We will begin this week with the 15th chapter of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, and then return to the book of Acts, where we pick up Paul’s story as he starts out to Jerusalem.

English: page with text of Epistle to the Romans 1:1-7 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In a previous blog, we noted that Paul began some of his letters (within the greeting) by declaring his apostleship whenever he was writing to a church that was either unfamiliar with him (he had not even been to the Roman church, for example) or when the church to whom he was writing had a dispute about his being an apostle.  But why did they all begin with his name?

Coffman wrote what seems like the best explanation: “All letters and other written communications, in New Testament times, were written upon parchments and conveyed to their recipients in rolled-up form; and that ancient style of letter required, as a practical consideration, that the signature of the writer be at the beginning. Otherwise, it would have been necessary to unroll the entire scroll to find the name of the sender. Therefore, Paul followed the custom of the times in placing his name along with the salutation in the beginning of the epistle.“

Summing Up

Each weekend, I am now posting a small PDF of one week of chapter summaries (on the website’s “Summaries” page), current to the beginning of the previous week.  I have posted the summary for Week 45 (November Week 1) of the schedule I am following.  This short PDF document contains condensed comments about 1 Corinthians 11, 13, 15, 2 Cor 3, and 2 Cor 6, with hyperlinks to the ESV version of each chapter for listening or reading, and joins the summaries for other weeks already posted there.

/Bob’s boy

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image © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

Please note: I did not design the reading plan that I am following in my blog.  All of my comments in this blog, however, are solely my responsibility.  When reading ANY commentary, you should ALWAYS refer first to the scripture, which is God’s unchanging and unfailing word. Reading schedules, as well as a link to the site where you can get the reading plan that I’m currently following for yourself can be found on the “Bible Reading Schedules” page of my website at http://graceofourlord.com.  For questions and help, please see the “FAQ” and “Summaries” pages there.