•The provinces .—The usual fate of a country conquered by Rome was to be come a subject
province, governed directly from Rome by officers sent out for that purpose. Sometimes, however,
petty sovereigns were left in possession of a nominal independence on the borders or within the
natural limits of the province. Augustus divided the provinces into two classes— (1) Imperial; (2)
Senatorial; retaining in his own hands, for obvious reasons, those provinces where the presence
of a large military force was necessary, and committing the peaceful and unarmed provinces to
the senate. The New Testament writers invariably designate the governors of senatorial provinces
by the correct title anthupatoi, proconsuls. (Acts 13:7; 18:12; 19:38) For the governor of an imperial
province, properly styled “legatus Caesaris,” the word hegemon (governor) is used in the New
Testament. The provinces were heavily taxed for the benefit of Rome and her citizens. They are
said to have been better governed under the empire than under the commonwealth, and those of
the emperor better than those of the senate.
•The condition of the Roman empire at the time when Christianity appeared has often been dwelt
upon as affording obvious illustrations of St. Paul’s expression that the “fullness of time had
come.” (Galatians 4:4) The general peace within the limits of the empire the formation of military
roads, the suppression of piracy, the march of the legions, the voyages of the corn fleets, the general
in crease of traffic, the spread of the Latin language in the West as Greek had already spread in
the East, the external unity of the empire, offered facilities hitherto unknown for the spread of a
world-wide religion. The tendency, too, of despotism like that of the Roman empire to reduce all
its subjects to a dead level was a powerful instrument in breaking down the pride of privileged
races and national religious, and familiarizing men with the truth that “God had made of one blood
all nations on the face of the earth.” (Acts 17:24,26) Put still more striking than this outward
preparation for the diffusion of the gospel was the appearance of a deep and wide-spread corruption,
which seemed to defy any human remedy.
Romans, Epistle To The
The date of this epistle is fixed at the time of the visit recorded in Acts 20:3 during the winter and
spring following the apostle’s long residence at Ephesus A.D. 58. On this visit he remained in
Greece three months.
•
•The place of writing was Corinth.
•The occasion which prompted it,,and the circumstances attending its writing, were as follows:—St.
Paul had long purposed visiting Rome, and still retained this purpose, wishing also to extend his
journey to Spain. Etom. 1:9-13; 15:22-29. For the time, however, he was prevented from carrying
out his design, as he was bound for Jerusalem with the alms of the Gentile Christians, and
meanwhile he addressed this letter to the Romans, to supply the lack of his personal teaching.
Phoebe, a deaconess of the neighboring church of Cenchreae, was on the point of starting for
Rome, ch. (Romans 16:1,2) and probably conveyed the letter. The body of the epistle was written
at the apostle’s dictation by Tertius, ch. (Romans 16:22) but perhaps we may infer, from the
abruptness of the final doxology, that it was added by the apostle himself.
•The origin of the Roman church is involved in obscurity. If it had been founded by St. Peter
according to a later tradition, the absence of any allusion to him both in this epistle and in the
letters written by St. Paul from Rome would admit of no explanation. It is equally clear that no
other apostle was like founder. The statement in the Clementines—that the first tidings of the
gospel reached Rome during the lifetime of our Lord is evidently a fiction for the purposes of the
romance. On the other hand, it is clear that the foundation of this church dates very far back. It