Today's Scripture Reading (March 18, 2021): Romans 16
I hate being the new person in the
room. There are probably a few reasons for my discomfort. I admit that I am
often slow to trust. And, unbelievably, I tend to overshare, so maybe my lack
of trust is actually an admission that I don't trust myself. When you are the
new person, it seems like the introductions are never-ending. Some of them are
welcome, and others are less so, but all of them are necessary.
What complicates being new for me
is that I struggle with names. There are times when I can't remember the names
of my closest friends, so forgetting the name of someone to whom I have only
been introduced a couple of times can be a little tricky. Once, a politically
mobile acquaintance I had only met a couple of times started up a conversation
with me at a convention. I was sure I knew his name, but I couldn't help
glancing at his nametag, just to make sure. And at that moment, I got caught,
and he quickly moved to cover up his tag. "You don't need to see that"
was his last comment before he walked away. Oops.
Rome was the only church to whom
Paul wrote that he had never visited. Most of the churches to whom Paul sent a
letter he had also planted. But the church in Rome was different. Rome was an
aspiration of Paul's, a hope that one day Paul would visit this church in the
Capital of the Empire. But so far, that is all that it was; an aspiration and a
hope.
And so, Paul wrote his letter to
the Romans. Paul's standard practice was to employ an amanuensis or secretary
to do the actual work of writing while Paul dictated what he wanted to say. In
this case, the secretary that Paul uses is a man named Tertius. We know very
little about Tertius. His name is Latin for "third," just as "Silas"
is a Hebrew variant of "shalish," meaning "third officer."
Some have wondered if there might be a connection between "Tertius"
and "Silas," even arguing that the different names might be used for
the same person. But it seems likely that Tertius is a Roman Christian, maybe
someone who has the relationship with the Roman church that Paul lacked. And
because Tertius might have been known to the Romans, Paul offers Tertius a chance
to write his own greeting to the Roman Church. Tertius's greeting does not
appear at the end of the letter, which has caused some to wonder if the
greeting might be misplaced. Still, it is probably just that there was a lull in
the writing of the letter that occurred here, and so Paul tells Tertius to
write down a greeting from him to his friends back home.
Tertius decides to write a very
general greeting to the Roman Christians. And in writing his greeting, Tertius confirms
that he was the secretary who wrote down Paul's words, and he can make an introduction
of Paul to the Romans. It was a verification of Paul from someone that the
Roman church knew. Tertius tells the Romans that he was a witness to the letter
and confirms that the letter really was from the one and only Paul the Apostle.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 2 Corinthians 1
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