To appreciate and understand the message of Romans in greater depth, my aim is to give a synopsis of who the author is, where and when it was written, to whom it was written, its purpose as well as a brief outline of the book.
? Authorship
Most scholars agree that Paul is the author. To confirm this, it is advisable to first review the internal Scriptural dialogue like Witmer (1983:435) and Mounce (1995:22) does. Consequently, convincing evidence in Acts and Romans supports Paul's authorship, such as greetings sent by Paul to Priscilla and Aquila, whom he had met previously in Corinth (Rom. 16:3; Acts 18:2-3) and the repetition of Paul's intense desire to visit Rome (Rom. 1:10-13,15; 15:22-32; Acts 19:21). Similarly, Paul introduces himself as the author with the words "I, Paul?." (Rom. 1:1). In addition, Romans 15:25-27 mentions the author's impending journey to Jerusalem with love gifts from churches in Macedonia and Achaia, and the Book of Acts confirm that it indeed was Paul that had made this journey (Acts 20:1-5, 21:15, 17-19).
Those like Moffat (Guthrie, 1990:419) and Talbert (Guthrie, 1990:426), whose theories disagree that Paul is the author, claim Romans 15:25-26 and Romans 3:25-26 as inappropriate passages and not consistent with Paul's liturgical style of writing. However, these verses do not go against Paul's theology , and none of these theories have been unequivocally proven.
Finally, the role of Tertius who was hired to write from dictation is debated (Rom. 16:22). To resolve this, the extent of Tertius' involvement plays a key role: Could he have included his own interpretation, or did he accurately write down Paul's flow of ideas? Most scholars a ...