Fin - Romans 16

This is the last chapter in the book of Romans and it’s very different from the other books. This one kind of serves as a specific reference for those who were receiving the letter, not as generalize principles for the whole. Paul starts “I commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea: That ye receive her in the Lord, as becometh saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you: for she hath been a succourer of many, and of myself also.” This is an interesting concept because I thought “if Phebe came to rob these people or something, wouldn’t she just write her own recommendation herself?” But apparently there were probably ways to verify that this was indeed written or endorsed by Paul himself, so it was copacetic.

The IM says, “At the close of his epistle, Paul highly commended a Church member named Phebe, who was evidently the messenger who carried Paul’s epistle to the Saints in Rome… Phebe is an example of the important and trusted role women have in the Church. Paul’s written approval of Phebe is an example of the early Christian practice of carrying letters of recommendation when traveling to another Christian congregation. This custom is similar to the current Church practices of transferring membership records and carrying temple recommends.”
This party that was journeying to Rome with the letter ahead of Paul was apparently quite large, and included Priscilla and Aquila, the tentmakers that Paul worked with while in Corinth, I believe it was. Interestingly, Paul relates the account in which these two people “have for my life laid down their own necks.” This makes me wonder what the story is there. He also asks the saints in Rome to “salute my wellbeloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ.” That’s a pretty big deal, the first member of the Church in his city.
He mentions Andronicus and Junia “my kinsmen, and my fellowprisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me.” Makes me wonder about the story there too. He mentions “Mary, Amplias, Urbane, Stachys, Apelles, Aristobulus, Herodian, “the household of Narcissus, which are in the Lord.” I’m not exactly sure what that means. He continues with Tryphena, Tryphosa, Persis, Rufus “and his mother and mine,” Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, Philologus, Julia, Nereus “and his sister” and Olympas. I can only assume that these are people who came on the journey to Rome with the letter ahead of Paul. I didn’t think it would encompass this many people, or that this many people would have the resources to devote their lives to the ministry full time.
Paul advises them to be obedient and “wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.” He also recognizes that everyone can have different intentions in their worship of God because there will be those who “cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned” and his counsel is to “avoid them.” I don’t think that Paul means for these contentious people to be scorned or necessarily ostracized, but that divisions and offences are to be avoided.
Everyone accepts the gospel in their own time and in their own place and when people accept the gospel, it’s just like anything else, their own personal interpretation is colored by their own insecurities and emotional baggage. Ultimately, everyone is just doing what they think is best for themselves so people get into disagreements with each other over perceived doctrinal differences or basically subconscious self-defense mechanisms that they’ve developed over time to deal with their life circumstances. Paul would have known that feelings would be hurt at times and disagreements would arise, so I don’t think he’s telling them to kick people out from among them, but maybe to avoid the circumstances or quell the disputes that come up.
The end of chapter 16 and I assume the close of the entire epistle, Tertius, “who wrote this epistle” ends by apparently thanking those who I would imagine helped in some way with the producing of the letter. But I thought that Paul wrote this letter? The IM answers, “Paul may have used scribes to compose many or all of his epistles. Ancient scribes had varying degrees of influence in what they wrote. Some would write a manuscript word for word as dictated by the sender, others would revise and edit a draft written by the sender, and others would compose much of the text themselves, working from notes or instructions provided by the sender. Whichever approach was used, the sender would make sure the final text represented his or her intentions.
Some New Testament scholars have debated whether some of the epistles bearing Paul’s name were actually written by Paul. Much of this debate deals with subtle differences in style and wording among the epistles. However, many of these differences can be explained by Paul using different scribes on different occasions with varying degrees of personal input.”