Time Period/Setting: Written by Paul from Corinth to both Jews and returned Jewish Christians in Rome. (In 49 A.D. Claudius expelled Jews and probably Jewish Christians from Rome due to religious unrest most likely the result of Christian influence.) Christian teaching had reached Rome by this time, but apparently not through Paul's efforts.
Title: self-explanatory
Paul's letter to the Romans was among the last of his letters to be written but is first in order of appearance in the Bible. The first shall be last and the last first I suppose; chronological order was apparently not important in compiling the books of the Bible. (I will come to see that the Pauline Letters are arranged in descending order according to the length of each.) The Book of Acts ends with Paul voyaging to Rome, but the Letter to the Romans, the following chapter, was written by Paul without ever having been to Rome.
Baker describes Romans as a "doctrinal treatise" with the theme of justification by faith. HC points out that at the time Paul wrote this letter, he would have had "over two decades" of teaching under his belt. That is evident. To me, the letter is a well-thought-out philosophical piece of writing where Paul uses a sophisticated lawyer-like style of argumentation. He's on fire with the faith. In order to "defend the . . .validity of Israel" to the Roman Christians Paul uses plenty of OT quotations and references to Jewish law. HC says that Paul uses the "diatribe style" to present his position. That is, he writes "as if confronting an individual with a truth that demands a response."
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