Final Greetings (2)
Greet Andronicus and Junias, my relatives who have been in prison with me. They are outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was.
Greet Ampliatus, whom I love in the Lord.
Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and my dear friend Stachys.
Greet Apelles, tested and approved in Christ.
Greet those who belong to the household of Aristobulus.
Greet Herodion, my relative.
Greet those in the household of Narcissus who are in the Lord.
Greet Tryphena and Tryphosa, those women who work hard in the Lord.
Greet my dear friend Persis, another woman who has worked very hard in the Lord.
Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother, who has been a mother to me, too.
Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas and the brothers and with them.
Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas and all the saints with them.
Greet one another with a holy kiss.
All the churches of Christ send greetings. Romans 15:7-16
‘Greet Andronicus and Junias, my relatives who have been in prison with me. They are outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was’ (16:7). Andronicus and Junias are relatives of Paul and have been in prison with him. They became Christians before Paul and are ‘outstanding among the apostles’ (16:7). Andronicus is clearly a male name but Junias can be a contraction of the male name, Junianus (although there are no examples from literature from this era), or as it stands, a female name (there are many examples from literature from this era). If Andronicus and Junias are a husband and wife team noted as ‘apostles’ then we have a female apostle. Separate to the issue of Junias being a woman, Paul uses apostolos in broader ways than the first twelve. It can refer to a ‘messenger’ (2 Corinthians 8:23; Philippians 2:25) or a ‘commissioned missionary’ (1 Corinthians 9:5,6; Galatians 2:9; Acts 14:4,14).
‘Greet Ampliatus, whom I love in the Lord. 9 Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and my dear friend Stachys. 10 Greet Apelles, tested and approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the household of Aristobulus’ (16:8-10). Ampliatus (‘whom I love in the Lord’ [16:8]), Urbanus (‘our fellow worker in Christ’ [16:9]), Stachys (‘my dear friend’ [16:9]) and Apelles (‘tested and approved in Christ’ [16:10a]) are unknown apart from this list. ‘Those who belong to the household of Aristobulus’ (16:10b) is probably a reference to slaves who worked for Aristobulus. Herod Agrippa I had a brother named Aristobulus and who died in Rome in 48AD. Those mentioned might have been from his household who continued there after his death.
‘Greet Herodion, my relative’ (16:11). Herodion is otherwise unknown. He may have been a freed slave who took the name of the Herodian family he served. ‘Greet those in the household of Narcissus who are in the Lord’ (16:11). The ‘household of Narcissus’ (‘who are in the Lord’ [16:11]) could be from the family of Narcissus who gained prominence as a servant of Emperor Claudius. This Narcissus was executed by Nero’s family when Nero became Emperor.
‘Greet Tryphena and Tryphosa, those women who work hard in the Lord. Greet my dear friend Persis, another woman who has worked very hard in the Lord’ (16:12). Tryphena (16:12), Tryphosa (16:12) and Persis (16:12) are each said to ‘work hard in the Lord’ (Persis ‘very hard’). We know nothing more of them.
‘Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother, who has been a mother to me, too’ (16:13). Rufus (16:13) by contrast might be the same Rufus referred to in Mark 15:21 as the son of Simon of Cyrene, who was forced to carry Jesus’ cross. Paul says Rufus’ mother ‘has been a mother to me, too’ (16:13).
‘Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas and the brothers and with them. 15 Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas and all the saints with them’ (16:14,15). We know nothing of ‘Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas.’ The reference to ‘the brothers with them’ (i.e. Hermas’) in 16:14b probably refers to Christians who meet in Hermas’ house and Paul refers to another such house church (‘Olympas and all the saints with them’ [16:15]).
Paul concludes his greetings with a request. ‘Greet one another with a holy kiss’ (16:16). The kiss was a standard form of greeting in the ancient world generally and in Judaism in particular. By the second century, the ‘kiss of peace’ was part of most Christian services.
‘All the churches of Christ send greetings’ (16:16). Paul ends this section by conveying greetings to the Roman Christians from ‘all the churches of Christ.’ He might have been thinking of all the churches he has planted ‘from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum’ (15:19).