Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

corpus-paul - [Corpus-Paul] Was Romans written from Ephesus?

corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Corpus-Paul

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Stephen C. Carlson" <scarlson AT mindspring.com>
  • To: Corpus-Paul <corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Corpus-Paul] Was Romans written from Ephesus?
  • Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 22:46:51 -0500


I would like to float a proposal that Romans was not
written from Corinth as usually suggested, but from
Ephesus.

Specifically, I'm considering an idea that Romans was not
writtenafter a successful visit by Paul to Corinth for the
collection but rather in anticipation of it, before he left.
Rom. 15:26-28 is the main passage that in support of the
Corinthian origin, but in v. 26 Paul doesn't actually say
that they made a contribution for the Poor but that they
were pleased or decided to do so: EUDOKHSAN ... KOINWNIAN
TINA POIHSASQAI (the aorist infinitive does not encode
tense, but aspect, i.e. a gift for one occasion). In other
words, they promised Paul they would make a contribution
and Paul's going to collect it. That's why he says in v.28
"So when I have completed this, and have delivered to them
what has been collected." By "completed this," this is not
the delivery of the contribution but its collection--it's
not done yet.

This solves the problem why Paul begain with prominent
Ephesians in Rom. 16 (Prisca and Aquila who were living there
and Epaenetus, the first fruit of Asia). It's not that Rom.
16 was actually sent to Ephesus, but *from* Ephesus. Under
this scenario, Paul had a groups of his colleagues in Ephesus
go to Rome in preparation of his future visit, and Romans
is a follow up letter to further prepare for his visit.

Has this been proposed before, and are there any obvious
flaws in the proposal?

Stephen Carlson
--
Stephen C. Carlson mailto:scarlson AT mindspring.com
Weblog: http://www.mindspring.com/~scarlson/hypotyposeis/blogger.html
"Poetry speaks of aspirations, and songs chant the words." Shujing 2.35




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page