Romans 16:5

Romans 16:5. And salute; the verb is properly supplied, but the clause is grammatically connected with Romans 16:3, and should form a part of Romans 16:4.

The church that is in their house. The early Christians had, as a rule, no public place of assembly, but probably met in the houses of the more prominent brethren. In larger cities there seem to have been several such places of meeting; and one of these is here referred to. The language of Justin Martyr sustains this view. The same persons were doubtless wont to gather there, forming a household parish of the one Roman congregation. As the city was four miles in circumference, there was a necessity for a number of these assemblies.

Epenetus my beloved. All the persons named, from this point to the close of the section, are unknown. ‘The legends of the Fathers made the most of them martyrs and bishops, and the Synopsis of Dorotheus misplaces the most of them among the seventy disciples' (Meyer).

The first-fruits of Asia onto Christ; i.e., among the first converts in the Roman province of Asia, of which Ephesus was the chief city. Comp. 1 Corinthians 16:15, where the same expression occurs. There ‘Achaia' is the correct reading; here ‘Asia' is much better supported. The change may have arisen from the fact that this Epistle was written in Corinth, the capital city of Achaia.