Romans — Chapter 16

Authorship & Background

Deep Dive

Setting: Paul is in Corinth, about AD 57, at the end of his third missionary journey (Acts 20:2–3). He is about to carry the relief gift to Jerusalem and then hopes to reach Rome and go on to Spain (15:24–28). The great argument of the letter is finished. Chapter 16 is the closing: a letter of recommendation for the woman carrying it, the longest list of personal greetings in any of Paul's letters, a sharp last warning, greetings from Paul's team in Corinth, and a doxology that gathers up the whole letter. A list of names can look like the part to skip. In fact it is the clearest picture the New Testament gives of what an early city church actually looked like.

Personal Greetings (vv1–16)

• "I commend to you our sister Phoebe" (v1). Ancient letters often ended by recommending the person who carried them, and Phoebe almost certainly brought this letter to Rome, a sea voyage of hundreds of miles. Her name comes from Greek religion (it was a title of Apollo and Artemis, "bright"), so she was most likely a Gentile convert who kept her given name.
• "A servant of the church at Cenchreae" (v1). Cenchreae was Corinth's eastern port, about five miles from the city, on the Saronic Gulf. Paul sailed from there in Acts 18:18. "Servant" is diakonos, the ordinary word for a servant or minister, used of Paul himself (1 Cor 3:5) and of Christ (15:8). It is also the word for the church office of deacon (Phil 1:1; 1 Tim 3:8–12), and the lexicon lists this verse under that technical sense. Readers differ. Many Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant readers see Phoebe as a deacon of her church, and "of the church at Cenchreae" sounds like a recognized role rather than general helpfulness. Others read it as faithful service without a formal office. Either way, Paul publicly vouches for her.
• "Welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints" (v2). The same word for "welcome" as in 14:1 and 15:7. The letter that told Jews and Gentiles to receive one another now asks them to receive its courier. "Help her in whatever she may need" suggests she had business of her own in Rome, perhaps legal or commercial.
• "She has been a patron of many and of myself as well" (v2). "Patron" is prostatis, found only here in the New Testament, the feminine of a word for a protector or patron. In Roman society a patron used money, a home and social standing to support others. Phoebe was a woman of means who backed the mission, Paul included. Paul, who refused support from Corinth (1 Cor 9:15), gladly names a woman who helped him.
• "Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers" (v3). Paul uses the formal "Prisca"; Luke uses the familiar "Priscilla." They were Jewish believers expelled from Rome under Claudius around AD 49 (Acts 18:2). Paul lived and made tents with them in Corinth, they moved to Ephesus, and there they taught Apollos (Acts 18:26). Claudius died in 54, Jews drifted back, and so had they. Four of the six times they are named, she comes first, which may mean she was the more prominent in the church's work or of higher social rank.
• "Who risked their necks for my life" (v4). Literally "laid down their own necks," as if under the executioner's sword. Luke never tells the story. The riot at Ephesus (Acts 19) is the usual guess, but it is a guess. "All the churches of the Gentiles give thanks": saving Paul's life served the whole Gentile mission.
• "The church in their house" (v5). There were no church buildings for another two centuries. A city church was a network of house gatherings of perhaps a few dozen people each. Verses 14 and 15 seem to describe at least two more such groups ("the brothers who are with them," "all the saints who are with them"). That helps explain chapters 14–15: groups meeting separately could easily drift into judging one another.
• "Epaenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in Asia" (v5). Literally "firstfruits of Asia," the first sheaf that promised a harvest. The King James has "Achaia," following later manuscripts. The earliest manuscripts read "Asia," and modern translations follow them, since Achaia's firstfruits were Stephanas's household (1 Cor 16:15).
• "Mary, who has worked hard for you" (v6). "Worked hard" is kopiaō, to toil to the point of weariness. Paul uses it of his own ministry (1 Cor 15:10) and of church leaders (1 Thess 5:12). He uses it four times in this list, and every time of a woman: Mary, Tryphaena, Tryphosa and Persis (vv6, 12).
• "Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners" (v7). "Kinsmen" (syngenēs) can mean relatives, but Paul uses it in 9:3 of all Israel, so it most likely means fellow Jews. He uses it of six people in this chapter. They were believers before Paul's conversion, so they reached faith within a few years of Pentecost, possibly as Jews from Rome in Jerusalem (Acts 2:10). They had shared a jail with him somewhere, one of many imprisonments Acts never records (2 Cor 11:23).
