A Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans

Charles Hodge published his Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans in 1835, after years of teaching the epistle to students at Princeton Theological Seminary, where he had been a professor since 1822. The book grew directly out of the classroom. It was written for ministerial students who needed a text that would carry them through Paul's argument line by line, and it reflects the conviction of the Old Princeton tradition that careful exegesis and Reformed doctrine belong together. Hodge wrote in the American Presbyterian setting of the early nineteenth century, when debates over sin, grace, and atonement were being contested within the church. In later years he revised and expanded the work, and the 1864 edition is the form in which it is usually read.

Hodge reads Romans as a sustained argument about how sinners are made right with God. He follows Paul's logic from the universal guilt of Jew and Gentile through justification by faith to the life of sanctification, the doctrine of election, and the practical exhortations of the closing chapters. His method is steady and patient: he sets out the sense of each passage, weighs the readings of earlier interpreters, and then draws out the doctrine the text teaches. Two features mark the book. The first is its attention to the Greek text and to the history of interpretation, from the church fathers through the Reformers to the German critics of his own day, with whom he argues directly. The second is its theology. Hodge defends the imputation of Adam's sin and of Christ's righteousness, penal substitution, and the sovereignty of God in salvation, and he sets each against the alternatives he thinks Paul rules out. He also appends short sections of practical reflection to the exposition, so that the commentary addresses the preacher as well as the scholar.

The commentary has remained in print for nearly two centuries because it is clear, orderly, and unembarrassed about its commitments. It became a standard reference for Reformed pastors and shaped how generations of American evangelicals understood Romans, and later commentators still engage it, whether in agreement or disagreement. Its weaknesses are also instructive: its exegesis is shaped by a confessional system, and it predates most of the historical work on Paul's Jewish context that has since transformed the field.

Who should read this: pastors, seminarians, and serious lay readers who want a full-length Reformed exposition of Romans and are willing to follow an argument slowly. It is especially useful for those who wish to see how a mature confessional reading is built from the text. It is not for readers looking for a modern critical or social-historical commentary, or for anyone who wants a brief devotional introduction to Paul's letter.