Faith in Romans

Abstract

Most scholars agree that the congregation Paul addresses in his letter to the Romans was composed of a Gentile majority and a Jewish minority, pointing to the letters’ internal evidence and the Jews’ eviction from Rome in c. 49 CE. Scholars suggest that the Roman congregation was therefore predominantly Gentile. In Rom 16:17–19, Paul warns the Romans to be wary of false teachers. Campbell argues that Paul wrote Romans in response to these false teachers who Campbell connects to the false gospel teachers described in Galatians. Paul’s message in Romans is influenced by this other gospel, which appears connected to the question of the Jerusalem Council concerning Gentile circumcision. Paul’s use of faith in Romans, which encompasses the idea of faithfulness, is likewise shaped by the need to respond to and refute a gospel that insisted Gentiles needed to follow the Torah to be saved (e.g. Gal 2; Rom 3:21–23) and the wider conflict of whether Gentiles needed to ‘become’ Jewish in religious practice (Acts 15).