Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
The whole chapter contains greetings. From this you may gather Paul's humanity, benevolence and motherly charity toward individuals. Let preachers, indeed all Christians, here learn this: Greet willingly, return greetings still more willingly.
Meanwhile secondly, in verse 17, he commands that they beware of those who cause dissensions and stumbling-blocks.
Thirdly, in verse 25, to God, who has called all the Gentiles through Christ to the Gospel and salvation, he wishes and ascribes honor and eternal glory.
Vulgate Text: Romans 16:1-27
1. And I commend to you Phoebe our sister, who is in the ministry of the Church which is at Cenchrea: 2. That you receive her in the Lord as becomes saints; and that you assist her in whatsoever business she shall have need of you. For she also has assisted many, and myself also. 3. Salute Prisca and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus 4. (Who have for my life laid down their own necks: to whom not I only give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles); 5. And the church which is in their house. Salute Epaenetus, my beloved: who is the firstfruits of Asia in Christ. 6. Salute Mary, who has labored much among you. 7. Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and fellow prisoners: who are of note among the Apostles, who also were in Christ before me. 8. Salute Ampliatus, most beloved to me in the Lord. 9. Salute Urbanus, our helper in Christ Jesus, and Stachys, my beloved. 10. Salute Apelles, approved in Christ. 11. Salute them that are of Aristobulus' household. Salute Herodion, my kinsman. Salute them that are of Narcissus' household, who are in the Lord. 12. Salute Tryphaena and Tryphosa, who labor in the Lord. Salute Persis the most beloved, who has labored much in the Lord. 13. Salute Rufus, elect in the Lord, and his mother and mine. 14. Salute Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, and the brethren that are with them. 15. Salute Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympias, and all the saints that are with them. 16. Salute one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ salute you. 17. Now I beseech you, brethren, to mark them who cause dissensions and offences contrary to the doctrine which you have learned, and avoid them. 18. For they that are such serve not Christ our Lord, but their own belly; and by pleasing speeches and good words seduce the hearts of the innocent. 19. For your obedience is published in every place. I rejoice therefore in you. But I would have you to be wise in good, and simple in evil. 20. And the God of peace crush Satan under your feet speedily. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. 21. Timothy, my fellow laborer, salutes you, and Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my kinsmen. 22. I, Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the Lord. 23. Caius, my host, and the whole church, salute you. Erastus, the treasurer of the city, salutes you, and Quartus, a brother. 24. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. 25. Now to him that is able to establish you, according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret from eternal times, 26. (Which now is made manifest by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the precept of the eternal God, for the obedience of faith,) known among all nations; 27. To God the only wise, through Jesus Christ, to whom be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Verse 1: Commendation of Phoebe
1. I COMMEND TO YOU PHOEBE OUR SISTER, WHO IS IN THE MINISTRY OF THE CHURCH WHICH IS AT CENCHREA. — Note: Paul calls Phoebe "sister," because of kinship, not of flesh, but of faith and religion. For as all Christian men were called brothers, so all Christian women were called sisters. Therefore some moderns wrongly interpret "sister" as Paul's wife, with whom, they say, he was now living celibately. For Paul himself reckons himself among the unmarried in 1 Corinthians 7:8. This Phoebe, as is evident from this, set out from Corinth to Rome, and was thus the bearer of this epistle to the Romans, as the Greek, Syriac, and Complutensian Latin texts have at the end of the epistle.
Note secondly: This Phoebe was "in the ministry of the Church," in Greek διάκονος, that is, as St. Chrysostom and Origen explain, a deaconess. Who deaconesses were of old, I shall tell at 1 Timothy 5:9.
Note thirdly: Cenchrea was a port and village of Corinth. So Origen. Therefore even in villages already at that time the faith of Christ was widespread and celebrated.
2. That you receive her in the Lord. — In the Lord's name and love, on account of the Lord, or in the Lord's grace and Christian charity. See Canon 25. Whence Paul adds:
WORTHILY OF THE SAINTS, — namely, as it befits Christians to receive Christians, who ought to be received as saints. So St. Chrysostom.
