The Letter to the Romans

Rome. Rome was the capital of an empire that reached from Spain to Syria. It had a large Jewish community, and visitors from Rome were present in Jerusalem at Pentecost (Acts 2:10). No one knows for certain who first brought the Gospel there. The letter itself names no founder. St Irenaeus, late in the second century, speaks of the Church at Rome as founded and organised by Peter and Paul, the two glorious Apostles (Against Heresies 3.3.2; see Catechism 834). Paul's letter shows that a living Church was already there before he arrived, with a faith "proclaimed throughout the world" (1:8).

Jews and Gentiles together. The Roman historian Suetonius says that the Emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome because of disturbances "at the instigation of Chrestus". Many scholars think this reflects quarrels in the synagogues over Christ. Acts 18:2 tells of Aquila and Priscilla leaving Italy under this order. The year is debated; a later writer, Orosius, gives 49. Claudius died in 54, and Aquila and Prisca are back in Rome when Paul writes (16:3). Many scholars therefore picture a Church in which Gentile believers had grown strong in the absence of Jewish believers, and in which the two groups now had to learn to live together. This would explain why Paul speaks so much of "the weak" and "the strong" (14:1 to 15:13) and warns Gentiles not to boast (11:18). It is a likely reconstruction and not a recorded fact.

Why Paul wrote. He tells us himself. He has finished his work from Jerusalem as far as Illyricum (15:19). He is taking a collection from the Churches of Macedonia and Achaia to the poor of Jerusalem (15:25 to 27), and he knows the danger waiting for him in Judea (15:31). After that he hopes to go to Spain and to visit Rome on the way (15:24, 28). So he introduces himself and sets out his Gospel in full. His message had been misreported (3:8), and he wants the Romans to know what he actually teaches.

Corinth. Acts 20:2 to 3 says that Paul spent three months in Greece at about this time. The letter points to Corinth: Phoebe comes from Cenchreae, its port (16:1), and Gaius, Paul's host (16:23), may be the Gaius he baptized at Corinth (1 Cor 1:14). Benedict XVI also says that Paul probably wrote it at Corinth (General Audience, 27 August 2008). An Erastus, "the city treasurer", sends greetings (16:23). A paving inscription at Corinth names an Erastus who held public office; whether he is the same man is debated.

What came next. Paul reached Jerusalem and was arrested there (Acts 21:33). He came to Rome after all, as a prisoner (Acts 28:16). Whether he ever saw Spain is not known for certain. The ancient Christian tradition is unanimous, as Benedict XVI says, that he died a martyr at Rome. The sources place his death between the persecution after the fire of 64 and the year 68 (General Audience, 4 February 2009).

The Church's tradition. The Church has always received this letter as the work of St Paul and as the inspired word of God. Dei Verbum 11 teaches that the books of Scripture have God as their author and teach firmly and faithfully the truth God wished set down for our salvation. Dei Verbum 20 counts the letters of St Paul among the writings of the New Testament composed under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Paul and Tertius. The letter opens with Paul's name (1:1), and near its end a second voice breaks in: "I Tertius, the writer of this letter, greet you in the Lord" (16:22). Paul dictated, as was common in his time. St John Chrysostom counts it as no small honour for Tertius to have been Paul's writer (Homily 32 on Romans, in substance).

A scholarly note. Almost no scholar doubts that Paul is the author. The Catholic Encyclopedia calls the outside evidence "uncommonly strong". Some questions concern only the last pages. Marcion, in the second century, cut the ending; ancient manuscripts place the closing praise (16:25 to 27) in different positions; and some have asked whether chapter 16, with its many names, was first sent elsewhere. Most scholars today think that it belongs here. None of this touches the letter's inspiration. The Church receives all of it as Scripture, and reads 16:25 to 27 at Mass.

