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  • From: "David @ Comcast" <davidinglis2 AT comcast.net>
  • To: "Corpus-Paul" <corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: RE: [Corpus-Paul] Was Romans written from Ephesus?
  • Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2004 15:05:50 -0800

Stephen,

Your proposal that Paul had some of his followers travel to Rome before him,
is IMHO, the key to understanding Rom. 16. However, I although we know
Priscilla and Aquila were in Ephesus with Paul, we don't know where they
were when Paul wrote Romans. As they first met Paul in Corinth, it's quite
possible they went back there after Ephesus. So, seeing their names in Rom.
16 is pretty weak evidence in favor of Ephesus. Nevertheless, I do believe
that the people mentioned in Rom. 16 were on their way to Rome.

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: "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
arrivals.

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 back 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.

Dave Inglis
davidinglis2 AT comcast.net
3538 O'Connor Drive
Lafayette, CA, USA

-----Original Message-----
From: Stephen C. Carlson [mailto:scarlson AT mindspring.com]
Sent: Friday, January 23, 2004 7:47 PM
To: Corpus-Paul
Subject: [Corpus-Paul] Was Romans written from Ephesus?



I would like to float a proposal that Romans was not
written from Corinth as usually suggested, but from
Ephesus.

Specifically, I'm considering an idea that Romans was not
writtenafter a successful visit by Paul to Corinth for the
collection but rather in anticipation of it, before he left.
Rom. 15:26-28 is the main passage that in support of the
Corinthian origin, but in v. 26 Paul doesn't actually say
that they made a contribution for the Poor but that they
were pleased or decided to do so: EUDOKHSAN ... KOINWNIAN
TINA POIHSASQAI (the aorist infinitive does not encode
tense, but aspect, i.e. a gift for one occasion). In other
words, they promised Paul they would make a contribution
and Paul's going to collect it. That's why he says in v.28
"So when I have completed this, and have delivered to them
what has been collected." By "completed this," this is not
the delivery of the contribution but its collection--it's
not done yet.

This solves the problem why Paul begain with prominent
Ephesians in Rom. 16 (Prisca and Aquila who were living there
and Epaenetus, the first fruit of Asia). It's not that Rom.
16 was actually sent to Ephesus, but *from* Ephesus. Under
this scenario, Paul had a groups of his colleagues in Ephesus
go to Rome in preparation of his future visit, and Romans
is a follow up letter to further prepare for his visit.

Has this been proposed before, and are there any obvious
flaws in the proposal?

Stephen Carlson
--
Stephen C. Carlson mailto:scarlson AT mindspring.com
Weblog: http://www.mindspring.com/~scarlson/hypotyposeis/blogger.html
"Poetry speaks of aspirations, and songs chant the words." Shujing 2.35






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