SHE ALSO HAS ASSISTED MANY. — Προστάτις ἐγενήθη, that is, she was a helper, which Eustathius and some Greeks expound as προστατίς, that is, she was the patroness of hospitality. This Phoebe therefore seems to have been one of those of whom 1 Timothy 5:10 speaks: "If she has received with hospitality, if she has washed the feet of the saints," etc.
Verse 3: Greetings to Prisca, Aquila, and the Saints
3. SALUTE PRISCA AND AQUILA, — Jewish tentmakers, who had recently been expelled from Rome by Claudius, but had now returned there, as the Apostle teaches here. See Acts 18:2.
4. WHO FOR MY LIFE LAID DOWN THEIR OWN NECKS, — as if to say: Who exposed themselves to danger to defend my life, either in that sedition at Ephesus stirred up by Demetrius, of which Acts 19:24; or in the Corinthian one, of which Acts 18:12; or in another similar one.
5. AND THE DOMESTIC CHURCH (Christian household) of theirs.
SALUTE EPAENETUS, WHO IS THE FIRSTFRUITS OF ASIA. — So the Roman Bibles: for the Syriac and Greek now have "of Achaia," for "of Asia," as if to say: Salute Epaenetus, who was the first in Asia converted to the faith of Christ. Whence the Greek has, ὅς ἐστι ἀπαρχὴ τῆς Ἀχαΐας, who is the firstfruits of Achaia. So Chrysostom and Theodoret.
7. Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen, — my fellow countrymen, namely those who are of the same nation with me, that is, are Jews. For thus Paul in chapter 9, verse 8, calls all the Jews his "kinsmen."
WHO ARE OF NOTE AMONG THE APOSTLES. — As if to say: Who among the Apostles and teachers are distinguished and illustrious. So St. Chrysostom and Theodoret. For not only were those twelve called by Christ, but also Paul, Silas, Barnabas, and others like them evangelizing among the Gentiles and the unbelievers, were also themselves Apostles. Concerning these persons and saints see Baronius in his Annals and in the Martyrology.
WHO ALSO WERE BEFORE ME IN CHRIST. — In the faith of Christ, as if to say: Who believed before me and were Christians.
10. SALUTE APELLES THE APPROVED (Greek δόκιμον, tested) IN CHRIST, — that is, in Christianity. See chapter 37.
11. SALUTE THOSE WHO ARE OF THE HOUSEHOLD OF NARCISSUS, WHO are in the Lord, — who are in the faith and Church of our Lord Jesus Christ, as if to say: From Narcissus' household salute all who believe in Christ. Hence it appears that there were some unbelievers in the same household, whom he does not command to be saluted.
14. HERMAS. — This Hermas is the author of the book entitled Pastor (Shepherd), so called because in it an angel as shepherd, protector and guardian of Hermas himself — who is also called the angel of his repentance — is brought in prescribing twelve precepts for living a good life: which book was of great authority among the ancients.
16. SALUTE ONE ANOTHER WITH A HOLY KISS, — not Gentile, but "holy," that is, Christian, religious, honest, modest, chaste, sincere, fraternal, concerning which I shall say more at 2 Corinthians 13:12.
You will ask, why does Paul not salute St. Peter here? Is it because Peter was never at Rome, as the Novators contend from this passage? I answer: Not at all; but the reason is either that Paul sent special letters to Peter, or that Peter, being a Jew, having been expelled from Rome a few years before by the Emperor Claudius, was still absent; for he was traveling about to other Churches in Italy, Spain, Africa and Britain, founding and assisting them, as Innocent I hands down and teaches in his epistle to Decentius, and from him Baronius, Bellarmine and others. For otherwise Priscilla and Aquila and the other Jews whom he here salutes had returned to Rome, the edict of Claudius having now been blotted out or revoked, or certainly while it still stood by stealthily and secretly creeping in.