The people of chapter 16. This chapter is a small window into the first Church at Rome. Phoebe, whom Paul calls "a deacon of the church at Cenchreae", is thought to have carried the letter, and he asks the Romans to help her (16:1 to 2). Benedict XVI notes that the title did not yet have a fixed hierarchical meaning, but that it shows real responsibility (General Audience, 14 February 2007). Prisca and Aquila risked their necks for Paul, and a Church meets in their house (16:3 to 5). Mary "has worked very hard among you" (16:6). Andronicus and Junia are "prominent among the apostles" (16:7). St John Chrysostom praises this woman warmly (Homily 31 on Romans). Rufus and his mother, who was a mother to Paul too (16:13). More than twenty-five people are named, men and women, with Jewish, Greek and Latin names side by side.

The heart of the letter is stated at the start, in 1:16 to 17: the Gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith. Everything else unfolds from there. Doctrine comes first (chapters 1 to 11), and it flows into daily life (chapters 12 to 15), joined by a single "therefore" at 12:1.

How Paul argues. He writes like a teacher in conversation with a questioner. He raises an objection himself, then answers: "Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means!" (6:1 to 2). This form of debate was familiar in the ancient schools. Read aloud, it sounds like a living voice. He also quotes the Old Testament constantly, and he builds his case on Genesis, the Psalms and Isaiah.

