I'm proud of those books, although few have bought them. They make good book studies for a small group or Sunday School class. They cover the biblical material broadly rather than in verse by verse detail.
2. I've also produced some "Explanatory Notes." These go verse by verse. Here is one I published with Cascade publishing on the book of Hebrews. But my sense is that most people aren't into a verse by verse analysis. Commentaries of this sort are primarily reference tools that pastors use in sermon preparation or students use when doing exegesis.
3. For the last few months, I've been working through Mark, aiming at a kind of middle ground. I went chapter by chapter, summarizing them and bringing out any salient issues of interpretation or application. I like the result a lot, although I'm not convinced anyone would buy it.
But it combines the strengths of the two approaches I've just mentioned. It is more granular than my broader books. It is less detailed than my Explanatory Notes. Still, it is probably too deep for your average Sunday School. I went to a Sunday School class at a church not too long ago. They were reading The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis. It's not a shallow book by any means, but it is in narrative form. That makes deep material more accessible to a general audience. The conversation, though, was very surface level that Sunday.
So, here is an experiment, an attempt to bring the text alive on a deep level using story. There will inevitably be some novelizing, but hopefully only enough to bring out the meaning of the material on a deep level. You can tell me if it works.
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1. Paul was discouraged when he arrived at Corinth late in the year AD56. He was preparing to go to Jerusalem with an offering to the church there. It was a kind of peace offering, as there had often been some tension between him and the Jerusalem church.
The last time he had spoken with James, James had urged Paul to remember the poor of the city (Gal. 2:10). This offering was to be the fulfillment of his pledge to do so. Paul may have seen it as the fulfillment of prophecy. Isaiah 60:5 talks about the wealth of the nations flowing to Jerusalem at a time of restoration for the city. Paul may have seen his offering as a piece of the end times puzzle.
He apparently had a group of representatives with him from various Gentile (non-Jewish) churches he had planted or had a hand in planting. These included Sopater from Berea in Greece, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe in Asia Minor, as well as Tychicus and Trophimus from Ephesus (Acts 20:4). Timothy and Titus were Paul's long time co-workers. Timothy was from Lystra in Asia Minor, and Titus was possibly from that general region as well.
Part of the arrangement was apparently for them to carry the gifts from their churches. He didn't want there to be any charge of impropriety, so the designees from each church stewarded the money entrusted to them (e.g., 2 Cor. 8:19-20). Paul even left open the question of whether he would travel with these representatives (e.g., 1 Cor. 16:3-4).
It's at least possible that some of this money ended up being used to pay for the sacrifices Paul made in Jerusalem with several who had taken a vow (Acts 21:24). James suggests Paul do this to show the Jewish believers in Jerusalem that he keeps the Jewish Law. For Paul, it seemed like an easy enough thing to do.
So, Paul is in Corinth, about to head to Jerusalem with this offering when he writes Romans. As he says in Romans 15:25-27: "But now I am going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints. For Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints of Jerusalem."
2. At the same time, it's hard not to think Paul was discouraged at this time. The words in Romans 15:23 have a certain heaviness: "Since I now no longer have a place in these regions..."
Think about Paul's situation. Although Acts omits mention of it, many think it likely that he was imprisoned at Ephesus (cf. 2 Cor. 1:8). I suspect he was more or less banished from the city, which would be part of why he does not go into the city when he comes through again (cf. Acts 20:16-17). After three years at Ephesus, his time there is done. There is "no place" for him there.
And while we can presume his hosts at Corinth were cordial, we have good reason to think that his presence at Corinth was not entirely comfortable either. Yes, he enjoys the hospitality of Gaius (Rom. 16:23). Yes, he has many allies in the church there, people like Sosthenes (1 Cor. 1:1; Acts 18:17) and Chloe's household (1 Cor. 1:11). Perhaps Stephanus and his household are allies as well (1 Cor. 16:15-17).
But Paul has enemies at Corinth too. After nine incredibly harmonius chapters, in 2 Corinthians 10 Paul suddenly goes off the rails. It is like Paul thought everything was peachy with him and the Corinthians only to receive new information. The church is not as submitted to his authority as he thought. Some key individuals have apparently not repented of their sins.
The tone of 2 Corinthians 10-13 is unlike anywhere else in Paul's writing. "I fear lest somehow when I come to you, I might not find you as I wish... lest when I come to you again, God might humble me before you and I might mourn over many who had sinned before and have not repented of their uncleanness and sexual immorality and the sensuality that they practiced" (2 Cor. 12:21).
So it would seem that Corinth, like Ephesus, has "no place" for him either. We do not know what happened in response to Paul's letter to the Galatians. We would hope that they ended up listening to him and not the Judaizers who were trying to persuade them to convert fully to Judaism. While he may have ministered for several years in his home region of Cilicia, he apparently has not gone back much since. In short, he may be ready to move on.
We do not know if there is any lingering tension over him at Antioch. He had a blow up there less six or seven years previous, after which he soon left the city (Gal. 2:14). While Acts portrays Paul in good relationships with all these places, we should note that to portray such harmony is part of Luke's rhetorical aim. Paul's own writings suggest much more tension.
This is the context of Romans. As Paul senses that the door is closing on his ministry in the east, he looks west.
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