ALL THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST SALUTE YOU. — Not that Paul had received from them a commission to salute the Romans, for they were far away; but because he knew their charity and affection, by which they desired the Romans to be well and to prosper; and because he himself was the head of all the Churches, representing all the Churches, just as a king represents a kingdom. Therefore, as a kingdom speaks and salutes through its king, so also the Churches through Paul; so that what he himself does, the Churches are reckoned to have done.
Thus in 1 Corinthians, last chapter, verse 19, Paul says: "The Churches of Asia salute you." Thus also we commonly and truly write to friends and acquaintances: So-and-so, your and my friend, salutes you, even if he has said no such thing to us, because we know his mind, by which he desires another to be well and prosper. For this is the mind of men writing to one another, this is the common, true, and lie-free usage.
17. I BESEECH YOU TO MARK THOSE WHO CAUSE DISSENSIONS BESIDES (that is, against, as Erasmus translates) THE DOCTRINE WHICH YOU HAVE LEARNED. — Thus in Galatians 1:8, Paul pronounces anathema upon those who preach another Gospel, besides, that is against, that which has been preached.
18. SUCH PEOPLE BY PLEASING SPEECHES AND BLESSINGS (that is, by flatteries, by fawnings, says Theophylact) SEDUCE THE HEARTS OF THE INNOCENT. — By "pleasing speeches," the Greek is διὰ τῆς χρηστολογίας. Where note: from the Greek χρηστός, that is useful or convenient, the Gentiles were called Chresti, useful or beneficent men. Whence Lucian in Philopatris says: "Few, he says, are chresti, that is, frugal, as I see everywhere." On the contrary, "chrestologists" were called those who, though they spoke well, yet acted badly; for which reason Julius Capitolinus says that the Emperor Pertinax was called a Chrestologist. The Apostle here calls heretics and false teachers such chrestologists, and warns that their chrestology, that is, smooth talk, must be guarded against.
19. YOUR OBEDIENCE (by which you promptly and perfectly believed the Gospel) IS PUBLISHED IN EVERY PLACE. — As if to say: Therefore, O Romans, as you have begun, so continue to maintain this faith and obedience. See what was said in chapter 1, verse 8.
I WOULD HAVE YOU TO BE WISE IN GOOD, AND SIMPLE IN EVIL. — "Wise," that is, prudent and cautious, lest you fall away from the good which you have received through the sweet and flattering persuasions of those seducers. But "simple" in evil, that is, rude, as it were not knowing how to act badly, possessing no skill of harming.
Note: "Simple" in Greek is called ἀκέραιος, which is derived from κέρας and the alpha privative, as if to say: Without horn, peaceful, innocent; or from κεράν, that is, to mix, and the alpha privative, as if to say: Unmixed, pure, sincere, and from this metaphorically, simple, who does not know how to adulterate, mix, corrupt, vitiate. Thus in Matthew 10:16, Christ commands that we be ἀκέραιοι ὡς περιστεραί, simple as doves.
Verse 20: The God of Peace Will Crush Satan
20. The God OF PEACE (lover and author) MAY CRUSH SATAN (who is the master of all dissensions) UNDER YOUR FEET SPEEDILY. — As if to say: May God speedily crush your dissensions with their prince. So St. Chrysostom and Theodoret.
Secondly, Origen: "May God crush Satan," this means, he says, every spirit that opposes believers, and that through its ministers, like a serpent, lies in wait for your heel and incites you to defection from the faith. He alludes to Genesis 3:15: "She (or, as the Hebrew directly has, הוא hu, that is, the seed itself, or the offspring of the woman, namely Christ) shall crush thy head."
Thirdly, properly Satan, that is, the devil, is here said to be crushed, that is, cast down, trampled and conquered, when his people — namely idolaters and unbelievers, especially kings and princes who oppose the Gospel — are cast down. Paul therefore here prays that the Christian people may become more powerful than all these, that Christians may be substituted for idolatrous Emperors and princes, and that the God of peace may convert the persecutors of the Church and subject them to her. So Anselm. So among others, St. Sempronius the martyr, brought before the image of Mars and ordered to adore it, said: "May the Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, crush you," and immediately the image itself, gradually melting, flowed away: as the acts of St. Nemesius the martyr have it.
This sense is fitting and illustrious: yet the first sense which I gave corresponds better to what precedes, namely verse 17 and following.
Thus moreover, says St. Chrysostom, homily 10 on the Second Epistle to Timothy, in the moral application: "If you are in the grace of God, you will be terrible not only to men, but also to demons. Such were the Apostles, who, having trampled on riches, attained to the power of their Lord. That one, they would say, let him be freed from disease, that one from demons: bind that one, loose this one. These things were done on earth, but proceeded from heaven." And he adds the reason saying: "For this honor redounds to the Lord. For the more powerful the servant is, the greater is the admiration of the master." Then Chrysostom adds that we must strive, by every force and violence inflicted on ourselves and our concupiscences, to attain this grace.
Verse 22: Tertius, the Scribe of the Epistle
22. I, TERTIUS, WHO WROTE THIS EPISTLE, SALUTE YOU, IN THE LORD. — That is, on account of the Lord, or rather, as if to say: I pray for you the salvation which is from and proceeds from Christ the Lord.
Note: For "Tertius," some read "Terentius," but wrongly. Therefore "Tertius" here is the proper name of the scribe who wrote the epistle at Paul's dictation. And this his sentence is sacred Scripture, as is the rest of the epistle, because Tertius wrote it, either at Paul's dictation, as it seems, or at the Holy Spirit's. That he was made Bishop of Iconium, Diodorus of Tarsus here, and Dorotheus in his Synopsis testify, where he was also crowned with martyrdom on June 21, as the Martyrologies have it. About this Tertius, Sixtus of Siena writes thus from Diodorus of Tarsus in Book II, under "Tertius": "Tertius, he says, Bishop of Iconium, disciple and amanuensis of Paul, wrote at the Apostle's dictation that epistle which is to the Romans; at the end of which, adding his own greeting, he says: I, Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you, in the Lord. Since he was not very skilled in speech, nor sufficiently practiced in writing, the epistle, which because of the multitude and sublimity of its questions is more obscure than Paul's other epistles, he rendered far the most obscure, while he tried to express Paul's senses and thoughts with sometimes confused expressions and unfinished sentences, and with the order of the series sometimes transposed. Diodorus, Bishop of Tarsus, in his Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans, is the witness of this matter. Theodolus, presbyter of Coelesyria, in his Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans, reads for Tertius, Terentius."
Verse 23: Caius the Host and Erastus the Treasurer
23. CAIUS, MY HOST, SALUTES YOU. — To this Caius St. John wrote his third Catholic epistle, in which he commends him for his hospitality and mercy to the poor.
AND THE WHOLE CHURCH, — namely that which is at Corinth, from which Paul wrote this epistle. It seems therefore from this passage that Caius's house was a church, or a place to which the Christians at Corinth gathered for their assemblies. Whence Ambrose, the Syriac and Greek read τῆς Ἐκκλησίας ὅλης, as if to say: Caius is the host not only of mine, but also of the whole Corinthian Church.
ERASTUS, THE TREASURER (Greek οἰκονόμος, that is, quaestor) of the city, — of Corinth, as I said, to whom of course was committed the care of the public treasury.
24. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. AMEN. — Note: The Apostle in his epistles everywhere both prefixes and subjoins a wish for grace, to teach that nothing ought to be so much in a Christian's prayers as God's grace and the increase of grace, by which we may be pleasing and acceptable, not to men, but to God: for thus we are made strong and powerful for all works of virtue, and we live in perpetual peace and joy. For just as a servant who serves a king, with whom he is in favor, feels no sadness, whatever enmity or adversity may arise from elsewhere; so we shall feel no grief, whether friends and others desert us and trouble us, or whether dangers and tribulations come upon us, if we are in God's grace, if God strengthens and confirms us by His grace.
