Romans 16:3-6

Vv. 3-5a. “ Salute Prisca and Aquilas, my fellow-workers in Christ Jesus, who have for my life laid down their own necks unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles and the church that meets in their house. ”

Aquilas and his wife Prisca (or Priscilla) were Jews, natives of Pontus, in Asia Minor. They were established at Rome as tent-makers, when the edict of Claudius, which expelled Israelites from the capital, obliged them to emigrate. They had been settled for a short time at Corinth, when Paul arrived there for the first time in the year 53. Their common occupation drew them together, and Paul soon brought them to the knowledge of Christ (Acts 18:2). For it is absolutely arbitrary to represent them as already Christians when they left Rome. This opinion arises only from the tendency to derive the propagation of the gospel at Rome from the Jewish synagogue. But it is excluded by the expression of the Acts: τινὰ ᾿Ιουδαῖον, a certain Jew. Luke would have added the epithet μαθητήν, disciple; comp. Acts 16:1. When, two years later, the apostle left Corinth with the intention of going to found a mission at Ephesus, Aquilas and his wife repaired to the latter city, while Paul proceeded first to visit Jerusalem and Antioch. Their intention certainly was to prepare the way for him in the capital of the province of Asia, then to support his ministry there, as they had done at Corinth; comp. Acts 18:18-21.

It is this salutation more than anything else which has given rise to the supposition that our entire list was addressed to Ephesus. But could not this husband and wife, who had emigrated from Pontus to Rome, then from Rome to Corinth, and lastly, from Corinth to Ephesus, have returned to Rome, their former domicile, after the imperial edict had fallen into desuetude? This is the more admissible as the object of this return is easily understood. We know from Acts 19:21, that even at Ephesus Paul had already formed the plan of proceeding to Rome as soon as he had finished his work in Asia and Greece. Aquilas and Priscilla, who had been so useful to him at Corinth, who had even gone to Ephesus with him with a view to his approaching mission, might a second time, by proceeding from Ephesus to Rome, do for him what they had done by leaving Corinth for Ephesus. The passage, James 4:13, shows with what ease rich Jewish traders travelled from one large city to another. “To-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city, and buy and sell and get gain.” Objection is taken from the short time which had elapsed since the end of Paul's sojourn at Ephesus: ten months only, it is said, from the spring of the year 57, when at Ephesus he wrote the First Epistle to the Corinthians (chap. Romans 16:8), and when he conveys greetings from Aquilas and Priscilla (Romans 16:19), to the beginning of 58, when it is alleged he wrote the Epistle to the Romans from Corinth. But we think there is a mistake in putting only ten months' interval between the First Epistle to the Corinthians and the Epistle to the Romans. A profound study of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, as well as of the Acts, leads to a wholly different result. From the spring of the year 57, when Paul left Ephesus, to the time when he made the stay at Corinth, during which he composed our Epistle, there elapsed, we think, nearly two years, from Easter 57 to February 59. Such an interval fully suffices to explain the new change of Aquilas and Priscilla, and their return to Rome. In the fact that many years later, about the year 66, and perhaps on occasion of the persecution of Nero (in 64), they are again settled at Ephesus, where Paul sends them a salutation, 2 Timothy 4:19, there is nothing to surprise us.

The form Prisca is certainly authentic in the Epistle to the Romans; the diminutive Priscilla, which is read in the T. R., is found only in some Mnn. In the Acts (Acts 18:2; Acts 18:18; Acts 18:26, and 1 Corinthians 16:19), the latter form is found in all the documents. In 2 Timothy 4:19, the two readings exist, but the majority are in favor of Prisca, as in Romans. There is also variation in the reciprocal position of the two names. The wife is placed here first, as in Acts 18:18 and 2 Timothy 4:19. Probably she was superior to her husband, either in ability or Christian activity.

