Romans 15:14-16

“ Now I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.But brethren, I have written the more boldly unto you, as in some measure to put you in remembrance again of these things, because of the grace that is given to me of God; ”

The form of address: my brethren, is occasioned by the return to the epistolary style.

By saying: myself also, the apostle hints that the very full instruction which he has given them in this Epistle is not caused by a want of confidence in their Christian attainments; myself: “though my letter might make you suppose the contrary.” This meaning seems to me more natural than that of many commentators who suppose that Paul means: “I, as well as others,” or: “without needing any one to remind me of what you are.”

The καὶ αὐτοί, ye also, is certainly authentic, notwithstanding the omission of the words by the Greco-Latins; the meaning is: “you to whom I am thus writing.” The qualities on which the apostle rests this favorable judgment are at once of a moral and intellectual nature. They are full of goodness, ἀγαθωσύνή; this word denotes practical solidity, the full maturity of spiritual life; then they possess in abundance every kind of Christian knowledge, πᾶσα γνῶσις. We may remark the difference between this testimony and the eulogium passed on the Corinthians (1st Ephesians 1:5), where Paul brings out only this second sort of gifts (knowledge and speech).

From these two kinds of qualities it followed that there was among them the capacity for providing in a certain measure for their own edification and their mutual instruction. The true reading is άλλήλους, one another, and not as it is in one Mj. and the Syriac version, ἄλλους, others. The καί, also or even, which accompanies this pronoun, means: even among yourselves, without the help of any master from without. There is nothing in the expressions of this verse which goes beyond what the apostle could say with all sincerity, nor anything to support the judgment of Baur: that these sayings are the work of a later writer, who, seeing the bad effect produced by this letter on the Judeo-Christians of Rome, sought to soothe them by adding these chaps. 15 and 16. The apostle might well think the church of Rome very advanced in all respects, without its following that a letter like this was a work of supererogation. He himself (Romans 1:8) gave thanks for the faith of his readers, “which is spoken of throughout the whole world;” and if the terms which he uses in our verse could not be applied fully to all the individuals composing the church, they were nevertheless strictly true when applied to the church as a whole; for, as chap. 16 will show, it possessed a very great abundance of teachers and evangelists who could carry out within it the functions of instruction and admonition.

Vv. 15. The δέ is adversative: but; nevertheless; and the comparative τολμηρότερον, more boldly, is explained precisely by this contrast with Romans 15:1: “more freely than it seemed I should do in the case of such a church.” The repetition of the form of address: brethren, is perfectly natural in these conditions; it expresses anew the feeling of equality with which the apostle loves to approach them.

In the explanation of what follows, everything depends on the grammatical meaning and construction of ἀπὸ μέρους, which we have translated by: in some measure, and which literally signifies: in part. Some refer this restriction to the verb: I wrote you (Meyer, for example), and apply it solely to some particularly forcible passages of the letter, such as Romans 11:17-25; Romans 12:2, Romans 14:1 et seq. But what is there in these passages so different from the rest of the Epistle, and which should have called forth a special apology? Hofmann refers this “in part” to what is fragmentary in the teaching of the Epistle to the Romans. But in no letter does Paul give a statement of evangelic doctrine which less deserves to be called fragmentary. It is impossible to get an appropriate meaning for ἀπὸ μέρους, in part, except by referring this restriction to ἐπαναμιμνήσκων, putting you in remembrance, and applying it, not to the extent and contents of the teaching, as if the readers had had certain parts of the truth present to their mind, and not others, but to the mode of giving instruction. The apostle has written to them, not with the view of teaching them things that were new to them, but to bring back to their memory, in a way not to be forgotten, things which he knew to be already known to them to a certain degree. Thus is explained the ὡς, as; it is much more as reminding than as instructing them that he has written. He wished to treat them not as catechumens, but as Christians and brethren.

And if he has taken the liberty of acting thus toward them, it is not arbitrarily and at his own hand, it is in virtue of the mission which he has received and of the gift which has been bestowed on him in order to its fulfilment. Such is the meaning of the διὰ τὴν χάριν, on account of the grace, an expression which we must beware of rendering “ through the grace,” which is forbidden by the regimen in the accusative. The thing referred to, as is shown by the following verse, is his commission as apostle of the Gentiles, which he has only been obeying by writing thus to the church of Rome. Thus he apologizes for his letter: (1) By declaring that he wished merely to remind his readers of what they already knew; and (2) by tracing his right of acting thus to the apostleship which he has received. There is room for hesitating between the two readings, υπό, “ by God,” and ἀπό, “ on the part of God.” The former is perhaps preferable in the context, as denoting a more direct divine interposition.

The right understanding of these two verses suffices to set aside Baur's view regarding the entire Epistle to the Romans. According to this critic, the apostle aimed at nothing less than to bring over the church from the Judeo-Christian legal standpoint to his own evangelical conception. Now, to say that all he did was only to bring back to the memory of his readers what they already knew, would, if such had been his aim, be an act of gross hypocrisy; to make one change his opinion is not to remind him of what he knows. It is true that Baur has sought to give a quite different meaning to the expression: “as putting you in mind.” He applies it, not to the contents of the Epistle, but solely to the communications which are about to follow regarding the work which Paul has accomplished in the world. But such is not the natural meaning of the word ἔγραψα, I have written unto you; and the restriction: ἀπὸ μέρους, in part, no longer in that case admits of explanation. It is with good reason that Mangold himself declares that it is impossible to found a hypothesis on exegetical processes of such violence.