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Romans 16: What the Passage Says

97 claims across 27 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Romans 16 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

Paul closes his letter to Rome by commending Phoebe and sending greetings to more than two dozen people there by name, along with notes about their work and their ties to him. He warns the readers to watch out for people whose divisions and obstacles go against what they were taught, and to stay away from them. Friends with Paul add their own greetings, including Tertius, the man writing the letter down. The chapter ends with praise to God, who can make them strong through the message about Jesus Christ, a message once kept secret and now made known to all nations.

Claim by Claim

  1. 16:1
    • Paul commends Phebe to the recipients.
    • Phebe is called our sister.
    • Phebe is a servant of the church at Cenchrea.
    • The word describing Phebe's role can mean either a servant or a deacon, and the verse does not resolve which.
  2. 16:2
    • Paul tells them to receive Phebe in the Lord.
    • They are to receive her in a manner fitting for saints.
    • Paul tells them to assist her in whatever matter she needs from them.
    • Phebe has been a helper and patron of many.
    • Phebe has been a helper and patron of Paul himself.
  3. 16:3
    • Paul tells them to greet Priscilla and Aquila.
    • Priscilla and Aquila are Paul's fellow workers in Christ Jesus.
  4. 16:4
    • Priscilla and Aquila risked their own necks for Paul's life.
    • Paul gives thanks to them.
    • All the churches of the Gentiles also give thanks to them.
  5. 16:5
    • Paul tells them to greet the church that meets in the house of Priscilla and Aquila.
    • Paul tells them to greet Epaenetus.
    • Epaenetus is Paul's well-beloved.
    • Epaenetus is the firstfruits of Achaia to Christ.
  6. 16:6
    • Paul tells them to greet Mary.
    • Mary bestowed much labour on us.
  7. 16:7
    • Paul tells them to greet Andronicus and Junia.
    • Andronicus and Junia are Paul's kinsmen.
    • Andronicus and Junia were fellow prisoners with Paul.
    • Andronicus and Junia are of note among the apostles.
    • It is not resolved whether they are notable apostles themselves or well known to the apostles.
    • Andronicus and Junia were in Christ before Paul was.
  8. 16:8
    • Paul tells them to greet Amplias.
    • Amplias is Paul's beloved in the Lord.
  9. 16:9
    • Paul tells them to greet Urbane.
    • Urbane is our helper in Christ.
    • Paul tells them to greet Stachys.
    • Stachys is Paul's beloved.
  10. 16:10
    • Paul tells them to greet Apelles.
    • Apelles is approved in Christ.
    • Paul tells them to greet those who belong to the household of Aristobulus.
  11. 16:11
    • Paul tells them to greet Herodion.
    • Herodion is Paul's kinsman.
    • Paul tells them to greet those of the household of Narcissus who are in the Lord.
  12. 16:12
    • Paul tells them to greet Tryphena and Tryphosa.
    • Tryphena and Tryphosa labour in the Lord.
    • Paul tells them to greet Persis.
    • Persis is beloved.
    • Persis laboured much in the Lord.
  13. 16:13
    • Paul tells them to greet Rufus.
    • Rufus is chosen in the Lord.
    • Paul tells them to greet the mother of Rufus.
    • The mother of Rufus is also a mother to Paul.
  14. 16:14
    • Paul tells them to greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, and Hermes.
    • Paul tells them to greet the brethren who are with them.
  15. 16:15
    • Paul tells them to greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus, the sister of Nereus, and Olympas.
    • Paul tells them to greet all the saints who are with them.
  16. 16:16
    • Paul tells them to greet one another with a holy kiss.
    • The churches of Christ send greeting to them.
  17. 16:17
    • Paul beseeches the brethren.
    • He tells them to mark those who cause divisions and offences.
    • Those divisions and offences are contrary to the doctrine the recipients have learned.
    • He tells them to avoid such people.
  18. 16:18
    • Such people do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ.
    • Such people serve their own belly.
    • By good words and fair speeches they deceive the hearts of the simple.
  19. 16:19
    • The report of their obedience has reached all men.
    • Paul is glad on their behalf.
    • Paul wants them to be wise concerning what is good.
    • Paul wants them to be innocent concerning evil.
  20. 16:20
    • The God of peace will crush Satan under their feet.
    • This will happen shortly.
    • Paul pronounces that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with them.
    • Amen.
  21. 16:21
    • Timotheus sends greeting to them.
    • Timotheus is Paul's fellow worker.
    • Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater send greeting to them.
    • Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater are Paul's kinsmen.
  22. 16:22
    • Tertius wrote this epistle.
    • Tertius sends greeting to them in the Lord.
  23. 16:23
    • Gaius sends greeting to them.
    • Gaius is host to Paul.
    • Gaius is host to the whole church.
    • Erastus sends greeting to them.
    • Erastus is the treasurer of the city.
    • Quartus sends greeting to them.
    • Quartus is a brother.
  24. 16:24
    • Paul pronounces that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with them all.
    • Amen.
  25. 16:25
    • There is one who is able to establish them.
    • He establishes them according to Paul's gospel.
    • He establishes them according to the preaching of Jesus Christ.
    • He establishes them according to the revelation of the mystery.
    • The mystery was kept secret since the world began.
  26. 16:26
    • The mystery is now made manifest.
    • The mystery is made known by the scriptures of the prophets.
    • This is according to the commandment of the everlasting God.
    • The mystery is made known to all nations.
    • The purpose is the obedience of faith.
  27. 16:27
    • God alone is wise.
    • Glory be to God forever.
    • The glory is given through Jesus Christ.
    • Amen.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

