Romans 1:13 Gentile church?

[baron]

Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles.

Was the letter to the Romans written to a gentile church? Since there is no Wikipedia I can not find the info. I'm looking for.

Paul wrote Romans while at Cornith and Claudius expiled the Jews before 54 AD and Romans was written between 56-57 AD.

 

[Mathetes]

From Doug Moo's commentary:

As we have seen, Christianity in Rome began among Jews. And, although the expulsion under Claudius eliminated the Jewish element in the church for a time, we can be certain that by the date of Romans at least some Jewish Christians (like Priscilla and Aquila) would have returned. We have no direct knowledge of the origins of Gentile Christianity in Rome; but, if the pattern of the Pauline mission was followed, we can surmise that "God fearers," Gentiles who were interested in Judaism and attended synagogue without becoming Jews, were the first to be attracted to the new faith. Certainly by the date of Romans Gentiles made up a significant portion of the church in Rome (cf. 11:13 - 32 and 15:7 - 12). We may, then, be fairly certain that when Paul wrote Romans the Christian community in Rome was made up of both Jewish and Gentile Christians. This does not necessarily mean, however, that Paul had both groups in mind as he wrote his letter. It is to the evidence of the letter that we must turn to determine the audience.

Unfortunately, the letter appears to send out mixed signals on this issue. On the one hand, there is evidence to suggest that Paul had Jewish Christians in mind as he wrote: (1) he greets the Jewish-Christians Priscilla and Aquila and his "kinfolk" (syngenesis) Andronicus, Junia, and Herodion in chap. 16 (vv. 3, 7, 11); (2) he directly addresses "the Jew" in chap. 2 (cf. cf. v. 17); (3) he associates his readers closely with the Mosaic law (6:14: "you are no longer under the law"; 7:1: "I am speaking to those who know the law"; 7:4: "you have died to the law"); (4) he calls Abraham "our forefather according to the flesh" (4:1); and (5) he spends much of the letter on issues of special interest to the Jewish people: their sin and presumption of divine favor (2:1 - 3:8), the failure of their law (3:19 - 20, 27 - 31; 4:12 - 15; 5:13 - 14. 20; 6:14; 7; 8:2 - 4, 9:30 - 10:8), the significance of Abraham their "forefather" (chap. 4) and their place in the unfolding plan of God (chaps. 9 - 11)

Indications of a Gentile-Christian audience are also, however, evident: (1) in his address for the letter as a whole, Paul includes the Roman Christians among the Gentiles to whome he has been called to minister (1:5 - 6; cf, also 1:13 and 15:14 - 21); (2) Paul claims that his argument about the place of Jews in God's plan (11:11 - 24) is directed "to you Gentiles" (v. 13; and note the second person plurals through vv. 14 - 24); (3) Paul's plea to "receive one another" in 15:7 appears to be directed especially to Gentile Christians (cf. vv. 8 - 9)

We appear to be faced with a paradox. As Kummel puts it, "Romans manifests a double character: it is essentially a debate between the Pauline gospel and Judaism, so that the conclusion seems obvious that the readers were Jewish Christians. Yet the letter contains statements which indicate specifically that the community was Gentile-Christan." Several options are available.

First, we may dismiss or downplay the evidence of a Gentile-Christian readership and conclude that the letter is addressed solely, or at least mainly, to Jewish Christians. But this will not do. Rom. 11:13 may suggest that Gentiles are only one part of the church, but 1:5-6 cannot be evaded (by, for instance, translating "among whom [Gentiles] you [Roman Christians] are located"). This verse, standing in the introduction to the letter, suggests strongly that Paul regarded his addressees as Gentil Christians.

A much better case can be made, then, for the view that Paul's readers were Gentile Christians. Not only does 1:5-6 appear to be decisive, but the evidence for a Jewish-Christian readership is not particularly strong. The greetings in chap. 16 show that there were Jewish Christians in the Roman community, but they do not require that the letter be addressed to them. The second singular address in Romans 2 is a literary device and reveals nothing about the actual readers of the letter. When Paul calls Abraham "our" forefather (4:1), he may be including with himself other Jews or Jewish Christians rahter than his readers. That Paul associates his readers with the law is clear; but, as we argue, Paul thinks that Gentiles are "under the law" in some sense. And, even in 14:1 - 15:13, where reference to Jewish Christians can probably not be excluded, Paul's argument is directed mainly to the "strong in faith."

Finally, while some of the letter is, indeed, a debate, or dialogue, with Judaism (e.g., 1:18 - 4:25), it is not necessary that Jews or Jewish Christians be the intended audience for the debate. Paul's purpose may be to rehearse the basic issues separating Jews and Christians and to show what his gospel has to say about them, with the purpose of helping Gentile Christians understand the roots of their faith and their own situation vis-a-vis both Jews and Jewish Christians. This purpose certainly becomes evident in chaps. 9 - 11, where Paul sketches the place of Israel in salvation history to stifle the arrogance of the Gentiles. Galatians, too, demonstrates clearly enough that teaching about the failure of the law and the inadequacy of circumcision was necessary for Gentile Christians to hear. Moreover, the Gentiles themselves would have had a more personal interest in these matters than we have sometimes realized. For, as we have suggested, Christianity in Rome began in the synagogue, and the first Gentiles converted were almost certainly "God-fearing" synagogue attenders. This Jewish matrix for Christianity in Rome meant that even Gentile Christians would have "known the law" (7:1) and that many of them would likely have been curious about how the gospel related to their previous understanding of circumcision and the law.

