Paul’s Letter to the Romans: A Commentary
Overview
Building on his own fresh translation from the Greek, Arland J. Hultgren walks readers through Romans verse-by-verse, illuminating the text with helpful comments, probing into major puzzles, and highlighting the letter’s most inspiring features. He also demonstrates the forward-looking, missional character of Paul’s epistle—written, as Hultgren suggests, to introduce Roman Christians to the major themes of Paul’s theology and to inspire in them both confidence in the soundness of his teaching and support for his planned missionary efforts in Spain.
Ideal for pastors and serious students of the Bible, Hultgren’s commentary includes eight appendices that discuss in detail such issues as “Romans 1:26–27 and Homosexuality” and “Pistis Christou: Faith in or of Christ?”
This volume is packed with fresh insight and highly original content. With the Logos edition, all Scripture passages in this volume are tagged and appear on mouse-over. What’s more, Scripture references are linked to the wealth of language resources in your Logos library. This makes the text more powerful and easier to access than ever before for scholarly work or personal Bible study. With the advanced search features of Logos Bible Software, you can perform powerful searches by topic or Scripture reference—finding, for example, every mention of “righteousness,” or “Romans 3:21.”
- Provides verse-by-verse commentary
- Includes extensive bibliographies for further reading
- Features eight detailed appendices on a variety of topics
- Discusses the background of the book of Romans
- Opening, 1:1–17
- The Revelation of the Wrath of God, 1:18–3:20
- The Revelation of the Righteousness of God, 3:21–4:25
- The New Life in Christ, Romans 5:1–8:39
- Israel in God’s Plan, 9:1–11:36
- Serving God and Loving Others, 12:1–21
- On Governing Authorities, Love, and Conduct, 13:1–14
- The Weak and the Strong, 14:1–15:13
- Paul’s Plans, 15:14–33
- Greetings and Closure, 16:1–27
Top Highlights
“In light of all this, the primary purpose for the writing of Romans, without which it cannot be explained at all, is that Paul wrote the letter to prepare the groundwork at Rome for his mission to Spain in case a crisis should happen in Jerusalem. If the Jerusalem church rejected him and his collection, branding him as a false apostle, repudiating his theology, and essentially declaring that his Gentile converts could not be considered part of the people of God in the fullest sense, that would have repercussions among the more conservative members of the Christian community in Rome and make his hope for support of his mission to Spain difficult, if not impossible.” (Page 15)
“Nevertheless, the passage in 1 Corinthians highlights the point that when Paul speaks of same-gender sexual activity, he is speaking of prominent, common, and visible behaviors in the Greco-Roman world that were practiced by Gentiles of pagan background (cf. 6:11, ‘and this is what some of you used to be’), and that were exploitive.” (Page 101)
“That is not said explicitly in 1:26, but the fact that the next verse begins with ‘and likewise’ (ὁμοίως τε καί) and speaks of same-gender sexual relationships between men gives specificity to 1:26.64 But the question remains whether that which is considered ‘unnatural’ is same-gender activity in itself, or whether it refers to a woman’s abandoning her traditional gender role (passivity) and adopting an active sexual role within a sexual encounter with another person, male or female, which tradition had reserved for men.65 Perhaps it is best to combine the two; that is, the reference is to same-gender activity, in which women take on an active sexual role. Here, as in 1:27, Paul uses a broad brush to portray Gentile behavior as idolatrous and abusive, a theme that runs through 1:18–32.” (Page 99)
Arland Hultgren’s commentary on Romans is well researched and clearly written, his arguments concise and generally persuasive. There are fresh insights aplenty. For instance, his exegesis of Romans 14:1–15:13 provides a provocative solution to the issue of who ‘the strong’ and ‘the weak’ were by convincingly arguing that there is diatribe at work in this paraenesis. Pastoral sensitivity abounds. For example, his exegesis of Romans 1:26–27 in the commentary proper and in his appendix on that passage takes full account of ancient and contemporary contexts and terminology and challenges long-standing views. This gem of a commentary will stimulate the minds and warm the hearts of many a teacher, preacher, and pastor.
—Robert J. Karris, research professor, St. Bonaventure University
- Title: Paul’s Letter to the Romans: A Commentary
- Author: Arland J. Hultgren
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Publication Date: 2011
- Pages: 832