16:1
"I commend unto you" is the formal language of a letter of introduction. In a world with no other way to verify a stranger, a traveler carried a letter from someone the host community trusted; Phoebe was almost certainly the person carrying this letter to Rome. The word behind "servant" is diakonos, which can mean a helper in a general sense or can be a title for a recognized position in a congregation, the office later called deacon. The Greek does not settle which is meant. Cenchrea was the eastern harbor town of Corinth, about seven miles from the city itself.
16:2
"Saints" in the King James does not mean unusually holy individuals singled out from the rest. It translates a word meaning "holy ones," that is, people set apart, and Paul uses it of every member of the congregation. "Business" in 1611 English means any matter or affair whatever, not commerce in particular. "Succourer" translates prostatis, a patron: a person of standing and money who supported others with funds, housing, and legal backing. Patronage was a recognized social role in Roman life, and the word implies Phoebe had means of her own.
16:3
"Helpers" translates a word meaning fellow workers, colleagues doing the same job, not assistants of lower rank. This couple appear elsewhere as tentmakers who had been forced out of Rome when the emperor Claudius expelled Jews from the city, and who had since returned. Paul calls the wife Priscilla here, a pet form of the name Prisca used elsewhere.
16:4
"Laid down their own necks" is an idiom, not a description of something that happened. The picture is of stretching out your neck for the executioner's blade. It means they put themselves at risk of death on his behalf.
16:5
There were no church buildings in this period. A congregation met in the house of whichever member had a room large enough, so a single city might hold several such groups. "Firstfruits" is a farming term: the first portion of a harvest to come in, brought as an offering ahead of the rest. Applied to a person, it means the first convert in a region, with more expected to follow. On the region itself the manuscripts differ: the copies the King James translators used read Achaia, southern Greece, while the oldest surviving copies read Asia, the Roman province on the western coast of what is now Turkey.
16:7
Three things here are open. "Kinsmen" can mean blood relatives or simply fellow Jews, and Paul uses the same word of several people in this chapter. "Of note among the apostles" can mean either that they were outstanding members of the group called apostles or that the apostles thought highly of them; the Greek phrasing permits both. And Junia is a common Roman woman's name, though some later copyists and translators took it as a shortened man's name, Junias, which is not otherwise found anywhere.
16:9
"Urbane" is an older English spelling of the man's name Urbanus and has nothing to do with the adjective urbane. The same goes for "Amplias" in verse 8, a shortened form of Ampliatus. Both were common names for slaves and freed slaves.
16:10
A Roman "household" meant the slaves, former slaves, and dependents attached to an estate, not the owner's family. Greeting the household of Aristobulus says nothing about Aristobulus himself, who may well have been dead or not a believer. The same applies to Narcissus in the next verse.
16:12
Tryphena and Tryphosa are two forms of the same root, which means something like "delicate" or "dainty." Paired names built this way commonly belonged to sisters, and sometimes to twins.
16:13
"Chosen in the Lord" translates a word meaning picked out or select, the sense in which one speaks of choice fruit. Here it functions as a compliment to Rufus, in the same way the other names in this list carry a phrase of praise.
