Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Romans 16:7

Ἀνδρόνικον. A Greek name, used, as so often, by a Jew. Zahn, p. 607 n. 56, remarks that Jewish names are rare in the Jewish inscriptions of Italy. This name occurs among members of the imperial household, S. H.

Ἰουνίαν. Probably for Junias = Junianus a man’s name, though not a common one.

τοὺς συγγενεῖς μου, i.e. Jews. So Romans 16:11; Romans 16:21; cf. Romans 9:3.

συναιχμαλώτους. Cf. Colossians 4:10; Philemon 1:23. We have no ground for identifying the occasion.

οἵτινές εἰσιν κ.τ.λ. (1) ἐπίσημοι = marked men, notable: here of course in a good sense; c[321] Matthew 27:16. Class. both in good and bad sense; cf. 3Ma 6:1 (not elsewhere in LXX[322] of persons). (2) ἐν τοῖς� (a) among the apostles sc. of Christ, themselves being reckoned as apostles: so Lft Gal. p. 96 n. 1, S. H. ad loc[323] This is the obvious meaning. In that case, according to S. Paul’s use, they must belong to the class which he describes in Galatians 1:17 as τοὺς πρὸ ἐμοῦ�. He uses the term to include members of the primitive community who had received their commission from the Lord Himself, a class not limited to the Twelve (e.g. Barnabas, perhaps Silas), S. Paul himself being its latest member (1 Corinthians 15:8). (b) Others take it = men of note in the judgment of the Apostles (Gif., Zahn). There is no advantage in this rendering, unless it is assumed, wrongly, that A. and J. cannot have been apostles. We may conclude then that A. and J. were among the earliest preachers of the Gospel, and that they had shared S. Paul’s labours, as well as his imprisonment. They are now at Rome, and may have been among those who first brought the Gospel to Rome. See Introd. p. xxv, Add. Note, p. 225.

[321] ct contrast
[322] LXX. the Septuagint Version of the Old Testament
[323] ad loc. ad locum

οἳ—γέγοναν ἐν Χρ. We should probably supply ἀπόστολοι; = ‘Who were made and have been apostles in Christ.’ The form ἐν Χρ. is occasioned by the turn of phrase: if he had repeated ἀποστ. he would have written ἀποστ. Χριστοῦ. This is quoted as a clear use of γέγονα as aoristic; cf. Joseph. c. Apion. 4. 21 ὀλίγῳ πρότερον τῆς Πεισιστράτου τυρρανίδος� qu. Moulton, Prol. p. 146, who quotes two instances from papyri, though he doubts the use in N.T.; cf. Dr Weymouth ap. S. H. But we have to note that πρὸ ἐμοῦ gives a mark of time = ‘even longer than I’: and the use is |[324] to the case of pert. with πάλαι (see Moulton, p. 141). Cf. John 6:25; Matthew 19:8; Matthew 24:21; 1 Corinthians 13:11; Galatians 3:17; 1 Timothy 5:9. There is no clear case of the strictly aoristic meaning of this form in N.T. For the form -αν cf. Thackeray, pp. 209, 212; Mayser, p. 323; Moulton, p. 52: cf. Colossians 2:1; Acts 16:36, and γέγοναν, Revelation 21:6 only: it is a case of the gradual intrusion of the weak aorist form into the perfect and strong aorist.

[324] | parallel to

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Romans 16:7

Old Testament

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