The Pauline commentaries are the most significant site, as a series, for grasping John Calvin's biblical work. Certainly, there are other claimants to that accolade – the wonderfully autobiographical preface to the Psalms commentary, the extraordinarily unique approach of the Harmony of the Pentateuch, the general brilliance which is so frequently evident. But the Pauline commentaries stand out, for several reasons. First, they are first! Of all the ways in which Calvin might have addressed himself to the task of commenting upon the Scripture, he chose to begin with the Pauline epistles, commenting upon them in canonical order. Calvin's health was never very good, and by the time he was deeply into the series he had experienced death in his own family. So, simply by virtue of being the first commentaries Calvin wrote, these were his choice for those books of the Bible that it was most necessary for him to comment upon, and, by extension, that it was most necessary to know.

Second, Calvin gave a theological rationale for making these his reference point. In his consideration of the theme of the epistle to the Romans, which was the subject of his very first commentary, he wrote: