Emphases and Silences

With the letter to the Romans our firsthand source of information for Paul's activity and achievements as a devoted supporter of the one whom years before he had bitterly opposed comes to an end. In all probability, Romans, written in Corinth as he planned for his subsequent activity in the West, whither he was soon to go, after a final visit to Jerusalem which he apparently viewed with concern, even reluctance, was the last letter to come from his pen, for the letters commonly styled “Letters of the Captivity”—Philippians, Colossians, Ephesians (if actually written by Paul), and Philemon—were not subsequently written from Rome, but in all probability were the product of his years in and about Ephesus, where in all likelihood he had suffered once again “prisons more abundantly, stripes above measure, deaths oft.”