• God can be known, and conscience speaks. God's power and nature are seen through the things he has made (1:19 to 20; Catechism 32). Gentiles without the Law show its demands written on their hearts, and their conscience bears witness (2:14 to 16; see Catechism 1776 to 1777).
• All have sinned. Paul accuses no one people more than another: "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (3:23). Romans 1 names idolatry and then a long list of sins, among them same-sex acts (1:26 to 27; Catechism 2357), and at once warns the reader who passes judgment on others (2:1). The Catechism teaches that such acts cannot be approved, and also that persons with this inclination must be received with respect, compassion and sensitivity (2357 to 2358).
• Original sin and the new Adam. Sin came into the world through one man, and through one man, Jesus Christ, comes the gift of righteousness (5:12 to 21). The Catechism builds its teaching on this passage (402 to 404). Original sin is not a personal fault of each of us; it is a loss of original holiness, and human nature is wounded but not totally corrupted (405). Benedict XVI stresses that Paul mentions Adam mainly to show how far grace surpasses him, and he says: "Evil comes from a freedom created, from a freedom abused" (General Audience, 3 December 2008).
• Justification is God's gift. We "are now justified by his grace as a gift" (3:24), and God put Christ forward as "a sacrifice of atonement by his blood" (3:25; Catechism 433, 1992). No one can earn the first grace of forgiveness and justification (Catechism 2010). The Council of Trent says the same: nothing before justification, whether faith or works, merits that grace, and faith is "the beginning of human salvation" (Session 6, chapter 8).
• What justification is. It is not only a declaration. It is "not only the remission of sins, but also the sanctification and renewal of the interior man" (Catechism 1989, quoting Trent). With it, faith, hope and charity are poured into our hearts (Catechism 1991; Rom 5:5). It is conferred in Baptism (Catechism 1992), and it sets up a real cooperation between God's grace and human freedom (Catechism 1993).
• Faith and works. When Paul says that we are justified "by faith apart from works prescribed by the law" (3:28), he is not excusing anyone from good works. Benedict XVI explains that the works in question are above all the observances that marked out Jewish identity, such as circumcision, food laws and the Sabbath, and that Christian freedom "is not libertinism" (General Audience, 19 November 2008). The same Paul says that God "will repay according to each one's deeds" (2:6), that the doers of the law will be justified (2:13), and that love fulfils the Law (13:10). Trent rejects the view that faith alone justifies in the sense that nothing else is needed to cooperate (Session 6, canon 9). Benedict XVI, speaking of Luther's phrase, says that "faith alone" is true "if it is not opposed to faith in charity, in love". The justified can then, moved by the Holy Spirit and by charity, merit the graces needed for growth, and those merits are themselves pure grace (Catechism 2008, 2010 to 2011). In 1999 the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation declared together: "By grace alone, in faith in Christ's saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God" (Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, 15). Differences remain, but that shared confession is a real gift.
• Abraham. He believed God before he was circumcised, so he is the father of all who believe, Jew and Gentile (4:3, 11 to 12; Catechism 146).
• Baptism. We are baptized into Christ's death and buried with him so that we may walk in newness of life (6:3 to 4; Catechism 1214, 1227, 1987). Benedict XVI points out the passive voice: no one can baptize himself (General Audience, 10 December 2008).
• The Law and the struggle within. The Law is holy (7:12), but it does not itself give the strength to keep it (Catechism 1963). Chapter 7 describes the gap between wanting and doing (7:15, 7:24; Catechism 2542). Who is the "I" here? Readers have long debated whether it is the person before Christ or the Christian still struggling; St Augustine read it in both ways at different times of his life. The answer comes at once: "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (7:25).
• The Holy Spirit. Love poured into our hearts (5:5; Catechism 733). The Spirit raises us to life (8:11), makes us children who cry "Abba! Father!" (8:15), and prays in us "with sighs too deep for words" (8:26; Catechism 741, 2634).
• Hope for creation. All creation groans, waiting to share the glory of God's children (8:19 to 23; Catechism 1046). All things work for good for those who love God (8:28; Catechism 313).
• Predestination and our response. Those whom God foreknew he predestined to be conformed to his Son (8:29; Catechism 381, 2012). The Church reads Romans 9 together with this: God's plan includes each person's response to his grace (Catechism 600), and God predestines no one to go to hell (Catechism 1037). The story of Jacob and Esau speaks of God's choice in the course of salvation, and the argument ends with God acting "so that he may be merciful to all" (11:32).
• Israel. Paul speaks with anguish, as a Jew and for his own people (9:1 to 5; 11:1). To them belong the adoption, the covenants, the worship and the promises, and from them comes the Messiah (9:4 to 5). Has God rejected his people? "By no means!" (11:1). They have not stumbled so as to fall (11:11). Gentiles are wild olive shoots grafted on, and they must not boast: "it is not you that support the root, but the root that supports you" (11:17 to 18). "The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable" (11:29). Nostra Aetate 4 draws on these verses and teaches that the Jews remain most dear to God, and the Catechism says the same (839 to 840; see also 60, 674). Paul's hope is that "all Israel will be saved" (11:26). This gives no ground for contempt or for reckoning dates. It is a mystery of God's mercy, and it ends in praise (11:33 to 36).
• Worship with the whole life. "Present your bodies as a living sacrifice" (12:1; Catechism 2031). Moral life is itself worship. Paul even calls his preaching a "priestly service" (15:16; see Catechism 1070).
• Gifts and love in the Body. We are one body in Christ, each with different gifts (12:4 to 8; Catechism 2004). Bless those who persecute you; overcome evil with good (12:14 to 21).
• Public life. Be subject to the authorities, since all authority comes from God, and pay what is owed (13:1 to 7; Catechism 1899, 2240). Paul writes this under Nero, before the persecution. The Church also teaches that authority binds only within the moral order, and that citizens must in conscience refuse directives contrary to it or to the Gospel (Catechism 1903, 2242).
• Love and conscience. Love sums up the commandments (13:8 to 10; Catechism 2055). Do not despise those whose conscience is more tender (14:1 to 23; Catechism 1789). "We are the Lord's" (14:8; Catechism 953).

• Son of David and Son of God. Near its start the letter gives what many scholars think is an early creed: descended from David according to the flesh, declared to be Son of God with power by resurrection from the dead (1:3 to 4).
• God over all. In 9:5 the NRSV reads: "the Messiah, who is over all, God blessed forever". Some translations punctuate this verse otherwise, and the Greek allows debate, but the Church's faith in the divinity of Christ does not rest on one verse.
• Lord. The first confession of the Church is here: "Jesus is Lord" (10:9; Catechism 449). What the prophet Joel says of the Lord God, Paul applies to him (10:13).
• The one who died for us. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (5:8; Catechism 604). The Father did not withhold his own Son (8:32).
• The new Adam. One man's obedience undoes one man's disobedience (5:19). Benedict XVI calls him the new Adam who "counters the murky river of evil with a river of light".
• The risen one who intercedes. He died, was raised, is at God's right hand and intercedes for us (8:34).
• The goal of the Law. "Christ is the end of the law" (10:4). The Greek word can mean goal or fulfilment. The Catechism explains: only he teaches and bestows the justice of God (1953). He does not make God's moral commands void.
• The servant who welcomes. He did not please himself (15:3), he became a servant of the circumcised to confirm the promises and so that the Gentiles might glorify God (15:7 to 9).

