Romans 15:30-33

“ Now I exhort you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me before God for me in your prayers, that I may be delivered from the disobedient in Judea, and that this aid which I have for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints; that coming with joy among you by the will of God, I may with you find rest. ”

The δέ might be adversative (but); it would thus express the contrasted impressions which we have just indicated. But it is better to take it simply as progressive: now. The form of address: brethren, which the Vatic. wrongly rejects, makes a pressing appeal to the sympathy of the readers. This appeal is addressed in the name of Christ Himself, whom Paul serves, then of the affection by which he feels himself bound to the Romans by the operation of the Holy Spirit. The love of the Spirit is opposed to that which exists between persons who know one another personally; “who have seen my face in the flesh,” as Paul himself says, Colossians 2:1 (in opposition to Romans 1:8).

The request so solemnly prefaced is one for a common struggle; for there are hostile powers to be combated (Romans 15:31). The two phrases: for me (in my behalf) and before God, are often joined to the substantive προσευχαῖς : “your prayers for me before God. But would not the regimen before God connected with the word prayers be superfluous, and would not the expression your prayers for me imply a thing which Paul has no right to assume: viz. that they make prayer for him continually? The two regimens, therefore, depend rather on the verb strive. To strive before God, whose arm can alone cover the apostle in this journey with an impenetrable buckler; and by your prayers, since they are the efficacious means of moving this almighty arm.

The phrase: with me, reminds the Romans how he is himself striving for the same end.

Vv. 31. The enemies to be removed are, above all, the unbelieving Jews. It is to them the first that refers; the second intimates that there are other adversaries within the church itself; they are “those thousands of Jews who have believed,” Acts 21:20-21, and who have been filled with prejudices against Paul's person and work. All those hearts must be prepared by God Himself to receive well the offering which is about to be brought them. The reading δωροφορία (offering of a present) instead of διακονία (service), in the Vatic. and the Greco-Lats., seems to me probable enough, considering the rareness of the expression.

The kind of anxiety which breathes throughout this whole passage is in keeping with the painful presentiments felt by all the churches about this journey to Jerusalem, and which found utterance shortly afterward by the mouth of the prophets wherever Paul stopped (Acts 20:22-23; Acts 21:4 et seq., 11 et seq.).

Vv. 32. If with א A C we read: “ that coming (ἐλθών)... I may find rest (συναναπαύσωμαι),” the two clauses: with joy and by the will of God, might refer to the principal verb: “that I may find rest.” But it seems to me that this relation is unnatural, for the idea of joy is already contained in that of finding rest, and the will of God more naturally determines the matter of arriving than that of resting. It is therefore preferable to apply these two clauses to the idea of coming. Of the two readings ἐλθών or ἐλθω... καί, the former is more in keeping with the simplicity of the apostle's style; the latter, more elegant, seems to be an Alexandrine correction.

We think we see the apostle, after happily finishing his mission in Palestine, embarking full of joy and guided by the will of God, then arriving at Rome there to rest his weary heart among his brethren in the joy of the common salvation, and to recover new strength for a new work.

The reading “By the will of God ” is preferable to all the others: Paul ordinarily rises to God whenever the subject involved is providential dispensations.

Vv. 33. “ The God of peace be with you all! Amen. ”

The apostle's heart seems constrained, in proportion as he approaches the end, to transform every particular subject he touches into a prayer or request. The special prayer contained in this verse is suggested to him by his conviction of the hostilities and dangers lying before himself, and by the need of soon being in full peace in the midst of his readers.

The authenticity of the word ἀμήν, amen, is doubtful. It is found, no doubt, in most of the Mjj., but it is wanting in three of them, and it is easier to explain its addition by copyists than its omission.

The authenticity of Romans 15:30-33 is acknowledged by Lucht. Volkmar admits only that of Romans 15:33, adding the first two verses of chap. 16. We have seen how little weight belongs to the objections raised by Baur and those critics to the authenticity of chap. 15 in general; we have not therefore to return to them. As to the opinions formerly given out by Semler and Paulus, according to which this whole chapter is only a particular leaf intended by the apostle either for the persons saluted in chap. 16, or for the most enlightened members of the church of Rome, they are now abandoned. The apostle was no friend of religious aristocracies, as we have seen in chap. 12; and he would have done nothing to favor such a tendency. Besides, what is there in this chapter which could not be read with advantage by the whole church? We have proved the intimate connection between the first part of the chapter and the subject treated in chap. 14, as well as the connection between the second part and the Epistle as a whole, more particularly the preface, Romans 1:1-15. The style and ideas are in all points in keeping with what one would expect from the pen of Paul. As Hilgenfeld says: “It is impossible in this offhand way to reject chaps. 15 and 16; the Epistle to the Romans cannot have closed with Romans 14:23, unless it remained without a conclusion.” M. Reuss expresses himself to the same effect, and we have pleasure in quoting the following lines from him in closing this subject: “The lessons contained in the first half of the text (chap. 15) are absolutely harmonious with those of the previous chapter, and of the parallel passages of other Epistles, and the statement of the apostle's plans is the most natural expression of his mind and antecedents, as well as the reflection of the situation of the moment. There is not the slightest trace of the aim of a forged composition, nor certainly of the possibility that the Epistle closed with chap. 14.”