ACC ~ Romans 15 v20

WHERE CHRIST HAD NOT BEEN NAMED. AMBROSIASTER: It was not without reason that Paul says that he tried to preach in places where Christ had not been named. For he knew that false apostles went about sharing Christ in ways which were wrong in order to ensnare the people by some other teaching under the name of Christ, which was then very difficult to put right afterward. Therefore he wanted to get there first, in order to preach the right message. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

DIODORE: Paul was not trying to avoid the other apostles, but he thought it was wrong and unfair to steal the credit for what someone else had done. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

LEST I BUILD UPON ANOTHER MAN’S FOUNDATION. CHRYSOSTOM: Paul was preeminent in this also, in that he did not go to places where the gospel had already been preached. So far was he from forcing himself upon other men’s disciples that he even went to places where nobody had preached before. … He wrote all this to show that he was a stranger to vanity and to instruct them that it was not from any love of glory or of honor from them that he came to write but in order to fulfill his ministry, perfect his priestly service and love their salvation. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 29.

PELAGIUS: A man who builds on someone else’s foundation is not doing anything wrong, as long as he builds with gold and such. Here Paul is referring to those false apostles who always went to converts and never to the Gentiles because they could not work miracles. Paul also shows that he had done a good job, for he both laid the foundation and also built on top of it. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

WHY HE HAD NOT VISITED ROME. GENNADIUS OF CONSTANTINOPLE: The explanation as to why Paul had not yet managed to visit the Romans seems to be that he believed that Peter had already come to them as their teacher, so he went to places where as yet no one had preached the gospel of Christ. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

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