The Catechism draws on Romans more often than we can list. Its treatment of grace and justification (1987 to 2029) opens with Romans 6. See also natural knowledge of God, 32; original sin, 402 to 405; Baptism, 1227; the Spirit, 683, 733, 741; the Jewish people, 839 to 840; the moral life as worship, 2031; authority, 1899, 2240; and love as the fulfilment of the Law, 2055.

The Fathers and saints, in substance. St John Chrysostom begins his thirty-two homilies on this letter by saying that he hears Paul's letters read twice every week, and often three or four times, and that he delights in them. Origen wrote on Romans; Benedict XVI calls this the first patristic commentary on a New Testament text to come down to us, though only part of it remains. St Augustine owed to this letter the crucial step of his conversion. In a garden at Milan he heard a child's voice say "take up and read", opened Paul and read 13:13 to 14, "and all the gloom of doubt vanished away" (Confessions 8.12). St Thomas Aquinas also commented on it.

Benedict XVI gave twenty catecheses on St Paul in 2008 and 2009. Those closest to Romans are on justification (19 and 26 November 2008), Adam and Christ (3 December 2008) and the sacraments (10 December 2008). He adds that Paul and James belong together: Paul stresses faith, James its fruits (26 November 2008).

In the liturgy.

• Latin. Romans is read almost in order at Sunday Mass from the Ninth to the Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time in Year A. On weekdays of Year I it is read from the Twenty-eighth to the Thirty-first Week. The Easter Vigil reads 6:3 to 11. Other readings include 8:31b to 34 on the Second Sunday of Lent, Year B, and 16:25 to 27 on the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year B.
• Syro-Malankara. In the calendar of readings for 2026 to 2027, Romans is the Epistle at the Holy Qurbono on the Sundays of the Great Fast: Garbo (3:27 to 4:3), M'shario (5:1 to 11), Knanoitho (7:13 to 25), K'piphtho (12:1 to 15), Samio (14:10 to 23) and Hosanna (11:17 to 24). It is also read on the Second Sunday after Pentecost (8:1 to 11).
• Syro-Malabar. In the calendar of readings for 2026 to 2027, the Sundays of the Great Fast read Romans as the Epistle at the Holy Qurbana: 6:15 to 23, 7:14 to 25, 8:12 to 17, 12:1 to 11, 14:13 to 23, and on Hosanna Sunday 11:13 to 24. Easter Sunday has 6:1 to 14, and the first week of the Fast reads from chapters 1 to 4, beginning on the Monday (1:16 to 25).

Romans is not hard because of its words but because of its depth. It can be read aloud in about an hour. Read it once through, then slowly over two weeks, and do not stop for long at a difficult verse. Paul's meaning grows as you go on.

• Days 1 to 2: chapters 1 to 3. Do I place myself among those who need mercy, or among those who judge?
• Days 3 to 4: chapters 4 to 5. Look at Abraham, then at the great "much more" of grace.
• Days 5 to 6: chapters 6 to 7. Remember your Baptism. Name your struggle honestly.
• Days 7 to 8: chapter 8. Read it twice. Many call it the summit of the letter.
• Days 9 to 10: chapters 9 to 11. Read them with reverence for the Jewish people and end with the hymn at 11:33 to 36.
• Days 11 to 12: chapters 12 to 13. Choose one line of chapter 12 for each day of the coming week.
• Days 13 to 14: chapters 14 to 16. Read the names slowly: each was a real person whom Paul loved.