Romans 16

This final section includes elements often found at the end of New Testament letters:

• a discussion of travel plans (15:14–29),

• requests for prayer (15:30–33),

• references to ministry partners (16:1–2, 21–23),

• greetings (16:3–16), and

• a short hymn of praise (16:25–27).

Only the warning about false teachers is a non-standard feature in this conclusion (16:17–19).

• a servant: The Greek word diakonos means “servant.” It can refer in a general way to a believer who serves Christ. It can also refer more specifically to someone who holds the recognized role of deacon in a local church (see Philippians 1:1; 1 Timothy 3:8–12; compare Acts 6:1–6).

• Cenchrea was about eight kilometers (five miles) from Corinth and served as its port. Paul may have written this letter to the Romans while staying in Corinth during the winter, near the end of his third missionary journey (see Acts 20:2–3).

Paul greeted twenty-seven Christians in Rome, ten of whom were women. This shows that women played important roles in the early church.

Paul had not yet visited Rome. This has led some people to wonder how he knew so many Christians there. One idea is that chapter 16 was part of a different letter that Paul sent to Ephesus. However, there is no strong manuscript evidence for a separate letter (see study note on 15:33). A more likely explanation is that Paul met these Christians while they were traveling outside Rome (see Romans Book Introduction, “Setting”).

she has been a great help to many people: This phrase refers to the ancient role of a patron. A patron was a wealthy person who used influence and money to support people and important work. Phoebe appears to have been a woman of wealth and influence who used her resources to support missionaries, including Paul.

Priscilla and Aquila were Paul’s good friends. After leaving Rome around AD 49, they became his co-workers for an extended time in Corinth and Ephesus (see Acts 18–19). They had apparently returned to Rome by the time Paul wrote Romans (about AD 57).

Although Paul had not yet visited the Christian community in Rome, he built a relationship with these believers by greeting many of them by name. The names show that the Roman church was very diverse. Jews and Gentiles, enslaved people and free people, men and women all formed a new community in the church (see Galatians 3:26–29).

the church that meets at their house: Early Christians did not have large buildings for their meetings. Instead, they met in private homes. The church in Rome was made up of a number of house churches where small groups of believers gathered for worship and instruction.

• In Greek, the name Junia can refer either to a man named Junias or to a woman named Junia. Most interpreters understand it as a woman’s name. In this section, Paul often lists men and women together as husband-and-wife teams. For this reason, Junia was most likely a woman.

• fellow prisoners: We do not know when this happened. The book of Acts reports that Paul was imprisoned overnight in Philippi (Acts 16:19–28). After Paul wrote Romans, he was imprisoned for two years in Caesarea and for two years in Rome (Acts 24:27; 28:30–31). Paul also mentions other imprisonments that Acts does not record (see 2 Corinthians 11:23).

• They are outstanding among the apostles: This phrase most likely means that Andronicus and Junia were apostles. Here, apostles refers to recognized missionaries sent by the church (see Acts 14:4, 14; 1 Corinthians 9:5–6; Galatians 2:9).

This Aristobulus was probably the same person as the brother of Herod Agrippa I. Aristobulus belonged to the Roman ruling class and lived in Rome for many years before his death around AD 48 or 49 (see Josephus, Antiquities 18.8.4; War 2.11.6). The phrase the household of Aristobulus most likely refers to his family members and their servants who lived in Rome.

This Rufus might be the son of Simon of Cyrene, who carried the cross of Christ (see Mark 15:21).

with a holy kiss: The kiss was a common way to greet another person in the ancient world and particularly among the Jews. It is mentioned frequently in the New Testament as a greeting (1 Corinthians 16:20; 2 Corinthians 13:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:26; see 1 Peter 5:14). By the second century AD, the kiss of peace became a regular part of Christian worship.

those who create divisions: Paul had faced problems with false teachers who caused division in other churches (see Galatians, Colossians, 1 Timothy). Because of this, he warned the church in Rome about the same danger.

The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet: Paul refers to God’s judgment on the serpent after it deceived Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden (Genesis 3:15). Christ, the promised descendant of Eve, will defeat Satan. This victory will be shared with the church, which stands under Christ’s authority (compare Matthew 16:18–19).

Timothy was one of Paul’s closest coworkers in ministry. He traveled with Paul on the second missionary journey (Acts 16:2–3). Timothy was also with Paul in Corinth when Paul wrote this letter to the church in Rome (see Acts 20:2–4).

Tertius was the scribe (or amanuensis) who wrote the letter as Paul dictated. Most ancient letter writers employed such a scribe.

This Erastus was probably the individual Paul sent from Ephesus to Macedonia during his third missionary journey (Acts 19:21–22; see 2 Timothy 4:20). An inscription found in Corinth mentions a man named Erastus who served as a city official. He may be the same Erastus mentioned here.

the mystery: For Paul, a mystery is a truth about God and his plan that was not clearly known in the time of the Old Testament. God has now made this plan known in the time of the New Testament. The Old Testament foretold that Gentiles would turn to God. However, it did not clearly show that Gentiles would become equal members of God’s people without first becoming converts to Judaism.

• This doxology (a short hymn of praise) provides a fitting conclusion to Paul’s letter and its message. It brings together many of the same themes found at the beginning of the letter (1:1–15).

• The doxology is missing from two later manuscripts and appears in different places in some others, such as after 14:23 or after 15:33. Because of this, some have suggested that these verses were added later. However, most manuscripts place the doxology at the end of the letter. Its language and themes also match the rest of Romans. For these reasons, Paul most likely wrote it himself as the letter’s conclusion.

the obedience that comes from faith: Paul uses the same language about the mission to the Gentiles that he used in 1:5. This repetition forms a clear frame around the whole letter.