Romans chapter 16

by Keith Simons. Free online Bible course and commentary from the Useful Bible Study Centre.

Phoebe, a lady with responsibility in the church

(Romans 16:1)

Christians who travelled often took letters with them, to recommend them to the churches. So, it seems that this lady, Phoebe, took Paul's letter to Rome.

There are several things about Phoebe that surprise us. In fact, it even surprises us to read that she was travelling to Rome. Perhaps she was not travelling alone, but there is no mention of her husband or anyone else. So, Paul gave her the responsibility to take this, perhaps the most important of all Paul's letters, to Rome.

Then, Paul's description of her surprises us. He calls her by a word, from the Greek language, that means a servant. However, that Greek word is the same word that he uses for a church leader in 1 Timothy 3:8-13. Paul could perhaps mean that she was the wife of a church leader. However, again, he says nothing about her husband and much about her. It is clear that Paul respected and trusted this lady very much.

Cenchrea, from which Phoebe came, was very near Corinth (Acts 18:18). In Corinth, some women had tried to take authority over the church (1 Corinthians 11:2-16). They were eager and bold; but Paul could not approve of them. They were not helping people to trust God, and the Holy Spirit was not guiding them. They were taking authority over the men; they were behaving in ways that offended people. Phoebe too was a strong person, but she was not trying to control other people. Instead, she used her strength to help many of God's people, including Paul (16:2). Paul approved very much of her.

Phoebe was not the only lady with responsibility in the churches whom Paul mentions here. There was also Prisca, whom the Bible mentions in several places, but always with her husband, Aquila (16:3). Prisca and Aquila worked closely together to establish churches both in Corinth and Rome.

Phoebe's special work for God

(Romans 16:2)

Many Bible translations simply describe Phoebe as a 'helper' of many people, including Paul. In the Greek language, however, Paul gives her an honourable title, PROSTATIS. It means someone who protects other people. In ancient Greece, some rich and important people accepted the responsibility to protect people who were not citizens. It was their duty to protect the rights of these people in court. That is the true meaning of the title that Paul gives to Phoebe.

We do not suppose that Phoebe actually had that kind of legal responsibility in the court at Corinth. Usually in the ancient world, only men did those things. Rather, Paul is showing us the kind of help that Phoebe gave. In other words, she was a powerful woman, and that gave her opportunities to help other people with their problems. For example, she could speak to important people on their behalf. She had the skill to make arrangements for them; she had the knowledge to advise them wisely.

Today's Christians might not respect people with such skills. They might be jealous of them, or they might ask them to do more practical tasks. However, the Christians at Cenchrea, near Corinth, gave honour to Phoebe (16:1). They knew how often they had needed her help. The first Christians had many powerful enemies who tried to stop their work. Those enemies often used the legal system and the courts, as they did against Paul in Corinth (Acts 18:12-17). Paul was very grateful to have Phoebe's help in such a situation.

Aquila and Prisca, a husband and wife who worked for God

(Romans 16:3)

Aquila and Prisca (also called Priscilla) were a husband and wife who helped Paul in several places. In the Bible, Prisca's name always appears with her husband's name. That is unusual, and probably shows the great importance of her part in their work, to establish new churches.

The most important churches that Paul established were the churches in Corinth and Ephesus. In those cities, large numbers of people who had formerly lived very wicked lives became Christians (1 Corinthians 6:9-11; Acts 19:18-19). For that reason, Paul continued to work in those places for longer than anywhere else. He stayed for 18 months in Corinth (Acts 18:11), and 2 years in Ephesus (Acts 19:10).

Aquila and Prisca helped Paul to start both those great churches. When Paul arrived at Corinth, he stayed in their home. He also worked with them; he, like them, made tents (Acts 18:1-4). When Paul left Corinth, they travelled with him to Ephesus (Acts 18:18-19). At that time, Paul was just passing through Ephesus, but Aquila and Prisca remained there. There was no church there yet, but they continued to speak to people about Christ (Acts 18:26). After some time, they established their own small church there, which met in their home (compare 1 Corinthians 16:8 and 16:19).

Later, they returned to Rome, where they also established a small church in their own home (16:5). Their church was separate from Rome's first church. However, Paul still encouraged the Christians in the first church to be friendly towards Aquila, Prisca and their church. Paul asked those Christians to greet Aquila and Prisca on his behalf.

Aquila and Prisca: Jews who helped the Gentile churches

(Romans 16:4)

All the churches of the Gentiles should be grateful to Prisca and Aquila, says Paul. Paul was writing about 25 or 30 years after Christ’s death. At that time, the churches with the largest number of Gentile Christians were probably those at Rome, Corinth and Ephesus.