• "Well known to the apostles" (v7). Two questions meet here. First, Junia or Junias? The Greek form could be either, but the woman's name Junia is common in Roman inscriptions and a man's name Junias has not been found, and early Christian writers such as Chrysostom read a woman. Most scholars and translations now read Junia, probably Andronicus's wife. Second, the phrase. Episēmos means "marked, notable" (it describes the "notorious" Barabbas in Matt 27:16). The ESV takes it as "well known to the apostles," a reading some scholars defend from Greek parallels. Most translations take it as "outstanding among the apostles" (NIV, NLT, CSB), meaning they were themselves apostles. If so, it is in the wider New Testament sense of recognized missionaries sent out by churches (Barnabas in Acts 14:14; 2 Cor 8:23), not the Twelve. The phrase is contested, and Christians on each side of the debate about women's roles in the church read it carefully.
• Ampliatus, Urbanus, Stachys, Apelles (vv8–10). Mostly common slave or freedman names. A tomb inscribed "Ampliatus" survives in one of Rome's oldest Christian catacombs, though identifying it with this man is uncertain. "Approved in Christ" (v10) is the word for metal tested and proven genuine. Apelles had been through some trial and come out true.
• "The family of Aristobulus… of Narcissus" (vv10–11). Paul greets the households, not the men, which suggests the masters were dead or not believers. "Family" here means the slaves and freedmen of a great house. Aristobulus may be the grandson of Herod the Great who lived in Rome, which would fit the next name, Herodion, a fellow Jew whose name honors the Herods. Narcissus may be the powerful freedman of Emperor Claudius, executed in AD 54, whose slaves would then have passed into the imperial household. These are scholars' suggestions, but they fit Paul's later greeting from "those of Caesar's household" (Phil 4:22).
• "Tryphaena and Tryphosa" (v12). Probably sisters, perhaps twins, since paired names were common. The names mean something like "dainty" and "delicate," and they "work hard in the Lord." Persis, "the Persian woman," was probably a freedwoman named for her origin.
• "Rufus, chosen in the Lord; also his mother" (v13). Mark, probably writing for Christians in Rome, mentions that Simon of Cyrene, who carried Jesus' cross, was "the father of Alexander and Rufus" (Mark 15:21). He names the sons as if his readers knew them. This may be the same Rufus, but the name was common. "Chosen" (eklektos) is true of every believer, so Paul likely means "choice, outstanding." "Who has been a mother to me as well": somewhere, perhaps in Antioch, this woman had cared for Paul like a son.
• The list in vv14–15. Two more groups, each with names typical of slaves and freedmen. Hermes was a very common slave name. Julia is a name often borne by members of the imperial household's staff. Nereus appears in a later tradition linked to Christians in a noble Roman family. Hermas was guessed by Origen to be the author of the second-century Shepherd of Hermas, but the dates make that unlikely.
• What the list shows. About twenty-six people are named, roughly a third of them women, along with several households and house churches. There are Jews and Gentiles, Latin, Greek and Persian names, slaves, freedpeople and patrons. This is Galatians 3:28 in real life, and it is the same church Paul has just urged to "welcome one another" (15:7).
• Was this chapter really sent to Rome? Since Prisca, Aquila and Epaenetus had been in Ephesus, some scholars once argued that chapter 16 was a separate letter to Ephesus. Manuscript evidence for a separate letter is lacking, travel to and from Rome was constant, and Paul naming everyone he knows in a church he has never visited makes good sense. Those friends were his references.
• "Greet one another with a holy kiss" (v16). The kiss on the cheek was an ordinary greeting among family and friends (Luke 7:45). Among believers it said "we are family," across lines of class and race. "Holy" sets it apart from anything casual or improper. By the second century it had become the "kiss of peace" in worship. Today the form varies by culture; the meaning does not.
• "All the churches of Christ greet you" (v16). Only here does Paul send greetings from all the churches. He is about to carry the Gentile churches' gift to Jerusalem, and he speaks for the whole mission.
• Commentators: Henry is struck by how carefully Paul names everyone: "How studious was Paul to leave none out of his salutations." On the house church: "A church in a house is no such absurd thing as some make it to be." He reads Rufus's mother as "his mother by nature and mine by Christian love." JFB takes Phoebe as a deaconess, notes the wife named first was likely "the more prominent and helpful to the Church," and reads "Asia" in v5, calling the "Achaia" reading "without authority." Guzik, working from the older reading, places Epaenetus in Achaia. He also counts how many of these names appear in inscriptions linked to Caesar's household. On Junia, Guzik grants that she and Andronicus were apostles in the wider sense, but judges this a thin basis for broader conclusions. JFB allows that the phrase may only mean they were esteemed by the apostles.

