On the other hand, situated in the metropolis of the great empire of heathendom, the Roman Church must necessarily have been in great measure a Gentile Church ; and the language of the epistle bears out this supposi- tion. It is professedly as the apostle of the Gentiles that Paul writes to the Romans (i, 5). He hopes to have some fruit among them, as he had among the other Gentiles (ver. 13). Later on in the epistle he speaks of the Jews in the third person, as if addressing (ientiles : " I could wish that myself were accursed for my brethren, my kinsmen after the flesh, who are Isra- elites," etc. (ix, 3, 4). Again : " my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that thej' might be saved'" (x, 1 ; the right reading is v-rrip avriLv. not vTtip tov 'InpatjX, as in the Received Text). Comp. also xi, 23, 25, and especially xi, 30: "For as ye in times past did not be- lieve God, ... so did these also (i. e. the Jews) now not believe," etc. In all these passages Paul clearly addresses himself to Gentile readers.
These Gentile converts, however, were not, for the most part, native Romans. Strange as the paradox appears, nothing is more certain than that the Church of Rome was at this time a Greek, and not a Latin, Church. It is clearly established that the earl}' Latin versions of the New Test, were made not for the use of Rome, but for the provinces, especially Africa (West- cott. Canon, p. 2(59). All the literature of the early Roman Church was written in the Greek tongue. The names of the bishops of Rome during the first two cen- turies are, with but few exceptions, Greek (see Milmau, Latin Christianity, i, 27). In accordance with these facts, we find that a verj' large proportion of the names in the salutations of this epistle are Greek names; while of the exceptions. Priscilla, Aquila, and Jnnia (or Ju- nias), were certainly Jews; and the same is true of Ru- fus, if, as is not improbable, he is the same mentioned in Mark xv, 21. Julia was probably a dependent of the imperial household, and derived her name accordingly. The only Roman names remaining are Amplias (i. e. Ampliatus) and Urbanus, of whom nothing is known, but their names are of late growth, and certainh' do not point to an old Roman stock. It was therefore from the Greek population of Rome, pure or mixed, that the Gentile portion of the Church was almost entirely drawn. The Greeks formed a very consideral)le fraction of the whole people of Rome. They were the most busy and adventurous, and also the most intelligent of the middle and lower classes of societj'. The influence which they were acquiring by their luimbers and versatilitj' is a constant theme of reproach in the Roman philosopher and satirist (Juvenal, iii, GO-80; vi, 18^; Tacitus, De Oi-at. 29). They complain that the national character is undermined, that the whole city has become Greek. Speaking the language of international intercourse, and brought by tlieir restless habits into contact with foreign religions, the Greeks had larger opportunities than oth- ers of acquainting themselves with the truths of the
Gospel; while, at the same time, holding more loosely to traditional beliefs, and with minds naturally more inquiring, they would be more ready to welcome these truths when they came in tlieir way. At all events, for whatever reason, tlie (ientile converts at Rome were Greeks, not Romans; and it was an unfortunate con- jecture on the part of the transcriber of the Syriac Pe- shito that this letter was written " in the Latin tongue" (nixm-). Every line in the epistle bespeaks an orig- inal.
When we inquire into the probat)le rank and station of the Roman believers, an analysis of the names in the list of salutations again gives an approximate answer. These names belong for the most part to the middle and lower grades of society. Many of them are found in the columbaria of the freedmen and slaves of the early Roman emjierors (see Journal of Class, and Sacr. Phil. iv, 57). It would be too much to assume that they were the same persons; but, at all events, the identity of names points to the same social rank. Among the less wealthy merchants and tradesmen, among the petty officers of the army, among the slaves and freedmen of the imperial palace, whether Jews or Greeks, the Gos- pel would first find a firm footing. To this last class allusion is made in Phil, iv, 22, " they that are of Cic- sar's household." From these it would gradually work upwards and downwards; but we may be sure that in respect of rank the Church of Rome was no exception to the general rule, that " not many wise, not many mighty, not many noble," were called (1 Cor. i, 26).
It seems probable, from what has been said above, that the Roman Church at this time was composed of Jews and Gentiles in nearly equal portions. This fact finds expression in the account, whether true or false, which represents Peter and Paid as presiding at the same time over the Church at Rome (Dionys. Cor. ap. Euseb. H. E. ii, 25 ; Irenaius, iii, 3). Possibly, also, t he discrepancies in the lists of the early bishops of Rome may find a solution (Pearson, Minor Theol. Works, ii, 449; Bunseu, Hipjtnlyfus, i, 44) in the joint episco- pate of Liims and Cletus — the one ruling over the Jew- ish, the other over the Gentile, congregation of the me- tropolis. If this conjecture be accepted, it is an impor- tant testimony to the view here maintained, though we cannot suppose that in Paul's time the two elements of the Roman Church had distinct organizations.