The Gentiles are people who are not Jews; the Jews are Israel’s people. Acts 18:2 tells us that Aquila and his wife Prisca were Jews. They assisted Paul when he established the important churches for Gentile Christians in Corinth and Ephesus. However, they chose not to join the churches with many members who were Gentiles in Ephesus and Rome (1 Corinthians 16:19; Romans 16:5). Instead, they established small churches in their own home, which were probably for Jewish Christians.

Paul had opposed Christians, including Peter, when they separated themselves from the Gentile Christians at Antioch (Galatians 2:11-14). So, we may ask how Paul could approve so strongly of Aquila and Prisca. The answer seems to be that Aquila and Prisca allowed God to guide them in these matters. They were doing what God wanted. So, they looked after the Jewish Christians and, at the same time, they provided a home and work for Paul (Acts 18:1-3). In that way, Aquila and Prisca protected Paul in Corinth, and perhaps in Ephesus too. It was a dangerous thing to do, because Paul had many enemies.

The effect was that Paul could stay in both Corinth and Ephesus for many months. In other places, Paul could only remain for a few days until his enemies forced him to leave. However, in those two cities, Paul had the time to establish strong churches for the Gentiles.

We do not know whether Aquila and Prisca ever spoke about Christ to the Gentiles. However, they did care about the Gentile churches that Paul had established. After Paul left Corinth, they even arranged for Apollos to lead the church there (Acts 18:27-28).

How churches begin in new regions

(Romans 16:5)

In Romans 16:3-15, Paul sends his greetings, mostly by name, to 25 of Rome’s Christians, and to 5 groups. Paul had not yet been to Rome (1:10-13). So, he would only know the names of the leaders, and of people whom he had met elsewhere. It seems likely therefore that there were several hundred Christians in Rome, or perhaps even a few thousand. This was about 25 or 30 years after Christ’s death.

The first group that Paul greets is the church in the home of Prisca and Aquila (see our notes on verses 3 and 4). Probably, many of the first Christians churches began to meet in ordinary houses. Prisca and her husband Aquila worked at home (Acts 18:1-3), as most people did at that time. So, there was constant activity and probably many guests in their house. They were pleased to invite other people to join their prayers and Bible study. They were constantly available to discuss about Christ with those people (Acts 18:26). So, a group of Christians gathered, and they became a church. Perhaps, like the first Christians in Jerusalem they chose to eat together and to share their possessions (Acts 2:44-47).

The first person who becomes a Christian in any region has acted very bravely (compare 1 Corinthians 16:15). In the region then called Asia, which is now part of Turkey, that person was Epaenetus. Many people in that region would oppose the Christians (2 Corinthians 1:8). By his decision to trust Christ, Epaenetus was risking the loss of his home, his job and perhaps even his family. However, Epaenetus believed that, in Christ, he had found something much better (Matthew 13:44-46): a right relationship with God (8:31-39).

Epaenetus may have lost many friends, but he found Paul to be a true friend. He probably loved to study the Bible with Paul, who had such a strong relationship with Christ. They had plenty of opportunity to do that during the two years that Paul spent in Ephesus (Acts 19:8-10). Ephesus was the capital city of the region then called Asia.

A Christian woman called Mary in Rome

(Romans 16:6)

The Bible mentions several women with the name Mary (see for example John 19:25). It was clearly a popular name at the time of the first Christians. It is the same name as Miriam, which was the name of Moses’ sister.

Mary, or Miriam, was a Jewish name; all the women with that name were Jewish at the time of the Bible. Therefore, this Mary, who lived and worked in Rome, was also Jewish. The Jewish people are Israel’s people, from the family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Paul mentions how hard Mary worked. She did not work for herself, however, but to serve other people. In that, she showed a truly Christian attitude (12:9-11). That is the kind of love that Paul encourages in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Mary would have worked harder than Paul or even Rome’s Christians knew about. She did not do her work in public so that other people would approve of her (contrast Mark 12:38-40). She was working for God, and only he needed to see her actions (Matthew 6:1-4).

Paul’s word for her ‘work’ may perhaps also express the idea that she suffered much. It is the same word that Christ uses for hard work in Matthew 11:28. Mary would have suffered the loss of her home when Rome’s rulers ordered the Jews to leave Rome (Acts 18:2). Probably Paul met her at that time. However, Mary still chose to return to Rome, to continue her work there.

It seems that Mary also suffered the loss of her husband. That seems likely because there is no mention of him here. If he was with her, we would expect Paul to greet him too. Perhaps Mary was a widow, or perhaps her husband left her because of her trust in Christ (see 1 Corinthians 7:12-15). Paul urged the churches to support those older widows who truly worked for God, and to serve his (God’s) people (1 Timothy 5:9-10). He (Paul) respected them greatly.

People whom Paul greeted in Rome

(Romans 16:7-12)

From Paul’s long list of names, it is not possible to identify the main leaders of Rome’s church. Paul loves and respects all these people, he sends personal greetings for so many of them. He is eager to encourage all Rome’s loyal Christians.