Final Instructions and Greetings (vv17–24)

• "Watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles" (v17). The tone turns sharply, which has led some to think Paul took the pen himself here (compare Gal 6:11). "Divisions" is dichostasia, standing apart, listed among the works of the flesh in Galatians 5:20. "Obstacles" is skandalon, the bait-stick of a trap, something that trips people up. Notice the test: "contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught." These are not the "weak" and "strong" of chapter 14, whom Paul told to bear with each other. These are people who split the church away from apostolic teaching.
• "Avoid them" (v17). Paul does not tell the church to debate them endlessly. He says to keep away. Where they came from is not stated. Most think of the kind of teachers Paul fought in Galatia and Philippi.
• "They do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites" (v18). Literally "their own belly" (koilia), the same idea as "their god is their belly" (Phil 3:19). It covers more than food: their own comfort, income and following. "Smooth talk" is chrēstologia, "fair speaking," used only here. Dangerous teachers rarely sound dangerous. They sound kind and plausible, and they aim at "the naive," the unsuspecting.
• "Your obedience is known to all" (v19). Paul warns them because he is pleased with them, not because they have already fallen. The letter began with their faith "proclaimed in all the world" (1:8).
• "Wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil" (v19). "Innocent" is akeraios, "unmixed, pure," the word in Jesus' "innocent as doves" (Matt 10:16). The goal is not to be clever about evil but expert in good, unblended with the poison.
• "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet" (v20). The clearest echo of Genesis 3:15 in Paul's letters, where the woman's offspring will crush the serpent's head. "Crush" is syntribō, to shatter or break in pieces. The church's quarrels are not only human. Behind divisive teachers stands the old enemy, and the "God of peace" will deal with him. Notice who acts: God crushes, and the victory comes "under your feet." Christ won it (Col 2:15; 1 John 3:8), and his people share it (Luke 10:19). "Soon" is the New Testament's steady hope. It may refer to Satan's defeat in each church's struggles, or to the final end (Rev 20:10), or both.
• "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you" (v20). It sounds like the end, and then more greetings follow. Ancient letters often added postscripts after the farewell.
• "Timothy, my fellow worker" (v21). Paul's closest partner, who would later serve in Rome with him (Phil 1:1). Lucius may be Lucius of Cyrene from the Antioch church (Acts 13:1), but that is uncertain. Jason may be Paul's host at Thessalonica (Acts 17:5–9), and Sosipater is probably the Sopater of Berea who travels with Paul to Jerusalem (Acts 20:4). If so, these are delegates carrying the collection.
• "I Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord" (v22). Tertius was Paul's scribe (amanuensis), taking dictation, a long and skilled task for a letter of this size. This is the only place in Paul's letters where the scribe speaks for himself. A neat touch: "Tertius" means "third," and in v23 comes "Quartus," "fourth." Both were common slave names, often given by birth order.
• "Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church" (v23). Probably the Gaius whom Paul baptized in Corinth (1 Cor 1:14). His house was large enough for the whole Corinthian church to gather. Some scholars identify him with Titius Justus, whose house adjoined the synagogue (Acts 18:7), since a Roman could have three names, but that is a reconstruction.
• "Erastus, the city treasurer" (v23). The word is oikonomos, manager or steward, here of the city. A stone pavement found in Corinth in 1929 records that an Erastus laid it at his own expense in return for his election as aedile, a city magistrate. Whether he is the same man, and whether the titles match, is still debated. If he is, the church in Corinth included a senior public official. Another Erastus served with Paul (Acts 19:22; 2 Tim 4:20), possibly the same man.
• Where is v24? The ESV moves straight from v23 to v25. Later manuscripts, followed by the King James, add v24: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen." The earliest manuscripts lack it, and it looks like a copy of v20's blessing placed here when the doxology was moved around. No teaching depends on it.
• Commentators: Henry on the dividers: "By good words and fair speeches they deceive the hearts of the simple." He honors the scribe: "It was an honour to Tertius that he had a hand, though but as a scribe, in writing this epistle." And on Erastus: it was "no disparagement" to a city official to serve the gospel. Guzik observes that such people rarely identify themselves as dividers, and they often think their own motives noble. He notes that God does the crushing and believers enjoy the result. JFB ties v20 to Genesis 3:15 and notes that the closing "Amen" there "has no manuscript authority." It reads v24 as the benediction repeated, now upon "all." It identifies Gaius as one of the very few people Paul baptized and corrects the King James "chamberlain" to "treasurer."

