Analysis of the Book of Romans

Theology and Religious Studies
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Introduction
The write analyses the book of Romans. A deep analysis of the book of Romans will be
conducted. Various issues will be discussed such as the authorship of the book, theme of the
book, date and place, the structure and component of the book, the historical background of the
book and relevant information regarding the author and some of the social and political
challenges that the author faced.
Basic information about the book of Romans
The book of Romans is considered as one of the Paul epistles to have contained so much
information and is often regarded as having the purest gospel among all the Paul’s epistles. This
book specifically targeted the church in Rome that was significantly comprised of a large
element of the Jewish community as well as some Gentile converts who were originally pagans.
It’s never been clear how the Roman church was founded but mounting evidence indicates that
according to the Roman Catholic view the church was founded by Peter (Wan 2010 p.79).
Place and Date of the Romans
Based on information from the book of Acts as well as that of Corinthians the book of Romans
contains some circumstantial evidence that it was written in Corinth when Paul was on his third
missionary journey. It is also important to note that Paul had never visited Rome but he
anticipated to visit Rome after completing his mission in Greece. The book of Romans is dated
around 60 A.D (Turner, 2010 p.17).
Theme of the book of Roman

The theme of the book of Romans is centered on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Here Paul was
focused on making his audience (The church in Rome as well as the people in Rome) understand
the sinners can be and may receive and welcomed into the loving arms of God by being made
righteous again and how should change their ways because God is an all loving God (Staples,
2011 p.38). He was also expressing some really great concern about the need for unity between
the Jews and the Gentile Christians. As it will be discussed in this write-up, later on, we will
notice that during the time immediately before he had written this letter the Jewish Christians
had been stent away from the Rome church and were now in the verge of returning. This,
therefore, created the need to create and put emphasis on the need for unity between the Gentiles
and the Jewish Christians (Richards, Windham, Richardson, Stephens, 2015 p.56).
Structure of the book of Romans
The book of Romans can be categorically divided into six main sections. These groups are
outlined below;
a) The introduction section-This is the first section of the book of Romans and it mentions
about the revelation of righteousness. In this section, various issues have been addressed
as the Salutation, where Paul makes introductory remarks as well as passes his regards to
the people in Rome (Moga, 2011 p.60). It also comprises of some personal items and also
introduces the theme of the letter and mentions some of the fundamental reasons for
writing down the letter in the first place.
b) Justification of Righteousness-This is the second section of the letter. It addresses various
issues such the universal need for righteousness, the manifestation and/or the universal
provision for righteousness, Harmonization or justification and the main purpose for the

law, the justification in reference to the Old Testament and brief notes on the certainty for
salvation. This section of the letter is very broad as it addresses quite a number of issues
as mentioned above. The universal provision for righteousness, for instance, mentions
some of the basic facts about true righteousness and what it means to be righteous
(Linebaugh, 2011 p.27). Other minor issues are also mentioned in this section as such
that of certainty for salvation as well as the universal need for salvation which addresses
some of the basic reasons for and need for salvation and righteousness respectively.
c) Life in Christ and/or the Union with an ultimate confirmation to the righteous one. This
section begins in chapter 5 to chapter 8 of the book. In this section, Paul mentions various
issues. For instance, there is a discussion of the reign of sin and that of grace. Apart from
this Paul focuses more on the concept of life. He brings out various aspects about life
such as the new relationship in life, the new principle in life, the new freedom in life, the
new power in life as well as the hope in new life.
d) God’s relationship in His divine relationship with Israel (The Vindication) - This is one
of the shortest sections of the letter. It begins in chapter 9 and ends in chapter 11 of the
letter. In this particular section, Paul discusses some really important issues that
concerned Israel. Some of the issues that Saint Paul addresses in this section of the letter
comprises of issues such as the consideration, explanation, and consolation of Israel's
rejection (Jones, 2012 p.89). Various issues triggered Israel's rejection, the course of
Israel’s rejection is well explained in this section and also a detailed explanation of
Israel’s consolation upon their rejection.
e) God’s Righteousness at work-This section comprised of God’s divine intervention and
application of its righteousness on various dimensions. It starts from chapter First and