two of the Corinthians, were written before it, it probably has the precedence in importance over all the Epistles of the New Testament.