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 companio... [ Continue Reading ]
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... [ Continue Reading ]
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 Timo... [ Continue Reading ]
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 serv... [ Continue Reading ]
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 pos... [ Continue Reading ]
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 μ... [ Continue Reading ]
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 S... [ Continue Reading ]
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 James 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... [ Continue Reading ]
Ἡρωδίωνα τὸν συγγενὴ μου. This agrees very well with the interpretation just given to τοὺς ἐκ τῶν Ἀριστοβούλου. In the household of Herod's grandson there might naturally be a Jew with a name of this type, whom Paul, for some cause or other, could single out for a special greeting. τοὺς ἐκ τῶν Ναρκί... [ Continue Reading ]
Τρύφαιναν καὶ Τρυφῶσαν : “It was usual to designate members of the same family by derivatives of the same root” (Lightfoot): hence these two women were probably sisters. The names, which might be rendered “Dainty” and “Disdain” (see James 5:5; Isaiah 66:11) are characteristically pagan, and unlike t... [ Continue Reading ]
Ῥοῦφον τὸν ἐκλεκτὸν ἐν Κυρίῳ : for the name see Mark 15:21. If Mark wrote his gospel at Rome, as there is ground to believe, this may be the person to whom he refers. In the gospel he is assumed to be well known, and here he is described as “that choice Christian”. ἐκλεκτὸν cannot refer simply to th... [ Continue Reading ]
Of Asyncritus, Phlegon and Hermes nothing is known. Patrobas (or Patrobius) may have been a dependant of a famous freedman of the same name in Nero's time, who was put to death by Galba (Tac., _Hist._, i., 49, ii., 95). Hermas has often been identified with the author of The Shepherd, but though the... [ Continue Reading ]
Philologus and Julia, as connected here, were probably husband and wife; or, as in the next pair, brother and sister. Both, especially the latter, are among the commonest slave names. There are Acts of Nereus and Achilleus in the Acta Sanctorum connected with the early Roman Church. “The sister's na... [ Continue Reading ]
ἀλλήλους. When the epistle is read in the Church the Christians are to greet each other, and seal their mutual salutations ἐν φιλήματι ἁγίῳ. In 1 Thessalonians 5:26 the προιστάμενοι apparently are to salute the members of the Church so. In 1 Corinthians 16:20; 2 Corinthians 13:12, exactly the same f... [ Continue Reading ]
σκοπεῖν : to keep your eye upon, either as an example to be followed (Philippians 3:17), or (as in this case) as a peril to be avoided. τοὺς τὰς διχοστασίας καὶ τὰ σκάνδαλα ποιοῦντας : both the persons and their conduct are supposed to be known; “ _the_ divisions” and “ _the_ scandals,” which had be... [ Continue Reading ]
Warning against false teachers. This comes in very abruptly in the middle of the greetings, and as it stands has the character of an after-thought. The false teachers referred to are quite definitely described, but it is clear that they had not yet appeared in Rome, nor begun to work there. Paul is... [ Continue Reading ]
οἱ γὰρ τοιοῦτοι κ. τ. λ. Christians must not associate with those who do not serve the one Lord. τῷ Κυρίῳ ἡμῶν Χριστῷ : this combination occurs here only in N.T. τῇ ἑαυτῶν κοιλίᾳ : _cf._ Philippians 3:19, ὧν ὁ θεὸς ἡ κοιλίᾳ. The words need not mean that the teachers in question were mere sensualists... [ Continue Reading ]
ἡ γὰρ ὑμῶν ὑπακοὴ : What is the connection? “I give this exhortation, separating you altogether from the false teachers, and from those who are liable to be misled by them; for _your_ obedience (ὑμῶν emphasised by position) has come abroad to all men. (_Cf._ Romans 1:8.) Over _you_ therefore I rejoi... [ Continue Reading ]
ὁ δὲ θεὸς τῆς εἰρήνης : used here with special reference to αἱ διχοστασίαι. _Cf._ 1 Corinthians 14:33. συντρίψει τὸν Σατανᾶν : divisions in the Church are Satan's work, and the suppression of them by the God of peace is a victory over Satan. _Cf._ 2 Corinthians 11:14 f. There is an allusion to Genes... [ Continue Reading ]
Τιμόθεος. In many of the epistles Timothy's name is associated with Paul's in the opening salutation (1 and 2 Thess., 2 Cor., Phil., Col., Philemon). Perhaps when Paul began this letter he was absent, but had come back in time to send his greeting at the close. He was with Paul (Acts 20:4 f.) when h... [ Continue Reading ]
Greetings of Paul's companions.... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐγὼ Τέρτιος ὁ γράψας τὴν ἐπιστολήν : the use of the first person is a striking indication of Paul's courtesy. To have sent the greeting of his amanuensis in the third person would have been to treat him as a mere machine (Godet). ἐν Κυρίῳ goes with ἀσπάζομαι : it is as a Christian, not in virtue of... [ Continue Reading ]
Γάϊος ὁ ξένος μου κ. ὅλης τῆς ἐκκλησίας : As the Epistle to the Romans was written from Corinth this hospitable Christian is probably the same who is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 1:14. Three other persons (apparently) of the same name are mentioned in Acts 19:29; Acts 20:4, and 3 John. By ὁ ξένος μου... [ Continue Reading ]
The attestation of this verse is quite insufficient, and it is omitted by all critical editors.... [ Continue Reading ]
f. τῷ δὲ δυναμένῳ : _cf._ Ephesians 3:20; Jude 1:24. στηρίξαι : this word takes us back to the beginning of the epistle (Romans 1:11.) Paul wished to impart to them some spiritual gift, to the end that they might be established; but only God is able (_cf._ Romans 14:4) to effect this result. The sta... [ Continue Reading ]
The doxology. St. Paul's letters, as a rule, terminate with a benediction, and even apart from the questions of textual criticism, connected with it, this doxology has given rise to much discussion. The closest analogies to it are found in the doxology at the end of Ephesians 3, and in Jude (Jude 1:... [ Continue Reading ]
μόνῳ σοφῷ θεῷ : this description of God suits all that has just been said about His great purpose in human history, and the hiding and revealing of it in due time. The true text in 1 Timothy 1:17 has no σοφῷ. The absence of the article here indicates that it is in virtue of having this character tha... [ Continue Reading ]