Romans 16:1-16

1). Final Greetings And Exhortations (16:1-16).

It is unusual to find such a detailed list of people to be greeted in Paul's letters. Indeed, in most of his letters no specific person is individually greeted. The exceptions are Colossians (‘the brothers and sisters who are in Laodicea, and Nymphas and the church which is in his house -- and say to Archippus --') and 2 Timothy (‘Priscilla and Aquila and the house of Onesiphorus'). But here in Romans we have a long list. We may thus enquire as to why this is so. The obvious answer is that he was writing to a church which was not known to him personally, and where he wanted to establish his credentials, the situation being that he therefore greeted all those whom he knew by name, knowing that no one who was not mentioned could be offended, for any others who knew him would consider that any omission was due to Paul's lack of knowledge of their presence in Rome. This explains why he went against his common practise.

He commences the list by commending Phoebe to the church, and he closes it with a salutation from the servants of Christ. In between he gives the names of those to be ‘saluted'. Note the references to ‘house churches'. There were no church buildings, and Christian gatherings would therefore regularly take place in large houses owned by wealthy Christians. Whilst even the largest houses would not accommodate more than around eighty, a much larger number could gather in the courtyards of the house (compare the situation described regarding the High Priest's house in John 18:15). There were clearly a number of such house churches in Rome (many would be unknown to Paul). The first names in the list are of those well known to Paul (Romans 16:2), followed by some who are seemingly less well known.

It should be noted how many of the names listed are of women. Paul clearly recognised the contribution that women made in the activities of the church, but their activities appear mainly to be those of expressing compassion and doing good towards all. Thus we have Phoebe, ‘the helper of many, including Paul'; Prisca, the wife of Aquila, Paul's ‘fellow-workers'; Mary ‘who bestowed much labour on you'; Junia ‘my fellow-prisoner'; Tryphaena and Tryphosa, ‘who labour in the Lord'; Persis ‘who laboured much in the Lord'; Rufus' mother, who had been like a mother to Paul; Julia; and Nereus' sister. This serves to demonstrate that any idea that Paul had little regard for women is totally wrong.