Romanschapter 16
27 verses · BSBRomans book hub →
Speaks with:Romans 16×41 Corinthians 16×3Acts 18×21 Timothy 5×21 Peter 1×2Philippians 2×2
Summary
Chapter summary
Commendation of Phoebe, servant of the church at Cenchrea. A long roll of greetings. Twenty-six named by name, with particular service noted. Mark those that cause divisions contrary to the doctrine, and avoid them. The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. Final doxology: to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel, to the only wise God, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Henry treats the names as a window on the primitive church. Jew and Gentile, bond and free, women and men, together.
Context
Epistle · Paul — Romans overview
- A. 1–16 Greet Phoebe, Prisca, and the Whole Roman Household
- B. 17–20 Mark Them That Cause Divisions
- C. 21–27 Last Greetings and Glory to the Only Wise God
The outline
A.Greet Phoebe, Prisca, and the Whole Roman Householdvv. 1 to 16
Read vv. 1 to 16 →B.Mark Them That Cause Divisionsvv. 17 to 20
Read vv. 17 to 20 →C.Last Greetings and Glory to the Only Wise Godvv. 21 to 27
Read vv. 21 to 27 →
The world behind this chapter
Romans 16The history
Phoebe is commended first because she is carrying the letter. There was no postal service for private mail; letters travelled with someone going that way, and the carrier normally read it aloud to the recipients and answered questions about it. Paul calls her a servant of the church at Cenchreae, Corinth's eastern harbour, and a patron of many — a woman of standing whose money and household supported the work.
Tertius names himself in one verse as the man writing the letter down. Long letters were dictated to a trained secretary, an amanuensis, who took them in shorthand and produced a fair copy. Papyrus, ink, and a professional's time made a letter this long an expensive object.
The names themselves are a social map. Many are typical slave and freedman names, several belong to households rather than individuals, and Paul greets those "of the household of Aristobulus" and "of Narcissus" — meaning the slaves and dependants of a great house, not its owner. Prisca and Aquila are back in Rome after their exile, hosting a church in their home.
There was no church building anywhere in the world yet. These greetings sketch several separate congregations meeting in apartments and workshops across a city of perhaps a million people.
What it meant to them
For the first hearers, this list was the letter's proof that its grand argument came down to actual people — women who worked hard in the Lord, relatives who had been in prison with Paul, a man whose mother had been a mother to him too.
The one warning in the chapter fits that intimacy. Watch out for those who cause divisions by smooth talk and flattery, and avoid them. In small house churches, a persuasive newcomer could do enormous damage.
Sources cited
- F. F. Bruce, Paul: Apostle of the Heart Set Free
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Romans 16. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Connections from this chapter
v. 20 · Fulfilled in the pattern · An echo of this verse · A picture of Christ
Genesis 3:15 is the first promise of a deliverer: the seed of the woman crushing the serpent's head. Paul speaks it as a promise still being kept: “the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly” (Rom 16:20).
Genesis 3:15→And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, Appendix IX (public domain)
v. 26 · Bookends: the same words open and close
BOOK-LEVEL. Paul's 'obedience of faith' (hypakoe pisteos) stands at the virtual beginning and end of Romans - a verbatim Greek-phrase frame around the letter's argument.
Romans 1:5→Through Him and on behalf of His name, we received grace and apostleship to call all those among the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.
Grace Evangelical Society 'The Obedience Which Is Faith'; STEPBible TAGNT; ASV/WEB text
Where scholars push back(1)
Genesis 3:15. Read at its plainest level the verse can be taken as an account of why snakes and people fear one another; the Aramaic Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 3:15 resolves that enmity “in the days of the King Messiah,” and Bereshit Rabbah 23:5 reads the promised “other seed” of Genesis 4:25 as the Messiah, so the messianic reading is ancient, not modern.
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.