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CHAPTER 16.

On this chapter see introduction. It consists of five distinct parts: (1) The recommendation of Phœbe to the Church, Romans 16:1-2; (2) a series of greetings from Paul himself, Romans 16:3-16; (3) a warning against false teachers, Romans 16:17-20; (4) a series of greetings from companions of Paul, Romans 16:21-23; (5) a doxology.

Romans 16:1 f. Συνίστημι δὲ ὑμῖν φοίβην. αυνίστημι is the technical word for this kind of recommendation, which was equivalent to a certificate of church membership. Paul uses it with especial frequency in 2 Cor., both in this technical sense (Romans 3:1, Romans 5:12), and in a kindred but wider one (Romans 4:2, Romans 6:4, Romans 7:11, Romans 10:12; Romans 10:18). τὴν ἀδελφὴν ἡμῶν: our (Christian) sister, 1 Corinthians 7:15; 1 Corinthians 9:5. The spiritual kinship thus asserted was a recommendation of itself, but in Phœbe’s case Paul can add another. οὖσαν καὶ διάκονον τῆς ἐκκλησίας τῆς ἐν Κεγχρεαῖς: who is also a servant of the Church in Cenchreæ. It is not easy to translate διάκονος, for “servant” is too vague, and “deaconess” is more technical than the original. Διακονία was really a function of membership in the Church, and Phœbe might naturally be described as she is here if like the house of Stephanas at Corinth (1 Corinthians 16:15) she had given herself εἰς διακονίαν τοῖς ἁγίοις. That is, a life of habitual charity and hospitality, quite apart from any official position, would justify the name διάκονος. On the other hand it must be remembered that the growth of the Church, under the conditions of ancient society, soon produced “deaconesses” in the official sense, and Phœbe may have had some recognised function of διακονία assigned to her. Cenchreæ was on the Saronic gulf, nine miles . of Corinth: as the port for Asia and the East, many Christians would pass through it, and a Christian woman who gave herself to hospitality (Romans 12:13) might have her hands full. ἐν Κυρίῳ: no mere reception of Phœbe into their houses satisfies this—their Christian life was to be open for her to share in it; she was no alien to be debarred from spiritual intimacy. ἀξίως τῶν ἁγίων: with such kindness as it becomes Christians to show. καὶ παραστῆτε αὐτῇ (Jeremiah 15:11): after the Christian welcome is assured, Paul bespeaks their help for Phœbe in whatever affair she may require it. He speaks indefinitely, but his language suggests that she was going to Rome on business in which they could assist her. καὶ γὰρ αὐτὴ: in complying with this request they will only be doing for Phœbe what she has done for others, and especially for Paul himself. προστάτις (feminine of προστάτης) is suggested by παραστῆτε. Paul might have said παραστάτις, but uses the more honourable word. προστάτης (patronus) was the title of a citizen in Athens who took charge of the interests of μέτοικοι and persons without civic rights; the corresponding feminine here may suggest that Phœbe was a woman of good position who could render valuable services to such a community as a primitive Christian Church usually was. When she helped Paul we cannot tell. Dr. Gifford suggests the occasion of Acts 18:18. Paul’s vow “seems to point to a deliverance from danger or sickness,” in which she may have ministered to him. It is generally assumed that Phœbe was the bearer of this epistle, and many even of those who regard Romans 16:3-16 as addressed to Ephesus still hold that Romans 16:1-2 were meant for Rome.

Romans 16:3 f. Greeting to Prisca and Aquila. ἀσπάσασθε: only here does Paul commission the whole Church to greet individual members of it (Weiss). For the persons here named see Acts 18:2. Paul met them first in Corinth, and according to Meyer converted them there. Here as in Acts 18:18; Acts 18:26 and 2 Timothy 4:19 the wife is put first, probably as the more distinguished in Christian character and service; in 1 Corinthians 16:19, where they send greetings, the husband naturally gets his precedence. τοὺς συνεργούς μου ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ: on first acquaintance they had been fellow-workers, not in Christ Jesus, but in tent-making: they were ὁμότεχνοι, Acts 18:3. οἵτινες: quippe qui. τὸν ἑαυτῶν τράχηλον: the singular (as Gifford points out) shows that the expression is figurative. To save Paul’s life Prisca and Aquila incurred some great danger themselves; what, we cannot tell. They were in his company both in Corinth and Ephesus, at times when he was in extreme peril (Acts 18:12; Acts 19:30 f.), and the recipients of the letter would understand the allusion. The technical sense of ὑποθεῖναι, to give as a pledge, cannot be pressed here, as though Prisca and Aquila had given their personal security (though it involved the hazard of their lives) for Paul’s good behaviour. οἷς οὐκ ἐγὼ μόνος εὐχαριστῶ κ.τ.λ. The language implies that the incident referred to had occurred long enough ago for all the Gentile Churches to be aware of it, but yet so recently that both they and the Apostle himself retained a lively feeling of gratitude to his brave friends. καὶ τὴν κατʼ οἷκον αὐτων ἐκκλησίαν: these words do not mean “their Christian household,” nor do they imply that the whole Christian community (in Rome or in Ephesus) met in the house of Prisca and Aquila. They signify the body of believers meeting for worship there, a body which would only be part of the local Christian community. Cf. 1 Corinthians 16:19, Colossians 4:15, Philemon 1:2, Acts 12:12. “There is no clear example of a separate building set apart for Christian worship within the limits of the Roman Empire before the third century, though apartments in private houses might be specially devoted to this purpose” (Lightfoot on Colossians 4:15). ἀσπάσασθε Ἐπαίνετον τὸν ἀγαπητόν μου: after Priscilla and Aquila, not a single person is known of all those to whom Paul sends greetings in Romans 16:3-16. ἀπαρχὴ τῆς Ἀσίας: Epænetus was the first convert in Asia (the Roman province of that name). Cf. 1 Corinthians 16:15. There is no difficulty in supposing that the first Christian of Asia was at this time—temporarily or permanently—in Rome: but the discovery of an Ephesian Epænetus on a Roman inscription (quoted by Sanday and Headlam) is very interesting.