16:14
These names, and those in the next verse, are of the kind borne by slaves and freed slaves in Rome. The phrases "the brethren which are with them" and "all the saints which are with them" suggest two further groups meeting somewhere other than the house mentioned in verse 5.
16:16
A kiss on the cheek was the ordinary greeting between family members and close associates around the Mediterranean, roughly where a handshake or hug would stand today. Calling it "holy" marks it as the greeting used within the congregation, not as a different physical gesture.
16:17
"Mark them" in 1611 English means keep your eye on them, watch them closely. It does not mean label them or single them out publicly. "Offences" translates skandala, the trigger of a trap or something laid in a path to trip a person, so the sense is obstacles rather than insults.
16:18
"Their own belly" translates a word for the stomach or gut, used as a figure for physical appetite generally. "Fair speeches" means flattering talk, speech designed to please. "Simple" here carries its older sense of unsuspecting or easily taken in, not unintelligent.
16:19
"Is come abroad" means has spread widely and become common knowledge; it has nothing to do with foreign travel. "Simple concerning evil" uses a different word from the one in verse 18: it means unmixed or unadulterated, hence untouched by, with no experience of.
16:20
"Bruise" was a much stronger word in 1611 than now, meaning to crush or pound to pieces. The image of crushing underfoot echoes the words spoken to the serpent in Genesis 3:15. "Satan" is a Hebrew word meaning the adversary or accuser.
16:21
Timotheus is simply the full Greek form of the name usually given in English as Timothy. "Workfellow" means fellow worker.
16:22
Letters were normally dictated to a trained scribe who wrote them down, often in shorthand first and then in a fair copy. Tertius is that scribe, and here he breaks into the letter to add his own greeting in his own voice before handing the pen back.
16:23
"Mine host" means the man in whose house Paul was lodging, not an innkeeper. "Chamberlain of the city" translates oikonomos, the official who managed public funds, a civic post of real standing; the equivalent title today would be city treasurer.
16:24
This verse is missing from the oldest surviving manuscripts, which is why many modern Bibles jump from verse 23 to verse 25, or print verse 24 only in a footnote. It repeats the blessing already given in verse 20.
16:25
"Stablish" is the older form of establish, meaning to make firm or set on a solid footing. "Mystery" translates mysterion, which in this period did not mean a puzzle to be solved but a matter that had been kept back and has now been disclosed. "Since the world began" renders a phrase meaning through long ages or in times long past.
16:26
"Made manifest" means brought into the open, made visible. "The obedience of faith" is genuinely ambiguous in the Greek: it can mean the obedience that consists of trusting, or the obedience that results from trusting, or obedience to the faith understood as a body of teaching.
16:27
"To God only wise" follows the word order of the Greek, where "only" attaches to God rather than to wise. The sense is "to the only wise God," not "to God, who is merely wise."

Where the Manuscripts Differ

Worth knowing before you stand up: a listener following a modern translation may not have this verse in front of them.

16:24
Most modern translations leave this verse out. It is in the Greek text the King James translators worked from, but not in the older manuscripts found since, so scholars generally take it as a copyist’s addition rather than part of the original.

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