Paul's Epistle to the Romans: Some Background Dates
(c) Ian Johnston, Malaspina University-College, 1996

A. Notes on Saint Paul: Chronology

c. 4 BC   Birth of Jesus

c. AD 5   Paul (originally Saul) born in Tarsus (Cilicia) son of
          a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, a Roman citizen.
          Brought up a Pharisee, educated in Jerusalem.

14 AD          Death of Emperor Augustus, Tiberius became
          emperor.

c. 30 AD  Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea, ordered the
          crucifixion of Jesus.

c. 35 AD  Saul emerged a bitter opponent of the followers of
          Jesus; assisted at the martyrdom by stoning of St.
          Stephen, the leader of a colony of Greek Jews of the
          Diaspora who had joined the Christians (Acts 7:58).
          Paul was converted on the road to Damascus to arrest
          some Christians and bring them to Jerusalem for trial.
          Baptized and went to Arabia (Gal. 1:17).  The story of
          his conversion is told three times in the Acts of the
          Apostles (9:1-19; 22:5-16; 26:12-18).

37 AD          Tiberius died; Caligula became emperor.

c. 39 AD  Paul returned to Damascus, had to make secret escape
          from the king in a basket over city walls (Acts 9:23-5;
          2 Cor. 11:32 ff).

41 AD          Caligula assassinated; Claudius became emperor.

c. 45 AD  Barnabas and Paul went to Antioch (Acts 11:25 ff) and
          later to Jerusalem to take food to Christian community
          during a famine.  He returned to Antioch (Acts 12:25).
          Afterwards the Church at Antioch sent Paul and Barnabas
          out on the First Missionary Journey (to Cyprus, Asia
          Minor, and back to Antioch).  On this journey Paul
          changed his name from Saul to Paul (Acts 13:9).  Paul
          openly proclaimed his mission to the Gentiles, an
          action which met strong opposition from some Christian
          Jewish communities, those who wanted Christianity to
          remain exclusively for Jewish people.

c. 50 BC  Paul travelled to Jerusalem for the first Council of
          the Church to discuss with Peter the contentious issue
          of the relationship between Jews and Gentiles in the
          growing Christian communities.  The mission to the
          gentiles was, however, recognized by the Jerusalem
          Church, a victory for Paul.  In addition, the Law was
          not to be imposed on Gentile Christians (Gal. 2:6-9;
          Acts 15).

c. 53 AD  Second Missionary Journey (Asia Minor, Macedonia,
          Greece, Athens, Corinth), then back to Antioch (Acts 16-
          18).

54 AD          Death of Emperor Claudius, Nero became emperor.

c. 55 AD  Third Missionary Journey (Acts 19-20): Ephesus (two
          years), Macedonia, Achaea, Corinth (where he probably
          wrote the Epistle to the Romans, to prepare for his
          visit there), and Jerusalem.  In Jerusalem beaten by
          the mob (protesting against the conversion of the
          gentiles), rescued by Roman soldiers.  To protect Paul
          the Romans sent him to governor Felix at Caesarea, and
          kept him loosely detained awaiting trial (Acts 21:27-
          36; Acts 22; Acts 23 ff).  First Corinthians was
          probably written at this time (c. 56 AD).

c. 60 AD  Paul's trial.  Paul appealed to Rome (using his rights
          as a Roman citizen).  Voyage to Rome, shipwrecked at
          Malta.  In Rome awaiting trial, Paul wrote the
          Captivity Epistles.  Paul was not treated severely in
          Rome, and may have made further missionary journeys (to
          Spain?).

64 AD          The great fire in Rome (Nero fiddling, etc.).
          Christians blamed by Nero for the fire.

c. 65 AD  Paul martyred in Rome during Neronian persecution.  By
          tradition Paul was beheaded on the left bank of the
          Tiber, about three miles from Rome.

c. 65 AD  Composition of the Gospel According to Mark, by an
          anonymous author (John Mark?), prepared as an
          indication of Peter's teaching.

66-70 AD  Revolt in Judea.  Romans began forcible suppression
          under Vespasian (later emperor in 69 AD).

