Romans, Epistle to the, the sixth book of the New Testament, is a letter from the apostle Paul to the Christians in Rome. Paul wrote the Epistle, probably from Corinth, Greece, about A.D. 56. The Epistle was a letter of introduction, preparing for a visit Paul intended to make on his way to do missionary work in Spain.
The Epistle to the Romans is Paul’s longest and most systematic letter. The main theme of the first 11 chapters is that Jews and Gentiles are equally in need of salvation, and that both have access to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. In the five remaining chapters, Paul discusses problems in Christian living. Some scholars doubt that Chapter 16 was originally part of the letter, mainly because Paul, who had never been to Rome, greets many people by name in this chapter. These scholars believe that the chapter is a letter Paul wrote to another place, which a later editor attached to the letter to the Romans.
