Paul’s epistle to the Church in Rome was written somewhere around the year 57 AD, eight years after Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome. Almost everything we know about the Church in Rome at the time is that which can be gleaned from Paul’s epistle to the Romans. However, there is one thing we know; after the death of Claudius the Jewish community reestablished itself in Rome. We also know that at least some Jewish believers returned as well. We know this because Paul sent his greetings to Prisca and Aquila (Romans 16:3-5).
In his Survey o f the New Testament, Robert Gundry writes that “Some scholars maintain that the Roman church consisted mainly of Jewish Christians. They argue that the emphasis on the Jewish nation in chapters 9-11, the appeal to the example of Abraham, the quotations of the Old Testament, and the passages in which Paul appears to be arguing against Jewish objections imply a Jewish congregation.”[i] I disagree.
The above arguments lend themselves to other explanations and there indications in the text that Paul was writing to a predominantly Gentile church. For example, in Romans 1:13 Paul speaks of his desire to minister in Rome so that he “may obtain some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles” (Emphasis added). Also – and I consider this very important for the argument I am going to be making – In Romans 11, a chapter in which Paul had much to say about the nation Israel, he said, “But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles” (Romans 11:13a). Then, as he concluded his letter, he wrote, “I have written very boldly to you on some points so as to remind you again, because of the grace that was given to me from God, to be a minister of God to the Gentiles….” (Romans 15:15-16).
Taking these verses and others into account I think it is very likely the church in Rome – having become a Gentile church when Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome – continued to be a gentile church even after some Jewish believers returned to the city.
I also see evidence that once they returned to Rome the conflict between the Jewish community and the church – minus the riots – took up right where it had left off. For example, in Romans 11:28a Paul writes, “From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for you sake…”
I also think the passages that some scholars use to infer that the church was predominantly Jewish are better explained as Paul’s apologetic, his detailed answers to Jewish objections to the gospel. Obviously such an apologetic would be very useful to a church embroiled in competition with the Jewish community for Gentile converts.
Perhaps it was this competition — or maybe it was the open opposition of the Jews to the gospel — that also led to the development of certain ideas and teachings which would later become foundation stones of Christian anti-Semitism. Paul certainly seems to be aware of these dangerous ideas – perhaps Aquila and Prisca informed him – since rebuking and refuting them seems to have been a major part of his agenda in writing the epistle to the Romans.
The first indication we have of proto anti-Semitism in the Church at Rome is found in Romans 3:3. Here Paul asks and then answers the rhetorical question, “What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it?” The fact that Paul asked this question is significant. Certainly, the Jewish community wasn’t asking it. They were quite confident in their covenant relationship with God. So who was saying Jewish unbelief would cause God to be unfaithful? The obvious answer is that that there were those in the church in Rome who were teaching this doctrine.
I’m sure these Christians were not actually accusing God of infidelity; but Paul recognized that no matter how nicely it is stated, if someone says that Jewish unbelief negates the promises God made to Israel, then they are calling the faithfulness of God into question.
The same is true today. Christian anti-Semites have always said that Jewish unbelief cancels the covenant relationship between the actual sons of Israel and God, and it is interesting that we find this foundational doctrine present in Rome in 57 AD. I think it’s also important to note that Paul completely rejected it in the strongest possible language (Note, Paul’s argument is the same argument I make in another post, An Argument with Myself About Amillennialim).
But the third chapter of Romans is not the only place in which we find the foundation stones upon which full-blown anti-Semitism would later be built. However, it is important to note that the “apostle to the Gentiles,” Paul, rejected all of these ideas. Sadly, like so many other Pauline doctrines – such as justification by faith – the church soon abandoned his teaching on this subject too.
[i] A Survey of the New Testament/Robert H. Gundry/ p. 291