However, it seems likely that Andronicus and Junias (verse 7) were among the principal leaders. Paul knew them well, and he respected them greatly. They had long trusted Christ, and they had gained knowledge and experience. They had also suffered for their belief in Christ; in fact on one occasion they went to prison with Paul. That was a common experience in Paul’s life (2 Corinthians 11:23). On such occasions, Paul did not allow his situation to upset him. Instead, he encouraged the Christians who were in prison with him to sing and to praise God with him (Acts 16:25; compare Matthew 5:11-12).

Paul’s personal greetings show his strong desire to encourage people in their relationship with God. He frequently mentions the love that they share as God’s people (verses 8, 9 and 12), or their work for God (verses 9 and 12). He reminds them that God has chosen them to be his special people (verse 13); God is pleased with them (verse 10). Most of the people in verses 7 to 14 are men, but verse 12 refers to three women.

An interesting greeting is to those Christians who belong to the houses of Aristobulus (verse 10) and Narcissus (verse 11). There were many great palaces in Rome, and large numbers of slaves worked at each of them. It may be, therefore, that Paul’s greetings here are for Christian slaves. Paul cared about the slaves, and he was pleased to declare the gospel, the message about Christ, to them. It seems that many of them became Christians (1 Corinthians 7:21-22; Colossians 3:22-24).

Paul's 'relatives' in the family of God

(Romans 16:13-16)

We are looking at the long list of greetings that Paul sent to the church at Rome. Twice in the list, Paul refers to people as his ‘relatives' (verses 7 and 11; also in verse 21), and once to someone as his ‘mother’ (verse 13).

There is only one definite reference in the Bible to a relative of Paul’s. In Acts 23:16-22, the son of Paul’s sister acted in order to save Paul’s life. Probably that relative did not believe in Christ; his act of kindness was rare for a relative of the first Christians. Rarely did a whole family become Christians; more often, the message about Christ separated families (Matthew 10:35-37).

So the reference to ‘relatives’ in Romans chapter 16 may mean that these men, like Paul, were Jews. All the Jews come from the family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, so their whole nation is one family. Paul uses the word for ‘relatives’ with this meaning in Romans 9:3.

However, Paul’s subject in many of these greetings is a person’s relationship with God. All Christians are brothers and sisters in God’s family (Mark 3:31-35); therefore, they are all relatives.

The reference to Rufus (verse 13), whose mother is also called Paul’s ‘mother’, is especially interesting. Perhaps this same Rufus was the son of Simon, from Cyrene, who carried Christ’s cross (Mark 15:21). Perhaps that same Simon became a leader of the church at Antioch with Paul, then called Saul (Acts 13:1). Perhaps at that time, Rufus’s mother looked after Paul, as if she was Paul’s own mother. However, that can only be a guess.

At the end of Paul’s list, he urges Rome’s Christians to greet each other like a family (16:16). He wanted them to have true love in their hearts for each other (1 Corinthians chapter 13). Therefore, they should be friendly; they too should greet each other.

How we can protect ourselves from evil leaders in the churches

(Romans 16:17-18)

A sincere Christian serves God because of his love and respect for God. That Christian helps other people because of the love that God has given him for those people. He does not care whether other people consider him a leader, or not. He is not trying to increase his importance; he is not trying to gain an advantage for himself from his work for God. Perhaps he earns wages as a church leader (1 Corinthians 9:7-11) but he would still serve God loyally, even without those wages.

On the other hand, there are many people who try to make themselves rich by their work in the churches. Their method is to increase their own power and importance. They want people to trust them, rather than to trust God. So, they start to replace the Bible’s simple message with their own clever ideas. They try to separate people from the sincere leaders who would teach them the truth about God. They try to attract people to themselves with their fine words and impressive speech.

Such behaviour is evil; it can cause severe problems. It can ruin a person’s relationship with God. A few weeks before Paul wrote the Book of Romans, he warned Corinth’s Christians strongly about such leaders (2 Corinthians 11:1-6 and 11:12-15). A few weeks later, he warned Ephesus’s church leaders about this matter (Acts 20:29-31).

Many Christians try to protect themselves from those evil leaders. However, those Christians often choose foolish methods, which God has not provided. So, some Christians refuse to go to church; but God wants Christians to meet in order to encourage each other in their relationship with him (Hebrews 10:25). Other Christians refuse to learn anything new. They only ever want to hear again the first lessons that they learned about God. In that way, they can become too afraid to develop in their relationship with God.

However, God provides leaders to teach his people (Ephesians 4:11-13), from his word (the Bible) and by his Spirit. The correct way for us to protect ourselves is with a close relationship with God. We should constantly pray and study the Bible. We should allow God to direct our lives by his Holy Spirit.

