Final Greetings (1)
I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church in Cenchreae. I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been a great help to many people, including me.
Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them.
Greet also the church that meets at their house.
Greet my dear friend Epenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in the province of Asia.
6 Greet Mary, who worked very hard for you. Romans 16:1-6
Paul continues with items typical of the conclusions of his letters: commendation of a fellow worker (16:1,2), exhortations to greet other Christians (16:3-16a) and greetings to the Roman Christians from others (16:16b). What is not typical of this section is the number of greetings. He asks the Romans to greet twenty six individuals, two families and three house churches. The number is all the more surprising when we remember Paul had never visited Rome.
Paul begins with a commendation. ‘I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church in Cenchreae. 2 I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been a great help to many people, including me’ (16:1,2).
It seems likely that Phoebe had the responsibility of carrying Paul’s letter to the church in Rome though this was not her sole reason for travelling there. She needed a letter of commendation to introduce her to the Christians there. Letters of commendation were important in the ancient world. People who travelled in an age of few public facilities depended on the assistance of people they had sometimes never met for their needs. Paul asks the Roman church both to ‘receive her’ (a Christian welcome and hospitality) and ‘to give her any help she may need from you,’ probably in connection with her other business in the city.
Paul firstly calls her a ‘sister’ and then a ‘servant of the church in Cenchreae’ (which was Corinth’s eastern port). The term ‘servant’ (diakonos) could be applied to any Christian who served God and His people, but the addition ‘of the church in Cenchreae’ makes it more likely that Phoebe held a position in the church there. She may have filled the role of a deacon by ministering to the financial and material needs of the believers. Paul adds ‘she has been a great help to many people, including me’ (16:2) using the term ‘prostatis’ which meant to give aid to, to direct, to preside over. It was often used of a patron. Whoever Phoebe was, she was evidently a woman of means and had used her wealth to support the church and Paul himself.
Paul often encouraged the Christians to whom he wrote to ‘greet one another’ (Philippians 4:21; Titus 3:15). But in these verses he conveys greetings to a host of people. Concern to establish good relations with the church in Rome may have been part of the reason for the extended list. Public recognition, as the letter was read out, would help cement good relationships within the community.
‘Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus. 4 They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them’ (16:3,4). Priscilla and Aquila (16:3,4) are well known in the New Testament. They came to Corinth after fleeing Rome because of Emperor Claudius’ expulsion order (Acts 18:2). Like Paul, they were tentmakers (Acts 18:3). They ministered with him in Corinth, then went to Ephesus and engaged in ministry there (Acts 18:18). They apparently served with Paul in Ephesus for some time (1 Corinthians 16:19) before returning to Rome after Claudius’ edict lapsed. Paul commends Priscilla and Aquila as ‘fellow workers’ who ‘risked their lives for me.’ We don’t know with any certainty when this happened although it may have been at the time of the riot in Ephesus (Acts 19). They must have been fairly wealthy, owning a house large enough for a house church to meet there regularly (‘Greet also the church that meets at their house’ [16:5a]).
‘Greet my dear friend Epenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in the province of Asia.’ [16:5b] Epenetus is only mentioned here. Paul must have known him well calling him ‘my dear friend’ and ‘the first convert (literally: the firstfruits) to Christ in the province of Asia’ (16:5b) which included Ephesus.
‘Greet Mary, who worked very hard for you’ (16:6). Mary was a common Jewish name but because it was also commonly used by Gentiles, we know nothing more of her ethnic background. Paul commends her for working ‘very hard’ for the Roman Christians.