ix. 15 and the Farewell, is taken from this "grievous" letter written

"out of much affliction and anguish of heart with many tears" (2nd Cor. ii. 1-4; vii. 8-16); for it was not only a peremptory demand for punishment of the offender, but also a letter of forced self-commendation. Paul cannot have written in self-commendation on more than one occasion, and he promises not to repeat this in iii. 1 ff. We may take 2nd Cor. x.-xiii., then, as representing the "grievous" letter. The opposition emanates from Judaizers who say they are "of Christ," and may therefore be identical with those of 1st Cor. i. 12. But it has grown to proportions which for a time made Paul despair of the church's loyalty. Titus' arrival in Macedonia with news of their restored obedience had been an inexpressible relief (ii. 5-17; vii. 8-16). It remains only to set his 'ministry of the new covenant' once more in contrast with the Mosaic 'ministry of condemnation and death,' including further elucidation of the doctrine of the resurrection body (iii. 1--vi. 10) and to urge generosity in the matter of the collection (chh. viii.-ix.).

The somewhat disordered, but unmistakably genuine material of 2nd Corinthians was probably given out as a kind of residuum of Pauline material long after our 1st Corinthians had been put in circulation, perhaps when renewed strife had caused the church in Rome to intervene through Clement (95), who quotes 1st Corinthians, but shows no knowledge of 2nd Corinthians. The correspondence is not only invaluable to the church for its pæan of love as the invincible, abiding gift of the Spirit (1st Cor. xiii.) and its sublime eulogy of the "ministry of the new covenant," but instructive in the highest degree to the historian. Almost every aspect of Paul's work as missionary, defender of his own independent apostleship and gospel, guide and instructor of developing Gentile-Christian thought, and ardent commissioner for peace with the apostolic community in Syria, is here set forth. The best exposition of the history is the documentary material itself, and conversely.

Romans was written during the peaceful winter at Corinth (55-56) which followed these weeks of tormenting anxiety in Macedonia (Acts xx. 1-3). Paul feels that he has carried the gospel to the very shores of the Adriatic (xv. 19). He is on the point of going to Jerusalem with his great 'offering of the Gentiles,' and has already fixed his eye on Rome and "Spain"! Just as before the First Missionary Journey he forestalled opposition by frankly laying his gospel before the Pillars, so now he lays it before the church in Rome, but most delicately and tactfully, not as though assuming to admonish Christians already "filled with all knowledge and able to admonish one another" (xv. 14), but "that I with you may be comforted in you, each of us by the other's faith" (i. 12). Thus the Epistle is an eirenicon. For Rome was even more than Ephesus had been, a preoccupied territory, though a metropolis of Paul's mission-field. Most of the church are Paul's sympathizers, but there are many of the 'weak,' who may easily be 'offended.' The letter repeats and enlarges the argument of Galatians for the gospel of Grace, carrying back the promise to Abraham to its antecedent in the fall of Adam, whereby all mankind had passed under the domination of Sin and Death. The function of the Law is again made clear as bringing men to consciousness of this bondage, till it is done away by (mystical) death and resurrection with Christ. In the adoption wrought by the Spirit the whole creation even, groaning since Adam's time under 'vanity,' is liberated in the manifestation of the sons of God. Jesus, glorified at the right hand of God, is the firstfruits of the cosmic redemption (Rom. i.-viii.). Such is Paul's theory of 'evolution.' It is followed by a vindication of God in history. Rom. ix.-xi. exhibits the relation of Jew and Gentile in the process of the redemption. Israel has for the time being been hardened that the Gentiles may be brought in. Ultimately their very jealousy at this result will bring them also to repentant faith.

Paul's sublime exposition of his view of cosmic and historic redemption is followed (as in all the Epistles) by a practical exhortation (chh. xii.-xiv.), the keynote of which is unity through mutual forbearance and loving service. It repeats the Corinthian figure of the members in the body, and the Galatian definition of the 'law of Christ.' Special application is made to the case of the scrupulous who make distinctions of days and of meats. Here, however (xiv. 1--xv. 13), there is no longer need to resist a threatened yoke. Only tenderness and consideration are urged for the over-scrupulous "brother in Christ." It was in this spirit that Paul and his great company of delegates from the churches of the Gentiles went up to Jerusalem (Acts xx. 4--xxi. 17).