The Epistle to the

ROMANS

Douglas J. Moo

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Grand Rapids, Michigan / Cambridge, U.K.

© 1996 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

255 Jefferson Ave. S.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49503 /

P.O. Box 163, Cambridge CB3 9PU U.K.

All rights reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Moo, Douglas J.

The Epistle to the Romans / Douglas J. Moo

p. cm.

— (The new international commentary on the New Testament)

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN 0-8028-2317-3

1. Bible. N.T. Romans—Commentaries. I. Title. II. Series.

BS2665.3.M55 1966

227′.107—dc20 96-26077

CONTENTS

Editor’s Preface

Author’s Preface

Abbreviations

Bibliography

INTRODUCTION

i General Circumstances

ii Integrity, Literary History, and Text

iii. Audience

iv. Nature and Genre

v. Purpose

vi. Theme

vii. Text and Translation

viii. Structure

ix. Analysis of Romans

TEXT, EXPOSITION, AND NOTES

i. The Letter Opening (1:1–17)

ii. The Heart of the Gospel: Justification by Faith (1:18–4:25)

iii. The Assurance Provided by the Gospel: The Hope of Salvation (5:1–8:39)

iv. The Defense of the Gospel: The Problem of Israel (9:1–11:36)

v. The Transforming Power of the Gospel: Christian Conduct (12:1–15:13)

vi. The Letter Closing (15:14–16:27)

INDEXES

Subjects

Authors

Scripture References

Early Extrabiblical Literature

EDITOR’S PREFACE

With this volume a new day has dawned for this series of commentaries. Not only is it the first volume (not counting my own Philippians) to appear under the third editorship of the series, but it is also the first among several of the new and/or replacement volumes that represent a younger generation of evangelical scholars, thus signaling in part the “coming of age” of evangelical scholarship at the end of the present millennium.

Dr. Moo, for many years a teacher at the Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (Deerfield, Illinois) and editor of the Trinity Journal, brings to this commentary the rigors of a first-rate exegete who is equally concerned for the theological and practical implications of the text of Romans. In his “Author’s Preface,” he details the happy circumstances by which his (now completed) commentary became a part of the present series.

But if this volume in some ways inaugurates a new day for the series, it also has some strong ties to the past. This series began in a context of evangelical theology that was also decidedly within the Reformed tradition. It is therefore fitting that the replacement commentary on Romans in particular, originally written by John Murray (professor of systematic theology at Westminster Theological Seminary), should be written by someone whose theological sympathies lie in this direction. Although it will be clear to the perceptive reader that Dr. Moo has struck an independent course at many significant places (most notably with his interpretation of 7:7–25), he has nonetheless here articulated a (more traditional) view of Romans that is not notably ...