Romans 16:21-23

“ Timothy my fellow-worker, saluteth you, and Lucius, and Jason, and Sosipater, my countrymen.I Tertius, who wrote this Epistle, salute you in the Lord. Gaius mine host, and of the whole church, saluteth you. Erastus the treasurer of the city saluteth you, and the brother Quartus. ”

After the farewell prayer, Romans 16:20, this passage of salutations excites surprise; for usually the salutations of Paul's fellow-laborers are placed before the final prayer. But there is a circumstance fitted to throw light on this exceptional fact; the mention of Timothy, Romans 16:21. Ordinarily, when Paul has this faithful fellow-laborer beside him, he mentions him in the address of the letter, as if to associate him in the very composition of the writing; comp. 1 and 2 Thess., 2 Cor., Col., Philip., Phil. If he does not do so in 1 Cor., it is because, according to the letter itself, Timothy was absent. In the Epistle to the Galatians, Timothy is embraced no doubt pre-eminently in the general expression: “And all the brethren who are with me” (Romans 16:2). There remain, therefore, only Ephesians and Romans. This conjunction serves exactly to explain the particular fact which we are pointing out. For these two letters have this in common: that Paul wrote them in his capacity of apostle to the Gentiles, a dignity which he shared with no one; for it followed from a personal and special call (Romans 1:1). And hence it is, that though Timothy was with him at the time he composed them (as appears in the case of the Romans from Romans 16:21, and in the case of the Ephesians from the addresses to the Colossians and Philemon written at the same time), he could not associate his disciple with him in an act so solemn, and which had a sort of official character. Now this is also the reason why those salutations from his fellowlaborers have been in this case placed outside of the letter properly so called. The official Epistle must first be closed before a place could be granted to a communication of an entirely private character.

We know that Timothy was at that moment at Corinth with the apostle, ready to join him in the journey to Jerusalem; this appears from Acts 20:4. This same passage explains to us the presence in this city, and at the same time, of another of the three fellow-laborers afterward named, Sosipater of Berea, in Macedonia. This name, which is probably identical with that of Sopater, Acts 20:4, belonged to one of the deputies delegated by the churches of Macedonia to represent them in the mission which Paul was about to carry out for them at Jerusalem (2 Corinthians 8:18 et seq.).

Jason was also of that province; for he is probably identical with Paul's host at Thessalonica, of whom mention is made, Acts 18:1-7. He had accompanied the deputies of Thessalonica and Berea whom Paul had appointed to meet together at Corinth, because he reckoned on embarking there for Palestine (Acts 20:3). The third person, Lucius, cannot be, as Origen thought, the evangelist Luke; for the Greek name of the latter (Lucas) is an abbreviation of Lucanus, while Lucius certainly comes from the word lux. But it is not improbable that we have here again the Lucius of Cyrene, who had played an important part as prophet or teacher in the church of Antioch soon after its foundation. He was now fulfilling the same ministry in other churches, and so had come to Corinth. Paul designates these three last as his countrymen; for the meaning kinsmen, which some give to συγγενεῖς, cannot, as we have already seen, apply to so large a number of persons (comp. Romans 16:7; Romans 16:11).

Very probably these four fellow-laborers of the apostle had come into contact in the East with many of the persons whom Paul had just saluted at Rome in his own name for example, Aquilas, Epenetus, and the first of those who follow. Delicacy accordingly required Paul to add to his own, the salutations of these brethren who surrounded him.