Go-and-teach-all-nations
Romans 16:21-24
Greetings from Paul’s friends
v21 Timothy, who works with me, sends his greetings to you. So do Lucius, Jason and Sosipater, my relatives.
v22 (I, Tertius, who wrote this letter down, greet you as a believer in the Lord.)
v23-24 Gaius is my host here. And the whole church meets in his house. He sends you his greetings. Erastus is the Director of Public Works here in the city. He and our brother Quartus send you their greetings.
Comment:
Verse 21 - Timothy came from Lystra. There, Paul decided to make Timothy a companion for his journeys (Acts 16:1-3). He served Paul for many years. Paul wrote that their work together was ‘like a son with his father’ (Philippians 2:19-22). Timothy was with Paul when he was ready to go to Jerusalem (Acts 20:4). (See Romans 15:25.)
Lucius, Jason and Sosipater were Jews, like Paul. We cannot be sure who they were. Lucius might be Lucius from Cyrene (Acts 13:1) or even Luke. Jason invited Paul to stay at his home in Thessalonica. The result was that the Jews attacked Jason’s house. They dragged him in front of the city rulers (Acts 17:5-9). His name is not among the people who took the gift to Jerusalem. But Sopater (the shorter form of Sosipater’s name) took the gift from Berea to Jerusalem (Acts 20:4).
Verse 22 - Tertius is the only secretary of Paul whose name we know. He sends his own greetings here.
Verse 23 - Gaius was one of the only two people whom Paul baptised in Corinth (1 Corinthians 1:14). If his full name was Gaius Titius Justus, he lived next to the synagogue in Corinth. When Paul left the synagogue, he moved into Gaius’s home to continue his work. ‘The whole church’ (in other words, all the church members) met in Gaius’s house (Acts 18:7-8). Clearly, Gaius had a very large house.
Erastus was the Director of Public Works in Corinth. So he was a very important man in that city. His name is on a pavement (stones which cover a street or path) that people discovered in 1929. The Latin words say that he paid for the pavement himself. He appreciated the honor that the city had given to him.
Our ‘brother’ Quartus probably means that he was a Christian. The word ‘brother’ may of course mean a family relationship. Quartus means ‘4th’. One writer suggests that he was the brother of Tertius, whose name means ‘3rd’. Another writer thinks that this is rather unlikely!
Verse 24 - Many manuscripts do not include this verse. But other manuscripts have these words here: ‘I pray that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ will be with you all. Amen.’ These manuscripts have these words here, instead of the end of verse 20.
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Text from the EasyEnglish Bible Version and Commentary - used with permission - © 2007, Wycliffe Associates (UK) - For more information about EasyEnglish Publications, visit their website: www.easyenglish.info.
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