Date And Place Of Writing
DATE AND PLACE OF WRITING
The epistle seems to have been written in Corinth. Paul commends Phoebe, a lady from Cenchraea, the port of that city (16:1). His host is Gaius (16:23), and Gaius is the name of a man Paul baptized at Corinth (1 Cor. 1:14). Erastus, Timothy, and Sopater were with Paul when Romans was written (16:21, 23) and also when he was in Greece (Acts 19:22; 20:2–4). Both times Paul intended to go to Jerusalem and then to Rome (Acts 19:21; Rom. 15:24–26, 28). The object of his immediate journey was to take money to the poor saints at Jerusalem (Acts 24:17; Rom. 15:26–28). All this makes it conclusive that Paul was writing from Corinth just before he travelled to Jerusalem.14
But dating this with any precision is something of a problem. The fixed point for Pauline chronology is the proconsulship of Gallio in Corinth, for there is an inscription that tells us that this man was in office in A.D. 52.15 Proconsuls held office for a year, though on occasion their terms might be extended to two years. Depending on whether the inscription refers to a time near the beginning or end of Gallio’s term of office, Paul would have been in Corinth at some time during the period A.D. 50–54. We do not know at exactly what point Paul was brought before him (Acts 18:12). But it is not unreasonable to suppose that it was early in his term of office (the Jews might hope to get their wish granted by a new official) and not so very long before the end of Paul’s own ministry in the city. If Paul was before Gallio in the summer of A.D. 5116 and left in the autumn for Antioch (Acts 18:18–22), his return to Galatia (Acts 18:23) would be in the following spring, that of A.D. 52. His visits to the churches and journey to Ephesus would bring him to that city at the autumn period. He stayed there for three months (Acts 19:8) and then apparently for two years more (Acts 19:10; cf. 20:31). This brings us to A.D. 55. It was apparently the Pentecost of that year that he wished to spend in Jerusalem (Acts 20:16). This means that the three months he spent in Greece just prior to the journey (Acts 20:3), during which he wrote Romans (he was about to go to Jerusalem, Rom. 15:25), would be the early months of A.D. 55.17 This would be supported if Acts 24:27, “when two years had passed”, means when Felix had been in office for two years (not when Paul had been a prisoner for two years), and if Festus succeeded Felix in A.D. 55.18 There are, of course, many uncertainties, and no dating can ever be more than approximate. Some date Romans as early as A.D. 53.19 But A.D. 55 seems to satisfy the data as well as any year.