Greetings And Commendations
GREETINGS AND COMMENDATIONS
ROMANS 16:1-6
Paul warmly greets his friends in Rome.
This chapter is of more interest than might at first be apparent. These verses introduce some of the personalities of the early church, give some insight into its social structure and reveal with what facility people moved about through the Mediterranean world. People today may move in such countries with greater speed.
Phoebe was a “deaconess” of Corinth, probably a rich woman, who lived on the seaboard of Corinth’s eastern port. If deaconess is not too technical a term, Phoebe was the first on record to hold the office. Paul may have written the letter in her home, and she may have undertaken to carry it to Rome.
Prisca, or more familiarly, Priscilla, and her husband Aquila, were a much-traveled pair. They were also Paul’s hosts at Corinth. They had been expelled from Rome in AD 49 when Claudius legislated against the Jews, and opened a cloth or tentmaking business in Corinth (Acts 18:2,18,24-26; 1 Corinthians 16:19; 2 Timothy 4:19). The references show that this earnest couple fostered churches both in Corinth and Ephesus. Now they are back in Rome. Aquila had come from Pontus. They illustrate the home-based nature of the early church (Philemon 2), and also the vital nature of a joint testimony by a husband and wife of like mind.
Consider We see a feature of the first century which marks our own habits of travel, immigration and change of residence, all of which were used to spread the gospel. Are we harnessing such aspects of modern life in our own time?