Romans 15:23-24

Yet, agreeably to the principle expounded Romans 15:20-21, his journey to Rome will not, strictly speaking, be a mission, but rather a visit as it were in passing, for the church already exists in this capital. When, Acts 19:21, Paul at Ephesus was forming his plans for the future, it indeed was to Rome that he wished to proceed; but afterward he had no doubt heard of the foundation of a church in that city, and therefore he now no longer says: to Rome, but: to Spain by way of Rome. The unevangelized country, Spain, is the goal (the εἰς); Rome is now only the way (the διά). Yet it would be easy to go directly by sea from Asia to Spain. But this is what he will take good care not to do, for he hungers and thirsts to enter into personal communication with the Christians of Rome, and he will make a detour to visit them in passing. Such is the perfectly obvious meaning of these two verses.

The text of Romans 15:24 comes to us in three forms. The T. R. and the Byzs. read after the words: “into Spain,” a principal clause: “ I will come to you; ” which leads them to add a for with the following verb: “ for I trust.” The clause is simple, the sense clear; only these words: I will come to you, are wanting in the documents of the two other texts.

The Alex. is much less intelligible. It begins at Romans 15:23 with two participles: “having no more place...but having the desire”...; then it continues with a subordinate proposition: “when I shall go into Spain;” and instead of the principal verb expected, it closes by saying: “for I hope to see you in passing”...; and in Romans 15:25: “now then I go to Jerusalem.” There would be but one way of justifying this text, to make a long parenthesis from: for I trust, to the end of the verse, and to find the principal verb on which the two participles of Romans 15:23 depend in Romans 15:25: “now I go to Jerusalem.” But this would require us to reject the δέ, but or now, at the beginning of Romans 15:25, contrary to the authority of all the documents; then, there is no logical relation between the idea of these two participles: having no more place, having the desire to come to you, and the verb: I go to Jerusalem. To render this reading admissible, it is absolutely necessary to reject the γάρ, for, after ἐλπίζω, I trust, and thus to make this the principal verb.

This is precisely what is done by the Greco-Lat. reading, which is supported by the ancient Syriac version. This is not the only time that the Greco-Latin text has the superiority over the other two. We have already met with some similar cases in the Epistle to the Romans (Romans 13:1, for example), and we beg the reader specially to compare 1 Corinthians 9:10, which is not intelligible except in the form preserved by the Greco-Latin documents. The meaning which we get by means of this text is faultless: “Having no more place..., but having the desire to see you..., when I go into Spain, I hope to see you in passing.”

The διά in διαπορευόμενος alludes to the idea that Rome will only be a place of rest and passage; the reason of this has been explained. The church is already founded there.

The verb προπεμφθῆναι, to be conducted farther, contains these two ideas: to be accompanied by some of theirs, and to be provided with everything necessary for the journey; comp. Tit 3:13 and 3 John 1:6.

The reading ὑφ᾿ ὑμῶν, by you, which contains the idea of the solicitude of the Romans about Paul, is much to be preferred to the reading ἀφ᾿ ὑμῶν, from among you, which makes the church only a point of departure. ᾿Εκεῖ, the adverb of rest, is used, as it often is, instead of ἐκεῖσε, the adverb of motion; the goal is considered as reached: “to go thither and be there. ” Comp. John 11:8. ᾿Εμπλησθῆναι, literally to saturate himself with them, a very lively expression of the need he feels to make their personal acquaintance, and of the pleasure which this relation will bring him; comp. Romans 1:12. The word somewhat is not a poor compliment which he pays to the Romans, as if he meant to say that his stay among them will only half satisfy him; Paul means, on the contrary, that he will never see them enough to satisfy completely the want he feels of spiritual communion with them.

Baur suspects this whole passage, for the reason that this journey to Spain is a pure fiction; a notion, the realization of which is wholly without attestation. But the Fragment of Muratori says expressly: “the departure of Paul, setting out from Rome to Spain.” For the very reason, answers Hilgenfeld, that this journey never took place, a forger would not have mentioned it. And without examining the question of fact, how is it possible to prove that Paul could not have formed such a project, which corresponded so well with his noble ambition, even though he had not been able to realize it?

But before setting out for the west, the apostle has yet a task to fulfil; he proposes to seal by a solemn act the union between the two portions of the church in that part of the world which he is about to leave. Such is the object of a last visit which he yet reckons on making to Jerusalem. He must transmit to the mother church of Jerusalem, on behalf of the churches of Greece, the fruits of a collection which they have made spontaneously for it. The apostle is concerned to inform the Christians of Rome on this point, not only because this journey will detain him some time yet in the east, but especially because it may involve him in dangers, and because he has a request to address to them in this relation. Such are the perfectly natural contents of the end of the chapter.