tell the Roman Christians of his plan to visit them and enlist their support for his proposed tour to Spain (15:23-25) The letter also would pave the way for Paul’s personal visit by giving instruction to the Christians regarding the basic truths of salvation and Christian living This intent of setting forth a solid interpretation of the gospel must be the underlying purpose of the epistle, and almost two thousand years of church history have demonstrated successful ful llment of such a divine purpose.2 III SURVEY A PREPARING TO SURVEY Keep in mind that a single Bible book is a structure composed of various parts Recall from an earlier study that we are using the following terms to represent individual units of that total structure: a Paragraph: A paragraph is a group of sentences (usually verses) making up one thought unit (e.g., Rom 9:1-5) b Segment: A segment is a group of paragraphs, often the length of one chapter, sometimes shorter or longer (e.g., Rom 2:17 —3:8) c Section: A section is a group of segments, such as Romans 1:18—3:20 d Division: These are the largest units of a book For Romans, there are four divisions: prologue; doctrine; practice; epilogue These will be located later Turn the pages of Romans in your Bible, for quick, rst impressions How many chapters in this letter? Are any exceptionally long? What is the rst and last word of the letter? Does Paul quote the Old Testament often? (NASB clearly shows Old Testament quotes by using all capitalized letters.) B FIRST READING Scan the book of Romans, chapter by chapter, in one sitting It is not necessary to read every word at this time, but it is important to read the rst and last verses of each chapter For this rst reading not tarry over the text as though you were analyzing it Otherwise, the weight of sixteen chapters will suddenly bear down heavily upon you, and you will be discouraged from pursuing your survey Did you observe any repeated words, especially in the rst verse of each chapter? Is there a prevailing atmosphere throughout, or does the atmosphere change along the way? Regarding the kind of content, how does chapter 16 compare with all the other chapters? C SURVEYING THE INDIVIDUAL SEGMENTS Now refer to Chart 63 (survey of Romans) and note that the epistle is divided into twenty segments Note that all the segments begin with the rst verse of each chapter, with these exceptions: 1:18; 2:17; 3:9; 3:21; 9:30; 12:9; 15:14 Mark these segment divisions in the Bible version that you are using as the basic text of your survey Then scan through Romans segment by segment and assign a segment title to each Record the titles by whatever method you are using for this What new impressions you have of Romans? Have key words begun to appear? ... is the rst and last word of the letter? Does Paul quote the Old Testament often? (NASB clearly shows Old Testament quotes by using all capitalized letters.) B FIRST READING Scan the book of Romans,... Regarding the kind of content, how does chapter 16 compare with all the other chapters? C SURVEYING THE INDIVIDUAL SEGMENTS Now refer to Chart 63 (survey of Romans) and note that the epistle is divided... your survey Did you observe any repeated words, especially in the rst verse of each chapter? Is there a prevailing atmosphere throughout, or does the atmosphere change along the way? Regarding the