❖ Video (Whole Worship Service)
❖ Audio (Message)
Church: A Community of Mutual Support that Transcends Sex, Status, and Ethnicity
Romans 16 (Last Sermon in the Series on Paul’s Letter to the Romans)
Mari Ikeda
Finally, this is my last sermon in the series on Romans. We’ll read its last chapter, chapter 16, but I want to skip a part of it as it’s quite long. It’s long because so many people’s names are listed up, 24 in total. As I have said before, as Paul had never been to Rome, most people in the churches in Rome did not know Paul personally. Perhaps Paul listed up the names of all his friends in Rome in hoping that he would gain their trust in him as much as possible.
As for us, this long list of people’s names give us an insight about what kind of community the early church was. It was a community of mutual support that transcends sex, status, and ethnicity. Although it was not perfect, of course, which made Paul write so many letters to several different places, there was surely a new relationship formed among people based on a new value that was increasingly free from the value of the time and their cultural background.。 Particularly, it was note-worthy that women were very active.
Today, I’d like to talk mainly about these women in action. The first woman appeared in the text today is a woman called Phoebe. She was not a member of the church of Rome. She was just about to be sent to Rome. Let’s read v.1-2.
A. Women in Action
1. Phoebe （1-2)
1 I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon, of the church in Cenchreae. 2 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.
Phoebe appears in the Bible only here, so we have so little information about her. However, we can learn from this passage that she was one of the leading persons in the church in Cenchreae, that she was benefactors of many people including Paul, and that Paul was sending her out to Rome. We can assume that she was strong in faith, relatively wealthy, and able to use her property at her own disposal, unlike most women in her time. It is said among the scholars that she might have been a merchant and been to Rome before, so that Paul might have entrusted this letter of his to her to deliver it to the believers in Rome. If that was the case, it explains well why Paul introduces her first in his greeting. However, it is a surprise at the same time if that was true, because it would be unconventional in those days to entrust the important task of delivering Paul’s letter to Phoebe, who was a single woman.
The passages after v.3 are Paul’s greeting to people of the church of Rome.。 The first one to be listed was a couple, Prisca and Aquila. Let’s read v.3-5a.
2. Prisca （3-5）
3 Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus. 4 They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them. 5 Greet also the church that meets at their house.
We can know about these two, Priscilla and Aquila, in Acts 18. Their names appear in 1 Corinthians and 2 Timothy as well. They originally lived in Rome, but were forced to leave their home in Rome by the emperor’s order to expel the Jews. They met Paul where they were staying temporarily in exile. They shared the same occupation with Paul, which was tent-making, and they became Paul’s co-workers by sharing joy and sorrow with him by joining together in the mission to tell about Jesus to gentiles, while all of them were Jews.
One thing interesting about them is that the name of Priscilla is almost always said ahead of that of her husband, Aquila. In those days and in our modern time alike, husband’s name is usually said before wife’s name. Then, it is possible that Pricilla was more significant in some way than her husband, Aquila.
One more thing interesting about her is that she is often called by her nickname, Pricilla. Her formal name is Prisca. Pricilla was her nickname, like we call Elizabeth as Beth or Betty in English. We can assume from this that she was well-liked by many people in different churches.
I’d like to focus next on Junia in v.7. Let’s read it.
3. Junia （7）
7 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.
Because these names, Andronicus and Junia, only appear here in the eitire Bible, we have no way to know about them except for what is written here. However, what is very important about them, especially about Junia, is how the church has been changing its interpretation of this person by tradition.
There are two points in question in the interpretation. One is whether this “Junia” was a man or a woman. The other is whether these two were actually apostles or not. In the Greek, the language in which the New Testament was originally written, a word can mean different according to the way it is accented, as as it is so in Japanese. Accordingly, if it was to say, “(Send my greetings) to Junia” as a woman, it would be pronounced as “Jounian,” while it would become “Juniaan,” if it was meant for “to Junias” as a man. However, because the ancient Greek has no phonetic symbol, there is no way to distinguish the difference in accent in the written words. Yet, it was widely accepted before the middle age that this was Junia, a woman’s name. Perhaps people before the Middle Age knew that Junia was a very common woman’s name in the ancient Rome, while there was no name such as Junias as man’s name, as the recent research revealed. However, male theologians of the medieval Europe started to interpret this passage as two men named as Andronicus and Junias. Their interpretation of Junia as a man named Junias became predominant especially after Martin Luther adopted it in the 16th century. Accordingly, the previous version of Japanese Bible, which is still being used in many churches today, renders it as Junias.
