I Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the Lord.
Tertius acted as Paul's amanuensis and scribe who wrote out the actual text of the epistle to the Romans and added his own greeting to its recipients in the Lord. It was Paul's usual practice to dictate the body of a letter to an amanuensis and then add only the salutation signature with his own hand as the token of genuineness in every epistle, a safeguard made necessary because fraudulent letters were being circulated as from Paul. His greeting in the Lord expresses brotherhood, a prayer for blessing, and an offer of kindness.
The verse belongs to the long list of personal greetings in Romans 16 that salutes many men and women in the Roman church by name. The many greetings reflect the makeup and history of the church at Rome, which was founded by Jews and proselytes from Jerusalem converted on the Day of Pentecost with others added afterward, and many of those greeted had met Paul on his travels. The names in that closing chapter include many women, showing that women are represented among those saluted.
The absence of Peter's name from that list shows that Peter was not in Rome at all when Paul wrote, and that if Peter was ever in Rome it was after Romans was written and long after the church there was established and flourishing, for Paul would not have omitted the chief person in the church, whom he knew from fifteen days together in Jerusalem. This silence is sufficient to settle that neither the church of Christ nor the church of Rome was founded upon Peter.
Tertius served the gospel with pen and ink, and his work is a pattern for missions where writers are needed as messengers to carry the truth to benighted lands so the whole earth may be filled with the glory of God, alongside preachers of eloquence, practical helpers with needle and thread, givers with wealth, men with knowledge of law, and physicians with medicine.
Tertius acted as Paul's amanuensis and scribe who wrote out the actual text of the epistle to the Romans and added his own greeting to its recipients in the Lord. It was Paul's usual practice to dictate the body of a letter to an amanuensis and then add only the salutation signature with his own hand as the token of genuineness in every epistle, a safeguard made necessary because fraudulent letters were being circulated as from Paul. His greeting in the Lord expresses brotherhood, a prayer for blessing, and an offer of kindness.
The verse belongs to the long list of personal greetings in Romans 16 that salutes many men and women in the Roman church by name. The many greetings reflect the makeup and history of the church at Rome, which was founded by Jews and proselytes from Jerusalem converted on the Day of Pentecost with others added afterward, and many of those greeted had met Paul on his travels. The names in that closing chapter include many women, showing that women are represented among those saluted.
The absence of Peter's name from that list shows that Peter was not in Rome at all when Paul wrote, and that if Peter was ever in Rome it was after Romans was written and long after the church there was established and flourishing, for Paul would not have omitted the chief person in the church, whom he knew from fifteen days together in Jerusalem. This silence is sufficient to settle that neither the church of Christ nor the church of Rome was founded upon Peter.
Tertius served the gospel with pen and ink, and his work is a pattern for missions where writers are needed as messengers to carry the truth to benighted lands so the whole earth may be filled with the glory of God, alongside preachers of eloquence, practical helpers with needle and thread, givers with wealth, men with knowledge of law, and physicians with medicine.