The Argument Has Names, Households, and a Borrowed Pen

Phebe bears the name of a Titaness of Greek myth, “bright”, later linked with Artemis and the moon, which suggests a Gentile birth. Cenchrea was Corinth’s eastern harbour on the Saronic Gulf, where Paul had cut his hair under a vow (Acts 18:18). “Commend” is synistemi, the verb of letters of recommendation (2 Corinthians 3:1).

“Succourer” is prostatis, the feminine of a word for a patron or protector, from the verb proistemi that 12:8 rendered “he that ruleth”. “Business” is pragma, a matter or affair, the word used of a lawsuit in 1 Corinthians 6:1. “As becometh saints” means in a manner worthy of them.

Paul writes Prisca; Priscilla is the familiar form Luke uses. In four of the six places the couple is named, she comes first. Expelled from Rome under Claudius, they met Paul in Corinth and shared his trade of tentmaking (Acts 18:2–3); now they are back in Rome.

To lay down one’s neck is to put it under the executioner’s blade, an idiom for risking death; the occasion is not given. Aquila was a Jew from Pontus, so here Gentile churches give thanks to a Jewish couple, a small living instance of what chapter 11 argued.

The couple had also hosted a church in their house at Ephesus (1 Corinthians 16:19); wherever they lived, their home became a meeting place. The oldest manuscripts call Epaenetus, whose name means “praised”, the firstfruits of “Asia”, not Achaia. 1 Corinthians 16:15 gives the household of Stephanas the title for Achaia.

Mary may be the Jewish Miriam or the Roman family name Maria; the Greek spelling allows either. “Bestowed much labour” is kopiao, to toil to the point of weariness. The oldest manuscripts read that she laboured “for you”, meaning the Roman church, rather than “on us”.

The Greek Iounian could be the woman’s name Junia or a shortened man’s name Junias. Junia was a common Latin name, while Junias is found nowhere in ancient sources, and early commentators such as John Chrysostom read a woman and praised her. “Kinsmen” likely means fellow Jews, as in 9:3.

The oldest manuscripts give the full Latin form, Ampliatus, a name common among slaves. A burial chamber in the Catacomb of Domitilla in Rome bears the name Ampliatus in early lettering, and some have linked the family with this greeting, though the name was widespread.

Urbanus is a Latin name meaning “of the city”, frequent among slaves and freedmen. He is “our” helper, a fellow worker of the wider mission, not Paul’s alone. Stachys is Greek for an ear of grain, a rarer name, found among members of the imperial household.

Apella was a name so often borne by Jews in Rome that Horace could write “credat Iudaeus Apella”, let the Jew Apella believe it (Satires 1.5.100). “Approved” is dokimos, tested and passed. J. B. Lightfoot suggested the household was that of Aristobulus, grandson of Herod the Great, who lived in Rome; his staff may have passed to the emperor.

Herodion’s name hints at a connection with the Herod family, which fits the Aristobulus greeting just before it. Narcissus may be the powerful freedman of Claudius, forced to suicide in AD 54, whose slaves would then have become imperial property. “Which are in the Lord” greets only the believers in that household.

Tryphena and Tryphosa, probably sisters, have names from tryphao, to live in luxury (James 5:5): Dainty and Delicate. Paul greets them for toil. Persis means a Persian woman, a slave name marking origin. Her labour is in the past tense, perhaps done in earlier years.

Mark 15:21 names Simon of Cyrene, who carried the cross, as “the father of Alexander and Rufus”. Mark’s gospel is often thought to have been written for Rome, where Rufus would need no introduction; the identification is possible, not proven. “Chosen” is eklektos, elect.

Five Greek names, the kind borne by slaves and freedmen. Hermes carries a god’s name; Asyncritus means “incomparable”; Patrobas is short for Patrobius, a name also borne by a freedman of Nero. Origen guessed that this Hermas wrote the Shepherd of Hermas, though that book is usually dated decades later. “The brethren which are with them” suggests a house group.

Philologus and Julia are probably husband and wife; Julia was common among freedwomen of the imperial house. Nereus bears a sea god’s name, and his sister is greeted without one. A later legend made Nereus a martyr under Domitian. Olympas is a shortened form of a name like Olympiodorus.

The holy kiss closes four of Paul’s letters, and 1 Peter 5:14 calls it “a kiss of charity”. About AD 150 Justin Martyr describes believers greeting one another with a kiss before the bread and cup (First Apology 65). “The churches of Christ” is a phrase found only here in the New Testament.

“Mark” is skopeo, to watch closely, the verb of Philippians 3:17, “mark them which walk so”. “Divisions” is dichostasia, a standing apart, listed among the works of the flesh in Galatians 5:20 as “seditions”. “Offences” is skandala, the trap-trigger word of 14:13.

Philippians 3:19 speaks of those “whose God is their belly”. “Good words” is chrestologia, smooth talk, found only here; “fair speeches” is eulogia, a word that elsewhere means blessing. “The simple” are the akakoi, those without guile, as unsuspecting as they are innocent.

The first sentence echoes 1:8, where the Romans’ faith is “spoken of throughout the whole world”. “Simple” is now a different word, akeraios, unmixed, like undiluted wine. Jesus used it in Matthew 10:16: “wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” A serpent appears in the next verse.

“Bruise” is syntribo, to crush or shatter. “Shortly” is en tachei, soon. Under the feet is the place of defeat in Psalm 110:1, but here the feet belong to the believers. A benediction follows, the usual end of a Pauline letter, and yet more greetings come after it.

Timothy co-sends six of Paul’s letters but here only greets. Jason may be Paul’s host at Thessalonica, dragged before the rulers there (Acts 17:5–9), and Sosipater may be the Sopater of Berea who travelled with Paul toward Jerusalem (Acts 20:4). Lucius may be Lucius of Cyrene (Acts 13:1); all three identifications are possible, not certain.

Tertius is Latin for “Third”. Elsewhere Paul takes the pen at the end to add a line in his own hand (1 Corinthians 16:21; Galatians 6:11; 2 Thessalonians 3:17). Romans has no such line, and the only first-person voice other than Paul’s in any of his letters belongs to the man writing it down.

Gaius is probably the Gaius whom Paul baptized in Corinth (1 Corinthians 1:14), with a house large enough for the whole church. The Greek for “chamberlain” is oikonomos, the city’s steward or treasurer. Quartus means “Fourth”, and some have wondered whether he and Tertius were brothers named by birth order, a guess only.

The verse is missing from the oldest manuscripts, and most modern translations leave it out. It repeats the benediction of verse 20 almost word for word, and some manuscripts place it after verse 27 instead. The King James follows the later copies.

“Stablish” is sterizo, to fix firmly, the purpose Paul gave for his visit in 1:11, “to the end ye may be established”. The letter ends with the hope it began with. “Kept secret” is literally kept silent, hushed, and “since the world began” is “in times eternal”.

“The everlasting God” is the title Abraham used at Beersheba, where he planted a grove and “called there on the name of the LORD, the everlasting God” (Genesis 21:33). A letter that made Abraham the father of all who believe ends with his name for God.

The sentence that began at verse 25 with “Now to him” never gets its main verb, and the Greek adds “to whom” before “be glory”, leaving open whether the glory is ascribed to God or to Christ. The King James smooths the grammar. “Only wise” recalls the “depth of the riches both of the wisdom” in 11:33.