2
fourteen of his epistles are extant, of which various is the arrange- ment, various the division. He wrote one to the Hebrews, with- out prefixing his name to it ; he added his name to the rest ; and these were partly addressed to churches, partly to indivi- duals ; and in the present day they are arranged in volumes,1 in such a way as that the one with the greatest number of verses is put first. But the chronological order is much more worthy of consideration, of which we have treated in the Ordo temporum , cap. 6.2 When that matter is settled, both the apostolic history, and these very epistles, shed a mutual light on one another ; and we perceive a correspondence of thoughts, and modes of expres- sion, in epistles written at one and the same time, and concern- ing the same state of affairs [as the apostolic history — the Acts — describes] ; and we also become acquainted with the spiritual growth of the apostle. There is one division, which, we think, ought to he particularly mentioned in this place. Paul wrote in one way to churches, which had been planted by his own exer- tions, but in a different wTay to those churches, to which he was not known by face. The former class of epistles may he com- pared to the discourses, which pastors deliver in the course of their ordinary ministrations ; the latter class, to the discourses, which strangers deliver. The former are replete with the kind- ness, or else the severity, of an intimate friend, according as the state of the respective churches was more or less consistent with the Gospel ; the latter present the truths of the Gospel as it were more unmixed, in general statements, and in the abstract ; the former are more for domestic and daily use, the latter are adapted to holidays and solemn festivals, — comp, notes on ch. xv. 30. This epistle to the Romans is mostly of this latter description. — dovXog Irjtfou Xpitrov, servant of Jesus Christ) This commence- ment and the conclusion correspond (xv. 15, etc.) Xpiffrov — ©soy, of Christ — of God) Everywhere in the epistles of Paul, and throughout the New Testament, the contemplation of God and of Christ is very closely connected ; for example, Gal. ii. 19, etc. [ And it is also our privilege to have the same access to God in Christ. — V. g.] — antUrokog, a called apostle ), [called to he an apostle. — Eng. vers.] Supply, of Jesus Christ;
1 i.e., in the collected form — Ed.
2 See Life of Bengel. sec. 22.