Romans 16:6. It is not certain whether Μαριάμ (which is Jewish) or Μαρίαν (Roman) is the true reading. ἥτις πολλὰ ἐκοπίασεν: the much labour she had bestowed is made the ground (ἥτις) of a special greeting. εἰς ὑμᾶς is much better supported than εἰς ἡμᾶς: there is something finer in Paul’s appreciation of services rendered to others than if they had been rendered to himself. Cf. Galatians 4:11.

Romans 16:7. Andronicus is a Greek name, which, like most names in this chapter, can be illustrated from inscriptions. Ἰουνίαν may be masculine (from Ἰουνίας, or Ἰουνιᾶς contraction of Junianus), or feminine (from Ἰουνία): probably the former. τοὺς συγγενεῖς μου: i.e., Jews. Cf. Romans 9:3. It is hardly possible that so many people in the Church addressed (see Romans 16:2; Romans 16:21) should be more closely connected with Paul than by the bond of nationality. But it was natural for him, in writing to a mainly Gentile Church, to distinguish those with whom he had this point of contact. Cf. Colossians 4:11. συναιχμαλώτους μου: this naturally means that on some occasion they had shared Paul’s imprisonment: it is doubtful whether it would be satisfied by the idea that they, like him, had also been imprisoned for Christ’s sake. The αἰχμάλωτος is a prisoner of war: Paul and his friends were all Salvation Army men. The phrase ἐπίσημοι ἐν τοῖς ἀποστόλοις, men of mark among the Apostles, has the same ambiguity in Greek as in English. It might mean, well-known to the apostolic circle, or distinguished as Apostles. The latter sense is that in which it is taken by “all patristic commentators” (Sanday and Headlam), whose instinct for what words meant in a case of this kind must have been surer than that of a modern reader. It implies, of course, a wide sense of the word Apostle: for justification of which reference may be made to Lightfoot’s essay on the name and office of an Apostle (Galatians, 92 ff.) and Harnack, Lehre der zwölf Apostel, . 111–118. On the other hand, Paul’s use of the word Apostle is not such as to make it easy to believe that he thought of a large class of persons who might be so designated, a class so large that two otherwise unknown persons like Andronicus and Junias might be conspicuous in it. Hence scholars like Weiss and Gifford hold that what is meant here is that Andronicus and Junias were honourably known to the Twelve. οἱ καὶ πρὸ ἐμοῦ γέγοναν ἐν Χριστῷ: they had evidently been converted very early, and, like Mnason the Cypriot, were ἀρχαῖοι μαθηταί, Acts 21:16. On γέγοναν see Burton, Moods and Tenses, § 82. The English idiom does not allow of a perfect translation, but “were” is more idiomatic than “have been”.

Romans 16:8. Ἀμπλιᾶτον: “a common Roman slave name”. Sanday and Headlam give inscriptions from the cemetery of Domitilla, which make it probable that a person of this name was conspicuous in the earliest Roman Church, and may have been the means of introducing Christianity to a great Roman house. τὸν ἀγαπητόν μου ἐν Κυρίῳ: Paul has none but Christian relations to this man.

Romans 16:9. Οὐρβανὸν: also a common slave name, “found, as here, in juxtaposition with Ampliatus, in a list of imperial freedmen, on an inscription A.D. 115” (Gifford). τὸν συνεργὸν ἡμῶν: the ἡμῶν (as opposed to μου, Romans 16:3) seems to suggest that all Christian workers had a common helper in Urbanus. Of Stachys nothing is known but that he was dear to Paul. The name is Greek; but, like the others, has been found in inscriptions connected with the Imperial household.

Romans 16:10. Ἀπελλῆν τὸν δόκιμον ἐν Χριστῷ: Apelles, that approved Christian. In some conspicuous way the Christian character of Apelles had been tried and found proof: see Jam 1:12, 2 Timothy 2:15. The name is a familiar one, and sometimes Jewish: Credat Judœus Apella, Hor., Sat., I., v., 100. By τοὺς ἐκ τῶν Ἀριστοβούλου are meant Christians belonging to the household of Aristobulus. Lightfoot, in his essay on Cæsar’s Household (Philippians, 171 ff.), makes Aristobulus the grandson of Herod the Great. He was educated in Rome, and probably died there. “Now it seems not improbable, considering the intimate relations between Claudius and Aristobulus, that at the death of the latter his servants, wholly or in part, should be transferred to the palace. In this case they would be designated Aristobuliani, for which I suppose St. Paul’s οἱ ἐκ τῶν Ἀριστοβούλου to be an equivalent. It is at least not an obvious phrase, and demands explanation” (Philippians, 175).