Paul did not found the Church at Rome; indeed, it is uncertain who did.  Catholics are quite clear that the church was founded by St. Peter, but protestants point out that there is no scriptural support for this.  Some have suggested that the “visitors from Rome” stated to have been present at Pentecost may have returned to Rome and founded the church there.  Members of the church may have been among the “Jews whom Claudius expelled from Rome” (Acts 18:2). Two of them, Aquila and Prisca, turn up again as colleagues of Paul in Corinth and are mentioned in Romans 16, still away from Rome. The Roman historian Suetonius mentions that Claudius expelled from Rome “those who had rioted under one Chrestus”, and some historians have been tempted to suggest that Suetonius was getting confused with Christians – though Chrestus was an accepted Roman name.   If the Christian church in Rome was founded early by Jews, who were then expelled, the Jewish Christians may have found on their return that the church had become dominated by Gentile Christians.  Conflict between Jewish and Gentile Christians in Rome may have inspired Paul to write; some Catholics suggest that he was asked to write by St. Peter.

Some have said that Paul was a great preacher but a poor systematic theologian; he appears not have been a great diplomat either – he starts Romans  with a massive denunciation of a poorly identified group who have “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images …….. “  Accusing this group of a great variety of sins, including robbing pagan temples and blasphemy, he mentions that they are homosexuals.  The language is most intemperate, though perhaps it may be said that he cites homosexuality as one feature of these sinners, not vice versa.

Oddly, there is no mention of the Roman Christian church in Acts, when Paul eventually arrives in Rome; the Jewish leaders there (when did they return?) seem to have heard of the Christian church only by rumor.

It is a truism that Paul’s letters were written before the gospels were produced; at the beginning of Romans he appears to be unaware of the doctrine of the “Virgin Birth” – “… he was Son of David, according to the flesh…….”

In a complex argument, Paul says that Jews are not really Jews if they do not keep the Mosaic Law, and more surprisingly, that Gentiles become Jews --“real circumcision is a matter of the heart”.