Doxology (vv25–27)

• "Now to him who is able to strengthen you" (v25). One long sentence of praise, and the grammar is tangled because Paul piles up phrases before he reaches the point in v27: "to the only wise God be glory." At the start of the letter Paul longed to come to "strengthen" them (1:11). Now he hands them to the One who can do it whether he arrives or not.
• The doxology wanders in the manuscripts. Some place it after 14:23, one early papyrus after 15:33, a few have it twice, and a few lack it. That has led some scholars to think it was added later. Most conclude it belongs at the end and is Paul's own, because it gathers up the letter's opening themes so closely.
• The bookends. Set 16:25–27 beside 1:1–6. "My gospel" and "the preaching of Jesus Christ" answer "the gospel of God… concerning his Son" (1:1–3). "Through the prophetic writings" answers "promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures" (1:2). "Made known to all nations… to bring about the obedience of faith" repeats 1:5 almost word for word. The whole letter sits between these two frames.
• "The mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed" (vv25–26). In Paul, a "mystery" is not a puzzle but a part of God's plan once hidden and now revealed. Here, as in Ephesians 3:4–6 and Colossians 1:26–27, it is that Gentiles would share fully in God's people through Christ, without first becoming Jews. The Old Testament promised Gentiles would come (15:9–12). What it did not make plain was how: by faith in a crucified and risen Messiah, on equal terms.
• "According to the command of the eternal God" (v26). The Gentile mission was not Paul's idea. It is the eternal God's command, the reason for every journey in Acts and for the trip to Spain.
• "To the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen" (v27). The letter that wrestled with sin, law, Israel and the nations ends where 11:33 broke out: "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!" Only God could have designed a plan that saves both Jew and Gentile and leaves no one to boast but him.
• Commentators: Henry notes that Paul seems "loth to part," with blessing following blessing before the final praise, and says of God that "He only is perfectly and infallibly wise." JFB reads the mystery as the Gentiles' equal admission into God's people and does not discuss the doxology's shifting place in the manuscripts. Guzik reads the passage as praise for the whole plan of redemption, wiser than anything people could have invented.

Pointing to Christ

The chapter looks like a list, but every name is "in Christ" or "in the Lord," the phrase Paul uses again and again here. Slaves of Caesar's household, a patron from the port, a Jewish couple twice uprooted, a scribe named "Third," and perhaps the son of the man who carried Jesus' cross are now one family because of him. The serpent that divided the first family will be crushed under their feet, because the promised offspring of the woman has already come. And the letter ends where it began, with the gospel of Jesus Christ and glory to God "through" him.

Commentary

• Enduring Word (David Guzik): enduringword.com Guzik examines the personal greetings, the role of women, the warning against divisive people, and the closing doxology.
• Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871): blueletterbible.org A critical and explanatory commentary on the whole Bible, more concise than Matthew Henry and closer to the Hebrew and Greek, with attention to historical and geographical detail. Public domain.
• Matthew Henry's Exposition (1710): blueletterbible.org A devotional verse-by-verse commentary in the Puritan tradition, still among the most widely read three centuries on. Public domain.

Videos

Articles

• Crossway: crossway.org On the whole letter: why Romans has carried the weight it has in church history.
• Crossway: crossway.org Why Paul's own story of being overtaken by grace is the right way into the letter.
• GotQuestions.org: gotquestions.org On the whole book: an overview of the book of Romans -- who wrote it, when, why, and how it fits the rest of Scripture.

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Reflection

• Investing in Relationships Across Distance (vv.1-16) — Paul greets over two dozen people by name in a church he had never personally visited, showing how relationally invested he was in the body of Christ. How well do you know people by name in your own church community, and how intentionally are you investing in those relationships?
• Watch Out for Those Who Cause Division (v.17) — Paul warns believers to keep an eye on people who create division contrary to sound teaching. Are you discerning about who you follow and listen to, evaluating both their doctrine and their character?
• Wise About Good, Naive About Evil (v.19) — Paul wants believers to be experts in what is good and inexperienced in what is evil, the opposite of a culture fascinated with scandal and wrongdoing. Where does your mental and emotional energy actually go — toward good, or toward what's evil and dramatic?
• The God of Peace Crushing Satan (v.20) — Paul promises that God will soon crush Satan under believers' feet, framing them as victors, not victims. Do you actually live with that confidence, or do you still relate to spiritual opposition as though defeat were possible?
• The Mystery Now Revealed (vv.25-26) — Paul describes the gospel as God's eternal plan, hidden for ages and now made known to bring about the obedience of faith among all nations. How does knowing you live in the age when that mystery has been opened shape your sense of purpose?
• Glory to God Alone, Forever (v.27) — Paul closes the entire letter with a doxology directing all glory to the only wise God through Jesus Christ. Is glory to God actually the aim behind what you do, or an afterthought tacked onto your own goals?