Thirty-Four Names
Word Unpacked: Devotionals in Romans
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Romans 16:1-16 (NIV)
I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae. I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of his people and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been the benefactor of many people, including me. Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus. They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them. Greet also the church that meets at their house. Greet my dear friend Epenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in the province of Asia. Greet Mary, who worked very hard for you. Greet Andronicus and Junia, my fellow Jews who have been in prison with me. They are outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was. Greet Ampliatus, my dear friend in the Lord. Greet Urbanus, our co-worker in Christ, and my dear friend Stachys. Greet Apelles, whose fidelity to Christ has stood the test. Greet those who belong to the household of Aristobulus. Greet Herodion, my fellow Jew. Greet those in the household of Narcissus who are in the Lord. Greet Tryphena and Tryphosa, those women who work hard in the Lord. Greet my dear friend Persis, another woman who has worked very hard in the Lord. Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother, who has been a mother to me, too. Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas and the other brothers and sisters with them. Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas and all the Lord's people who are with them. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ send greetings.
Paul is finishing the longest, most demanding letter he will ever write. Fifteen chapters of doctrine sit behind him — sin, the cross, faith, Israel, the whole shape of a life made right with God. And then, in the very last chapter, he does something strange. He starts naming people.
Thirty-four of them, in a city he had never once visited. A woman named Phoebe carries the letter itself — trusted enough to hand-deliver history in the making. A couple named Priscilla and Aquila once risked their necks for him. A man named Epenetus, the very first person Paul ever won to Christ, still isn't forgotten years and hundreds of miles later.
Then the list turns strange in another way. A slave's name — Ampliatus, Urbanus, names common among Rome's servants — sits beside the household of a man very likely descended from a king. Same list. Same warmth. And it isn't Paul's personal charm that explains it. It's who God has always been — the one who told Moses, "I know you by name," who said to a weeping woman at an empty tomb, simply, "Mary." To God, we're never just a crowd. He calls us by name.
But there's a second mystery folded into this list. Paul knew twenty-eight people in a city he'd never set foot in — and most of that church had never once seen his face. "Greet one another with a holy kiss," he tells them. In that world, that's how family greeted family. And then he adds one more line: "All the churches of Christ send greetings."
That's the turn. But...