Although this interpretation of the data is generally unsatisfactory, it must be questioned whether we can eliminate Jewish Christans entirely from Paul's audience. Paul claims in 1:7 that he is address "all those beloved of God in Rome," and it is clear that there were Jewish Christians in Rom. Moreover, Paul's exhortation to the "strong" and the "weak" makes best sense if both groups - roughly equivalent to Gentile and Jewish Christians respectively - were in his audience. And, while Paul's "dialogue with Judaism" in 1:18 - 4:25 and his sketch of the inadequacy of the law in chap. 7 can be accounted for on the basis of a solely Gentile audience, we must wonder whether these texts are not more adequately explained if there were at least some Jewish Christians in Paul's audience. These considerations make it likely that the audience to which Paul writes was composed of both Jewish and Gentile Christians.

Granted such a mixed audience, it is possible to suppose that Paul directs different parts of his letter to different groups within the Roman church. The most elaborate and best-defended version of this viewpoint is that of Paul Minear. He distinguishes five separate groups in the community, attributing each section of the letter to one or another of these groups. While providing each section of the letter to one or another of these groups. While providing each section of the letter a salutary reminder that the community in Rome should not be simplistically divided into groups according to ethnic origin. Minear's thesis goes beyond the evidence. The existence of several of his groups is unclear, and the progressive flow of Paul's argument in the letter renders a constant shifting in audience unlikely. This means that, with certain exceptions (e.g., 11:13 - 24), we must assume that Paul has the whole community, a mixed group of Jewish and Gentile Christians, in mind as he writes.

Along with the majority of commentators, then, we think that Paul addresses a mixed group of Jewish and Gentile Christians in Romans. Some decline to estimate the relative proportion of the two groups, but the considerations advanced above show that Gentile Christians were in the majority, perhaps an overwhelming majority. There is, however, one major problem with this reconstruction: Why, if there were Jewish Christians in the community, and especially if they were being slighted by the Gentile-Christian majority (cf. 11:13 - 24), would Paul have addressed the community as a Gentile one (1:5 - 6)? The answer is probably that the community as a whole had by this date taken on the complexion of Gentile Christianity. Indeed, it is perhaps just this shift from the earlier Jewish matrix of Roman Christianity to a more purely "Gentile" framework (a process accelerated by the enforced exile of Jewish Christians under Claudius) that has given rise to a sense of inferiority on the part of the Jewish segment. Moreover, the purpose of Paul in 1:5 - 6 (and 1:13) is not so much to identify the national complexion of the Gentile community as to locate it within the scope of his commission to the Gentiles. These texts, then, do not stand in the way of the conclusion that the audience Paul address in Romans is made up of a Gentile-Christian majority and a Jewish-Christian minority.

(Douglas J. Moo, "The Epistle to the Romans", 1996)

 

[Contra_Mundum]

Like most of the churches in the Gentile world, the church almost certainly had a mixture of Gentiles and Jews.

The various demographics of different places, including historic shifts, and the Providences of different places all make the initial makeup and trends different from the look of those places in later moments, sometimes in a relatively short period of time. In many (if not most cases) Paul followed a very reasonable practice of appealing first to the Jewish population of a place (if there was one) to take from and build upon. Even at Philippi, Paul's first opening for the gospel came when he found some women, including Lydia who was already a God-fearer (Act.16:14), that is, someone whom God had already influenced by the Jewish faith to some degree. The synagogue provided people who were already OT saints, or prepped for the gospel by OT ministry; and often ready-made elders, for the church's early development. So, the church in most places began as a Jewish-majority site.

Rome was the city at the hub of the Empire. It had a church there, in the form of Christians and some organization before the first Apostle even arrived (probably Paul). But by the time he arrived, there had already been some "interesting" activity, to say the least.

The church in the earliest phases was almost certainly Jewish-dominant, with precious few Gentiles--much like the church in Judea and other Jewish-dominant territory. Why? Because in a real sense the infant church was "simply" another Jewish sect. Paul wasn't yet on the move--or at least not far beyond Cyprus, Phrygia, and Galatia--when the church gets a foothold in Rome, with the likes of Priscilla and Aquilla.

But as the secular historian notes, in a short time such a hubbub arose among the Jews (including public disturbances) over some dude named "Chrestus," that the current Emperor, Claudius, tosses the whole Jewish population out of Rome. This, Scripture notes (Act.18:2), is when Priscilla and Aquilla end up in Corinth, in time to meet Paul, lately arrived.

So, the Jewish population began to filter back to Rome once Claudius was dead, but the church didn't die out while they were gone. It went from Jewish-majority to Gentile-majority practically over night. And then, the Jewish segment of the population began to reenter life in Rome.

So, the Roman church to which Paul writes is probably Jewish-minority by severe attrition of one group (without time for much redevelopment) and growth of the other (and we know there were Jews back in the synagogue in Rome at the end of Acts). But, henceforth, the Roman church would almost certainly be Gentile-majority, and that for good. Because this was the trend all over the world. Jewish-population within Christianity was now a "permanent" minority, considered as a distinct "grouping" of people. And frankly, the longer time went on and certain families composed the church (and intermarried) for generations, the less a nationalistic identity for Jews would be made much of, or soon be remembered.

But at the time of writing the letter, the distinctions within the church would still be felt. And yet, the point is not to divide the Christians, but to unite them in the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Lord of the whole and unified church.

 

[baron]

Thank you both for your imput. You have answered my question for me.