Vv. 4. The qualitative pronoun οἵτινες signifies: as people who...The expression: to put the neck under (the axe), is no doubt figurative; but in any case it implies the act of exposing one's life. We do not know where or when this event took place. Was it at Corinth, on occasion of the scene described Acts 18:12 et seq.? or was it not rather at Ephesus, in one or other of the cases to which allusion is made in the words, 1 Corinthians 15:32 and 2 Corinthians 1:8 ? The apostle reminds the Romans that they had thereby rendered service to all the churches of the Gentile world, and consequently to them also. This passage proves two things 1st. That these words, intended to recommend Aquilas and Priscilla, were not addressed to the church of Ephesus, where the event referred to probably too place; for Paul undoubtedly means to give his readers information. 2d. That the church to which he addressed them was itself one of those churches of the Gentile world whose gratitude these two persons had deserved; a new proof of the Gentile origin of the Christians of Rome.

Ver. 5a The expression: the church that is in their house, may have three meanings. Either it denotes the entire assembly of the servants and workpeople residing and working with them; or it applies to that portion of the church which had its usual place of meeting in their house; or finally, the words apply to the whole church of the capital, which held its plenary meetings at their house; comp. 1 Corinthians 14:23. This last sense is incompatible with the preposition κατά, the meaning of which is distributive, and supposes other places of worship (Romans 16:14-15). The first is improbable, for the term ἐκκλησία, church, would not suit a purely private gathering. The second is therefore the only possible one; comp. 1 Corinthians 16:19. Schultz thinks we may conclude from these words that Aquilas was invested with the office of elder in the church of Ephesus where he lived, and that, consequently, he could not so easily change his domicile. One must surely be at a loss for good reasons to imagine such a one as this.

What is certain is, that these two persons are saluted here, not only as particular friends of St. Paul, but because of the important part they played in the work of his apostleship. The passage, Acts 18:24-28, presents an example of their activity, and of the powerful influence they exercised; and it is most probable that what they had been at Ephesus, they had also been at Rome, from the day when they returned to it. In a word, they were evangelists of the first order. This is what recommends them to the respectful attention of the church, and assigns them the first rank in this list of apostolic salutations. This circumstance throws light on the character of the whole list.

Vv. 5b, 6. “ Salute my well-beloved Epenetus, who was the first-fruits of Asia unto Christ.Salute Mary, who bestowed much labor on us. ”

Epenetus is to us an unknown personage. According to the Received reading, he would be the first convert of Achaia, consequently a native of Corinth, which could hardly be reconciled with 1 Corinthians 16:15. This reading probably arises from the copyist thinking that Paul meant to speak of the country from which he was writing. The true reading is certainly of Asia. Meyer concludes, from the fact that Epenetus was the first convert in this province, that he must have been a Jew, because Paul preached first of all in the synagogue; as if Aquilas and Priscilla, who had preceded Paul at Ephesus, might not have met with and converted a Gentile in that city before Paul arrived, and proclaimed the gospel in full synagogue! The Greek name of Epenetus would rather lead us to think him a Gentile; he was the first-fruits of the Gentiles converted at Ephesus. Here again the critics find an undeniable proof of the destination of this list to the church of Ephesus. But if, as is probable, Epenetus was the fruit of the labors of Aquilas, anterior even to those of Paul, he might very naturally have accompanied the evangelist-pair from Ephesus to Rome, to take part in their work in that great city. Hence the intimate relation which the apostle here establishes between these three persons; hence also the honorable title which he gives to this last before all the church.

The regimen εἰς Χριστόν, unto Christ, makes Christ the person to whom the first-fruits are offered.

Vv. 6. We know nothing of this Mary saluted in Romans 16:6; her name indicates her Jewish origin, even if, with some Mjj., we read Μαρίαν.

If, with almost all the Mjj., we read εἰς ὑμᾶς, on you, Mary would be one who had rendered herself particularly useful in the church of Rome, perhaps by her devotion during some epidemic which had raged in the church. But would Paul thus remind the church of a thing which, in that case, it knew much better than himself? Besides, all the persons saluted here are so because of some connection or other with the apostle; this is what makes us prefer the reading εἰς ἡμᾶς, on us. Like Phoebe, like Aquilas and Priscilla, she had actively taken part in the work of Paul, and occupied herself by ministering to those who surrounded him; and now from the east she had gone to Rome, like so many others.