ROMANS

Interpreted by Early Christian Commentators

Translated and Edited by

J. Patout Burns Jr.

with

Father Constantine Newman

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Grand Rapids, Michigan / Cambridge, U.K.

© 2012 J. Patout Burns Jr.

All rights reserved

Published 2012 by

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

2140 Oak Industrial Drive N.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49505 /

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

www.eerdmans.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Romans: interpreted by early Christian commentators /

translated and edited by J. Patout Burns, Jr. with Constantine Newman.

p. cm.—(The church’s Bible)

ISBN 978-0-8028-2575-9 (cloth: alk. paper)

1. Bible. N.T. Romans—Commentaries.

I. Burns, J. Patout. II. Newman, Constantine.

BS2665.53.R67 2012

227′.10609—dc23

2011039489

The Scripture quotations in this publication are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyrighted 1946, 1952 © 1971, 1973 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and used by permission. All rights reserved.

THE CHURCH’S BIBLE

General Editor

Robert Louis Wilken

To Sean Edward McEvenue

Contents

Series Preface

Acknowledgments

Interpreting the New Testament

An Introduction to Romans

Preface to Romans

Romans 1

Romans 2

Romans 3

Romans 4

Romans 5

Romans 6

Romans 7

Romans 8

Romans 9

Romans 10

Romans 11

Romans 12

Romans 13

Romans 14

Romans 15

Romans 16

appendix 1: Authors of Works Excerpted

appendix 2: Sources of Texts Translated

Index of Names

Index of Subjects

Index of Scripture References

Series Preface

The volumes in The Church’s Bible are designed to present the Holy Scriptures as understood and interpreted during the first millennium of Christian history. The Christian Church has a long tradition of commentary on the Bible. In the early Church all discussion of theological topics, of moral issues, and of Christian practice took the biblical text as the starting point. The recitation of the psalms and meditation on books of the Bible, particularly in the context of the liturgy or of private prayer, nurtured the spiritual life. For most of the Church’s history theology and scriptural interpretation were one. Theology was called sacra pagina (the sacred page), and the task of interpreting the Bible was a spiritual enterprise.

During the first two centuries interpretation of the Bible took the form of exposition of select passages on particular issues. For example, Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, discussed many passages from the Old and New Testaments in his defense of the apostolic faith against the Gnostics. By the beginning of the third century Christian bishops and scholars had begun to preach regular series of sermons that followed the biblical books verse by verse. Some wrote more scholarly commentaries that examined in greater detail grammatical, literary, and historical questions as well as theological ideas and spiritual teachings found in the texts. From Origen of Alexandria, the first great biblical ...