The garden called Eden

(Romans 16:19-20)

In the garden called Eden, the first people chose not to obey God (Genesis chapter 3). That was how sin (wrong and evil thoughts, words and actions) entered our world (5:12). Its results are terrible, because sin brings death (6:23).

So, what God is doing in the lives of Christians by his gospel (the message about Christ) is truly wonderful (1:16-17). People from all nations are choosing to obey God (1:5) - the opposite of what Adam and Eve did in Eden (Genesis 3:1-6). God is giving them life that never ends (John 3:16).

Adam and Eve decided not to obey God because they wanted the knowledge of both good and evil things (Genesis 2:16-17). Still today, wrong and evil desires constantly tempt us (Romans 7:7-24: James 1:13-15; 1 John 1:10). For that reason, we must give our attention to what is good; in other words, we must learn what is right (Proverbs 2:1-11). However, we must have a simple attitude towards what is evil: we must refuse to do any evil thing (Job 28:28; Psalm 1). That is true wisdom.

God is the God of peace, in other words, the God who brings people into a right relationship with himself. By the death of Christ, he makes us, who were his enemies, into his friends (5:6-11). Paul refers to the first promise in the Bible, Genesis 3:15. Satan (a name for the devil that means ‘the accuser’) came in the form of a snake and he persuaded Adam and Eve not to obey God (Genesis 3:1-4). However, God promised that another man, Christ, would come from Eve’s family. Christ would destroy Satan’s power completely, like a person who destroys the head of a snake beneath his foot. So, Satan is losing his power because of the honour that God is giving to his people (8:15-19). Satan cannot defeat them because God has given them a right relationship with himself (8:31-39).

The Christians with Paul send their greetings

(Romans 16:21-23)

Perhaps the main lesson to learn from these final greetings is the friendly attitude that the first Christians showed. We cannot say whether any of these people had been to Rome. Perhaps they did not actually know any of the Christians there. However, they had heard about the Christians in Rome (1:8), and they felt only love towards them (1 John 4:19-21). So when Paul sent his letter, the Christians with him wanted to send their greetings too.

Timothy is Paul’s younger helper, to whom he wrote the Books of 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy. He assisted Paul at Corinth, where Paul probably wrote the Book of Romans.

In Acts 20:4, there is a list of the Christian men who travelled with Paul on his journey from Corinth to Jerusalem. They include Sopater, which may perhaps be a different spelling of Sosipater. Similarly, Lucius may be a different spelling of Luke, the author of the Books of Luke and Acts.

We think that Paul usually wrote his own letters (Galatians 6:11). However, on this occasion Tertius, who was perhaps a scribe (professional writer), wrote down his words. Tertius’s name means ‘third’; he would have been the third son in his family. Quartus’s name means ‘fourth’; possibly he was Tertius’s younger brother.

When Paul first visited Corinth, he stayed with Aquila and Prisca (Acts 18:1-3). On Paul’s return there, they had gone back to Rome (16:3), so Paul stayed with Gaius. Perhaps he is the same man whose name appears in 1 Corinthians 1:14.

In 1 Corinthians 1:26, Paul says that not many important people there had trusted Christ. However, here he mentions an important official in the city of Corinth, called Erastus. Erastus had become a Christian and he too sent his greetings to Rome’s Christians.

A special prayer to praise God

(Romans 16:24-27)

Usually at the end of Paul’s letters, Paul blesses the people to whom he writes. However, he has already done this several times in chapters 15 and 16. Perhaps he blesses them again in verse 24, although that verse does not appear in many ancient copies of the Bible.

So, instead, at the end of the Book of Romans, Paul praises God with a special prayer. His prayer is that God will always receive the glory (honour) due to him (verse 27). Of course, Paul prays that wisely. In the end, God certainly will receive all glory and honour. So, this prayer cannot fail.

In verse 25, Paul describes God as the God who is able to make his people strong (Romans 8:37; 2 Corinthians 12:9-10; Philippians 1:6). He does it by the gospel (the message about Christ), which God’s people are even now declaring in every nation (10:9-18).

For so many ages, the gospel seemed a mystery or a secret (Ephesians 1:9-10). However, that secret was only waiting for the time when God had chosen to make it public. Long before Christ came, the prophets (holy men) had written about it in their books (1 Peter 1:10-12). Ancient passages like Psalm 22 and Isaiah chapter 53 declare God’s plan clearly. It is that Christ, by his death, brings people into a right relationship with God (5:6-11). Because of their evil deeds, all people have made themselves into God’s enemies (3:23). However, because of Christ’s death, people from all nations can become God’s friends. They do not achieve this by their own works, but by faith, simple belief and trust in God (chapter 4). It is God who, by his Spirit, makes it possible for them to obey him (8:1-11). So God, by his great power, will complete the work that he has begun in their lives (8:18; 8:28-30).

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