13. The time of the writing of this Epistle is investigated. It was written by Saint Paul while yet free, a little before his bonds, while he was setting out for Jerusalem a second time. Saint Chrysostom rightly argues that it was written after both Epistles to the Corinthians.
Not all define the time of the writing of this Epistle in the same way. That it was written before Paul had come to Rome, is abundantly evident from Romans 1:11-13. But also, that it was written when Paul was proceeding to Jerusalem to minister to the saints, Paul himself indicates, thus speaking in Romans 15:25: But now I go to Jerusalem to minister to the saints. Hence it appears to have been written when Paul, with three months spent in Greece, Acts 20:2, 3, was about to sail to Jerusalem, so that he might convey there the contributions of the Churches of Achaia, Asia, and Macedonia, Romans 15:26. To this the deliberation of Paul refers, Acts 19:21, who had resolved, with Achaia and Macedonia traversed, to proceed to Jerusalem, and thence to make for Rome. For, says he, after I have been there, I must also see Rome. From which things we come almost to certainty, that the Epistles was written by Paul while he was yet free, not yet bound, and so before all the Epistles written in bonds: and indeed, a little before bonds, while he was in the way towards Jerusalem, there to be bound, that is, at Corinth, whence the Epistle was written: and, finally, that it was the last written by him while yet free, and not yet restrained by bonds at Jerusalem. That is was also certain written after both the Epistles to the Corinthians, already of old Chrysostom argued; both because it was written through Phebe, whom he commends to the Romans, Romans 16:1, and who was a servant of the Church at Cenchrea, a neighbor to Corinth: and because in the name of Erastus, οἰκονόμῳ τῆς πόλεως, the chamberlain/ procurator of the city, namely, of Corinth (2 Timothy 4:20), and Gaius of Corinth (1 Corinthians 1:14), he salutes the Romans, Romans 16:23. Therefore, since it was written at Corinth, and was written when he was departing from there for Jerusalem, with the money already collected for the use of the Saints, to the gathering of which he had urged, 2 Corinthians 8:7, etc., it is hardly able to be doubted that it was written after the second Epistle to the Corinthians, and so after the first as well.