is writing Romans, is to sort of defend himself to the Roman Christians, to help clarify what he really believes so they don’t have the wrong view of him. As we’ll see, this probably is one aspect of what Paul’s doing, but probably it’s not adequate to explain the letter as a whole. A second view, which has been popular in the past and has recently become very popular again—for instance, the massive commentary of Robert Jewett argues this view—sees Paul’s basic purpose