I. 1. ΠΑΥΛΟΣ δούλος Ιησού Χριστοῦ," κλητὸς ἀπόστολος, ἀφωρισμένος a1 Core εἰς εὐαγγέλιον Θεοῦ, 2. (3 προεπηγγείλατο διὰ τῶν προφητῶν αὐτοῦ | ~
CHAPTER I.—Vv. 1-7. The usual salutation of the Apostle is expanded, as is natural in writing to persons whom he has not seen, into a description both of himself and of his Gospel. Both, so to speak, need a fuller introduction than if he had been writing to a Church he had himself founded. The central idea of the passage is that of the whole epistle, that the Gospel, as preached by Paul to the Gentiles, was not incon- sistent with, but the fulfilment of, God’s promises to Israel.
Ver. 1. Paul’s description of him- self. δοῦλος “I. X. The use of the same expression in James, Jude, 2 Pet., shows how universal in the Church was the sense of being under an obligation to Christ which could never be discharged, It is this sense of obli- gation which makes the δουλεία, here referred to, perfect freedom. κλητὸς ἀπόστολος is an Apostle by vocation. No one can take this honour to himself, any more than that of a saint (ver. 7), unless he is called by God. In the N.T. it is always God who calls. It is as an Apostle—i.e., with the sense of his vocation as giving him a title to do so— that Paul writes to the Romans. ἀπόσ- todos is here used in the narrower sense, which includes only Paul and the twelve, see on xvi. 7. ἀφωρισμένος εἰς evay- γέλιον θεοῦ: for καλεῖν and ἀφορίζειν similiarly combined, see Gal. i. 15. The separation is here regarded (as in Gal.) as God’s act, though, as far as it had reference to the Gentile mission, it was carried out by an act of the Church at Antioch (Acts xiii. 2, ἀφορίσατε δή
μοι κ.τ.λ... What it means is ‘this one thing I do”. εὐαγγέλιον θεοῦ is the Gospel which comes from God, the glad tidings of which He is the source and author. As a name for the Christian religion, or the proclamation of it, it had a great fascination for an evangelist like Paul, who uses it out of all proportion oftener than any other N.T. writer.
Ver.2. ὃ προεπηγγείλατο. The Gospei is not in principle a new thing, a suo- version of the true religion as it has hitherto been known to the people of God. On the contrary, God promised it before, through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. It is the fulfilment of hopes which God Himself inspired. διὰ τῶν προφητῶν does not restrict the reference to the prophets in the strict sense of the word. The O.T.,asa whole, is prophetic of the New, and it is in the law (Abraham) and the Psalms (David), as much as in the prophets (Isaiah, Hosea), that Paul finds anticipations and promises of the Gospel: see chap. iv. The omission of the article with éy γραφαῖς ἁγίαις (cf. xvi. 26) is probably significant, for as against these two passages there are over forty in which αἱ γραφαὶ or ἤ γραφὴ occurs: it empha- sises the Divine character of these as opposed to other writings. That is ἅγιον which belongs to God, or is con- nected with Him: ἅγιαι γραφαὶ is the Ο.Τ. as God’s book.
Ver. 3 f. περὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ: the subject of the Gospel of God is His Son. For the same conception, see 2 Cor. i. 19: 6 τοῦ θεοῦ yap vids Χ, "ly ὁ ἐν ὑμῖν δι ἡμῶν κηρνυχθείς. Taken
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