Page 5 - Romans Student Textbook.doc

because our desire is to read out of the text God’s message rather than read into the text a
message of our own making. In many ways proper exegesis is simply the exercise of good reading.
Reading skills and exegetical skills parallel and complement one another. To read better is to
exegete the text better and to exegete any text better requires that we learn to read in a
disciplined and perceptive way continually answering the question, “What is there?”

It is my intent to use my comments on the text of Romans to illustrate good exegesis that leads to proper
interpretation, which, in turn leads to the development of proper principles for living in our current day.
Each chapter is structured to move from exegesis to interpretation to homiletics (the art of application,
not presentation) so that we will be informed by the text in how to live for Christ in the midst of our lives
today. The comments are not intended to be comprehensive, but rather to be a stimulus to further study
in the text of Romans by those who read this text. My goal is to help the readers built a foundational
understanding of how the letter to the Romans is structured so that they will be equipped to study the
text to a deeper level themselves while always keeping an eye on the context in which each individual text
studied is set by Paul.

Chapter 1: People, Places & Purpose

Introduction:

The first thing to notice about Romans is its structure. It follows the classic pattern of a First Century
letter. It starts like a letter with an introduction to its author and a demarcation of its rightful recipients. It
continues like a letter with the author providing both a rationale for a suggested action and instructions to
those to whom he is writing. And it ends like a letter with personal greetings and a benediction upon the
readers. Because of the expense of writing materials and delivery in the First Century, letters were never
written frivolously, they were always written for a reason and the letter to the Romans is no exception. To
help us understand what God is saying to us through the apostle Paul through this letter we must pay
attention to the purpose behind the creation of this letter in the first place. I would suggest that the
purpose for writing the letter must always be part of our thinking when we are attempting to explain the
meaning of the text

Because these things are true, we must take some time as we begin to grapple with the content of this
significant portion of the New Testament to get clearly in mind the people, places and purpose involved in
its construction in the first place. This is necessary because its original message to its original recipients
provides the key to us understanding the meaning of the message of this letter for us today as we work at
living faithfully according to its truth and its instructions during our 21st century context. If we don’t
understand what was being said then, we cannot know what God is saying to us now through this text.

Often when people begin to consider these things the first thing, they do is run to multiple resources that
may speak to and answer the questions that investigating such things causes to arise. Yet in doing so the
primary resource of the contents of the letter itself often get left behind. However, the truth is that the
best resource we have for answering the questions about the people, places, and purposes of New
Testament letters is the text of those letters themselves. Thus, the place to begin in proper exegesis of
any text is with reading the text itself carefully.

People

Who is writing this letter?

The first word of the text of Romans tells the reader who wrote it. It states, “Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus,
called an apostle being set apart into gospel of God.”2 Following the normal format for writing a letter in

2 Romans 1:1, Author’s translation.
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