The Context of The Book of Romans

Although Paul was clearly not the founder of Roman Church, because the church was predominantly Gentile, he felt an obligation to address the church as its apostolic leader. Paul was responsible for preaching the gospel to the Gentiles and establishing the Gentile churches. The church is believed by scholars to either have been established by the apostle Peter, or by Jews who returned from Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. Although the Catholic Church maintains that the church was founded by the apostle Peter according to the ordination Jesus gave him in Matthew 16:18, the most likely method of foundation was by the Pentecostal Jewish converts. Paul expressed the strong desire to visit the church in order to establish apostolic gifting and harvest fruit among them according to Romans 1:11-13.
As mentioned before the Roman church was not always predominantly Gentile. It began in the late AD 30’s or early 40’s as a largely Jewish congregation. The shift came when all of the Jews were expelled from Rome in AD 49 by the emperor Claudius. He expelled them because of the commotion that they caused by arguing about “Chrestos.” Gentiles took their places in society during the Jews absence. It is estimated that after their return in AD 54, Paul wrote this letter to the Roman Christians from Corinth in AD 57. The Jews returned to a mostly Gentile congregation that did not take the laws of the Torah as seriously as they did. Paul writes this letter to a church deep rooted in social tension arguing over issues such as Gentile circumcision. The Roman church was most likely comprised of small house churches and the Jews and Gentiles did not worship together. Some scholars think that Paul wrote Romans as a kind of rehearsal for his appearance before the Council at Jerusalem. These same issues were being debated at that meeting. One purpose for writing Romans was to unite them in order to bring praise and glory to God according to Romans 15:7-14.
 
BIBLIGRAPHY
Moo, Douglas J. Encountering the Book of Romans. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2002.
Schreiner, Thomas R. Romans. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006.