Verse 25: Doxology to the Only Wise God
25. And WHO IS POWERFUL TO CONFIRM YOU ACCORDING TO MY GOSPEL (supply: be honor and glory, as will appear in the last verse at the end) AND THE PREACHING OF JESUS CHRIST (concerning Jesus Christ the Savior) ACCORDING TO THE REVELATION OF THE MYSTERY, — as if to say: The preaching of Christ's Gospel is not the preaching of a truth or thing known by human light, but is the preaching of a thing known through divine revelation: namely, it is the preaching of that great mystery which has been treated throughout this whole epistle, namely that absolutely all men, even Gentiles and pagans, are justified by the faith of Christ, and that freely and without any merits of anyone.
In ETERNAL times. — Note that neither the world nor time has existed from eternity, as Plato wished. Therefore the times are called eternal not according to the thing, but according to the imagination, by which namely we feign that they coexisted with eternity before the world. So Anselm, as if Paul said: The Gospel is not a recent invention; but the Gospel itself was from eternity always in the secret counsel of the Godhead, and silent and hidden in the divine mind, and never until now openly displayed or preached in the world. Whence he adds:
26. WHICH (namely, the aforesaid mystery: for the Greek φανερωθέντος must be referred to μυστήριον) NOW HAS BEEN MADE MANIFEST (declared and demonstrated) through the scriptures of the Prophets (who foretold Christ and Christ's Gospel), ACCORDING TO THE PRECEPT OF THE ETERNAL GOD, FOR THE OBEDIENCE OF FAITH, — that namely all Gentiles may hear the Gospel and faith of Christ, and may believe and obey Him.
IN ALL (whatsoever, without distinction) GENTILES KNOWN, — namely, of the mystery: for that the word "known" must be referred to it, is clear from the Greek and from the parenthesis of the Roman text, which encloses all the words from "which now has been made manifest" onward in two semicircles. Therefore our Interpreter Graecizes here; whereas otherwise he should have said clearly, as he had begun: "Of the mystery, which now has been made manifest and made known in all the Gentiles;" or, as the Greek has, γνωρισθέντος, that is, has been notified and made manifest.
27. TO THE ONLY WISE GOD THROUGH JESUS CHRIST. — This refers to "to Him who is powerful," verse 25, as if to say: To the only wise and powerful God through Christ and the Christian religion be all honor and eternal glory.
Note: Glory is to the "only," not to the Father, as the Arians say; but to "God," that is, to the Most Holy Trinity, to whom through the man Christ all honor is rendered. So St. Augustine, Book III Against Maximinus, ch. 13. For since Christ is God and man, as God He receives honor with the Father and the Holy Spirit; but as man He renders it. And He rendered it when He preached the Most Holy Trinity in the world, and commanded all nations to be baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Note secondly: The word "wise" indicates that by no human wisdom could man recognize the way of salvation: because God alone is wise from Himself and through His essence, who has manifested it to us through faith. Hence He is called the only wise: for Paul refers to the mystery of which he spoke in verse 25. So Anselm. See Baruch, ch. 3, verses 32 and 37.
TO WHOM BE HONOR AND GLORY FOR EVER AND EVER. AMEN. — The word "to whom" is redundant by Hebraism. So St. Augustine. For the Hebrews repeat the relative with the antecedent. Whence the Greek and Syriac do not have "to whom." So therefore all these things must be ordered thus: To Him who is powerful to confirm you, namely to the only wise God, be honor and glory. Amen.
See St. Chrysostom here in the moral application, the last homily, beautifully and movingly showing how greatly St. Paul, by his zeal, labor and fervor, honored and glorified God.
O King of the ages, O revealer of the mystery kept silent in eternal times, O eternal God, immortal and invisible, O You who dwell on the lofty mountains of ETERNITY! Who from on high look down upon the narrow span of our life, and the spaces of all times that pass away beneath You; to You be honor, to You be glory for ever and ever! You have unlocked for us, by overcoming death, the entrance to blessed ETERNITY: make us, ever mindful of it, so to live soberly, justly and piously, that we may be made partakers of it; grant us so holily and heroically to pass this moment of life, that for ever and ever we may merit to enjoy You, to praise You, to celebrate You with all the Angels and Saints, O true charity, O dear ETERNITY! My God and my all. Amen.