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  • From: "Runar M. Thorsteinsson" <Runar.Thorsteinsson AT teol.lu.se>
  • To: Corpus-Paul <corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Corpus-Paul] Origin of Roman church
  • Date: Tue, 06 May 2003 10:50:20 +0200

Dave, commenting upon Romans 16, you wrote:

> I can't quote any sources on this, but I think that the basic idea makes a
> great deal of sense, and also (IMHO) provides a convincing solution for the
> problem of the greetings in Rom 16. The problem, of course, is: Paul wrote
> Romans from Corinth to prepare the (mainly) Gentile Christians then in Rome
> for the visit he was planning to undertake. As far as we know he had never
> been to any part of Italy at that time, so why in chapter 16 did he send
> personal greetings to so many people, apparently in Rome, many of whom he
> may never have met?

Several scholars working in the field of ancient epistolography (e.g.
Gamble, Jervis, Weima) conclude that Paul sends all these greetings in order
to make evident the extent and nature of his relationship with such a large
group of people in Rome and thus to establish his apostolic authority there.


> The key, I think, lies in having a correct translation of the greetings.
> The GNB uses the phrases "My greetings to" and "Greetings also to" in vv.
> 16:8-9. Both these phrases suggest that Paul is sending greetings to people
> who are either known to the recipients of the letter, or who are themselves
> the recipients. However, in the NET these verses read, e.g.: "Greet
> Ampliatus, my dear friend in the Lord. Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in
> Christ, and my good friend Stachys." In fact, in the NET all of vv. 3-16
> start with the word "Greet." The NIV is the same, and the KJV is similar,
> except that "Greet" and "Salute" are used interchangeably.
>
> In the Greek the same one word - aspazomai - is used in all of vv. 3-16.
> Strong's concordance defines this word (782) as: ". to enfold in the arms,
> i.e. (by impl.) to salute (fig.) to welcome:- embrace, greet, salute, take
> leave." In other words, Paul is not *sending* greetings from himself to
> people who have been in Rome for some time. Instead, he is asking the
> Christians in Rome to welcome, embrace, greet, or salute a group of
> newcomers.

I agree about the form of the greetings being a "key." However, it seems to
me that you may be pushing this a little bit too far. The verb ASPAZOMAI is
as standardized in ancient letters as it can get: It is simply used as an
expression of greeting and not in the sense "to welcome, embrace, greet, or
salute a group of newcomers." The verb itself gives no information about
whether the people greeted had been in Rome for a longer or a shorter
period.
On the other hand, as Terence Mullins showed some time ago, there are three
types of greetings in ancient letters: first-, second-, and third-person
greetings, corresponding to the person of the verb in use. In Rom 16:3-16
Paul uses the second-person type, viz. the form ASPASASTHE. This type of
salutation was used when the sender of a letter wanted greetings to be
delivered on his/her behalf to persons who were NOT among the immediate
recipients. That suggests, in other words, that the people "greeted" in Rom
16:3-16 should not be counted among Paul's intended audience.


> This changes the whole meaning of vv. 3-16. Priscilla, Aquila and the
> others are not the recipients of the letter. Instead, they have either
> recently arrived in Rome, or possibly, are actually traveling to Rome with
> Phoebe, the letter bearer! After having been thrown out of Rome in 49 AD,
> Priscilla and Aquila have either just returned home after 7-8 years, or are
> on the way there. Of the others, some of them (the households mentioned?)
> are probably returning home as well. The rest may well be disciples of Paul
> who have been sent by him to prepare for his own trip to Rome.

> Hope this helps
> Dave Inglis

Thus, I agree about Priscilla, Aquila, and the rest not being the letter's
recipients. But, again, whether these people were newcomers in Rome or not
cannot be known by Paul's greetings. It is indeed difficult to distance that
question from pure speculation.

Best regards,

Runar M. Thorsteinsson

--
Runar M. Thorsteinsson

Centre for Theology and Religious Studies
Lund University
Sweden





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