(B) Who founded the church in Rome?
(B) Who founded the church in Rome?
Scriptures do not teach who founded the church in Rome, but it clearly was not Paul or Peter, contrary to what many may think. Paul wrote this epistle before he was taken to Rome under guard.
He obviously was free when he wrote it because he described his travel plans in the letter (CP 1:9-13 with 15:15-29). Paul wrote the letter to the Romans from Corinth, where he was staying with Gaius, one of his first converts in Corinth (CP 16:23 with 1Cor 1:14).
It is highly probable, but not certain, that the church in Rome was founded by local converts to whom Paul had preached the gospel during his apostolic mission journeys, as he knew many of the Christians in Rome personally (CP Ro 16:1-16).
We also learn from this that Peter did not start the church in Rome either, because Paul never greeted him here, nor mentions him anywhere else in the letter as being in Rome either at the time of writing or beforehand.
It is also possible that some of the Jews from Rome who were in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost went back and started the church, because it was already well established and consisted of both Jews and Gentiles when Paul wrote this letter (CP 1:8, 13-15; 2:17-18; 4:1, 12; 11:20-21; 15:15-16).
See also author's study Paul the Apostle - a Chosen Vessel unto God in his book Advanced Studies in the Christian Faith (Volume 2).