68 AD          Nero committed suicide after being declared a
          public enemy by the senate (backed by the praetorian
          guard)

70 AD          Jerusalem fell to the Romans under Titus
          (Vespasian's son): the Temple destroyed, the Jewish
          national council and high-priesthood abolished,
          religious taxes diverted to imperial treasury, Judea
          given over to the Roman empire (i.e., the end of the
          independent Jewish state).

c. 70 AD  Gospel According to Matthew prepared (anonymous author
          who complied the different stories and sayings of
          Jesus, perhaps written in Hebrew).  During this period
          the Gospel According to Luke was also prepared,
          traditionally by Luke, a gentile doctor who had become
          a Christian.

c. 90 AD  Gospel According to John prepared by a disciple of John
          who recorded his preaching (?).  The date of the
          writing of this gospel is much disputed.


B. A Note on the Diaspora (Dispersion)

The term Diaspora (Dispersion) refers to the scattering of the
Jewish people throughout Asia Minor, North Africa, and Europe.
It started in the Assyrian and Babylonian deportations (722 and
597 BC) and was originally confined to parts of Asia.  Later it
spread throughout the Roman Empire to Egypt, Asia Minor, Greece,
and Italy.  By the time of the New Testament, there were not less
than a million Jews in Alexandria, in Egypt, and, although exact
figures are difficult to compute, some scholars have estimated
that about 10 percent of the population of the Roman empire was
Jewish.  Paul himself was a Diaspora Jew, since he was not born
in Palestine.

Until 70 AD many Jews of the Diaspora maintained close contact
with their home country, paying Temple taxes and keeping their
religious practices, observing the Law, and heeding the decisions
of the religious leaders in Jerusalem (the Pharisees and
Sadducees).  The destruction of the Temple by Titus in 70 AD, the
abolition of the central religious authority, and the end of the
existence of an independent Jewish state severely crippled the
ability of the Jews of the Diaspora to retain a well-developed
sense of a total, coordinated identity with a central authority
in religious matters, and this fact undoubtedly contributed
enormously to the spread of Pauline Christianity among the
gentiles, since one of the major obstacles to his missionary
work, the well organized, popular, and enormously influential
politico-religious parties of the Pharisees and Sadducees no
longer existed after 70 AD.

The term Gentile refers to non-Jewish people, largely Greeks and
Romans.  However, it is important to remember that, given the
dispersion of the Jews (already very wide before Titus destroyed
the Temple), many Jewish people spoke only (or mainly) Greek or
Latin and lived in a thoroughly Hellenistic or Roman culture
(e.g., at Alexandria or Rome)--and had done so for generations.
Thus, it is not easy clearly to demarcate the separation between
Jewish and Greek populations in the years of Paul's mission.
Similarly, many Jews, like Paul, were also Roman citizens, fluent
in Latin and valued and thriving members of many urban centres
throughout the empire.  The Romans themselves seem to have
respected the Jews, at least those outside Palestine, for the
strong ethical emphasis in their daily lives, for the age of
their traditional religion, and for the emphasis on communal
charity.  Certainly, the Roman authorities gave the Jews certain
privileges about worship which they were not prepared to give to
other religions.  On the other hand, the Romans were constantly
frustrated by many nationalistic sects among the Jews in
Palestine and treated these movements with great violence and
cruelty, finally destroying the Jewish state and the Temple as a
means of dealing with the recurring political unrest in
Palestine, one of the most unruly parts of their Empire.


C.  Paul's Works

Paul's writings generally fall into two classes: (a) the
undoubtedly authentic letters and (b) the works of the Pauline
school.  In the first group belong the following texts:

     First Thessalonians (c. 51 AD), Galatians (c. 54 AD), First
     Corinthians (C. 56 AD), Second Corinthians (c. 56 AD),
     Romans (c. 57 AD), Philippians (c. 62 AD ?), Philemon (c. 62
     AD ?).

To the second group belong the following texts:

     Second Thessalonians (c. 51 AD), Colossians (c. 62 AD ?)
     Ephesians (?), The Pastoral Letters (c. 125 AD; these are
     First Timothy, Second Timothy, and Titus).