The wrong interpretation has been widely accepted ever since the medieval time, because there is a prejudice that any woman could not be an apostle. This is related with the other point at issue, whether these two were really apostles. It is a bit complicated, but let’s just compare our Japanese bible and NIV. The latest Japanese version translates the second half of v.7 as “they are well-known to the apostles”, while NIV translates it as “they are outstanding among the apostles.” That is to say, the Japanese version interprets this part as “they are not apostles themselves, but well-known to the apostles,” while NIV reads it as “they are well-known apostles themselves.” Both interpretations are possible grammatically, but more natural is the interpretation by NIV, namely, they were well-known apostles. However, there were and are people who think no woman could be an apostle, and so some of them change Junia to Junias, while others accept Junia as Junia but deny that she was an apostle.。 The latest Japanese version corrected Junias in the previous version as Junia, which is good, but it interprets that she was not an apostle, which seems to me that it moved a step forward but moved two steps back.
It is only in Japanese, but I recommend this book for those of you who are interested in knowing more about the history of interpretation about Junia.
4. The other 5
Mary in v.6, Tryphena and Tryphosa, Persis in V.12, and Julia in v.15. We don’t know much about them, but we can at least understand that women got involved in church activities regardless of their family composition, whether they were single, with sibling, or with husband.
Now, I have already said more than half of what I wanted to say today. I hope we could understand how active role women had in the early church, and how men accepted that they got involved to the extent even surprising by modern standards. At the same time, I hope we could see through the history of interpretation about Junia how male-centered perspective has distorted our interpretation of the Bible.
B. Both slaves and free
Now, there are other things we can learn from this lomg list of names. We cannet be certain only by information of names, but according to a scholar, there are at least 9 out of 24 people who were slaves or freedmen and freedwomen. For example, according to his research, Herodion (v.11) was thought to be a name given to a slave in the household of Herod, and Hermes (v.14) was a very typical name among slaves in those days. On the contrary, we can assume that at least 4 people, Prisca and Aquila, Philologus and Julia, who were the hosts of house churches, were free citizens and relatively wealthy, because they could not host a house church unless they had a house big enough for many people to gather.。 In summary, both slaves and free citizens, both poor and rich, gathered together in churches in those days.
C. Both Jews and gentiles
One more thing we can learn from this list of names is that there were both Jews and gentiles gathering together, but there were more gentiles than Jews. We know Prisca and Aquila were Jews from Acts. Andoricus and Junia (v.7) and Herodion (v.11) were Jews for sure as well because Paul calls them “my fellow Jews.” Among others, Mary (v.6) and “Rufus and his mother” (v.13) might be also Jews. Other names were common either among the Romans or among the Greeks, according to researchers.
In this way, we can see that the early church was communities that transcended differences of ethnicity, social status, and sex. They reflect very well the phrase repeated in various places in the New Testament.
There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28)
What we can learn from the text today is that people of the early church were trying to put on a whole new value, in the time when there was not even a notion of human rights or gender equality and the gap in social status and wealth was not seen as a problem. Because they noticed by sharing the faith in Jesus in common that they should accept differences and weaknesses with one another. As our prejudice and discrimination is invisible, while those who are discriminated feel pain, those who discriminate often may not even notice that they are discriminating someone. However, Jesus can change our prejudiced view, and make us able to accept each other to be connected with each other.
D. Paul was supported by many people (21-23)
One more thing that we can learn from the text today is that Paul was not a solitary evangelist, but rather he was supported by many people, which we can learn even more in v.21-23.
21 Timothy, my co-worker, sends his greetings to you, as do Lucius, Jason and Sosipater, my fellow Jews. 22 I, Tertius, who wrote down this letter, greet you in the Lord. 23 Gaius, whose hospitality I and the whole church here enjoy, sends you his greetings. Erastus, who is the city’s director of public works, and our brother Quartus send you their greetings.
Among these people appeared in this passage, we have some information about some of them in Acts and other letters of Paul, while we have no information about some of them because they never appear in other places. Leaving aside well-known Timothy, if we follow the order of the list, firstly we don’t know anything about Lucius. Jason, as recored in Acts 17, is thought to be a host of a house church in Thessalonica, and assisted Paul to escape from the attack by Jews.。 Sosipater is perhaps identified with the person named Sopater, who appears in Acts 20 and accompanied with Paul in his third missionary trip. We have no information about Tertious. Gaius was the one who appears in 1 Corinthians 1, in which it is said Paul baptized him, and became a host of a house church in Corinth afterwards. Erastus appears in Acts 19 and 2 Timothy 4, and was the one who was sent out with Timothy as Paul’s substitute.。 We know nothing about the last person, Quartus.
We tend to pay too much attention to well-known persons like Paul and Peter. But as we could see from the text today, there were so many people behind them who supported their work both materially and spiritually.
None of us can live alone, or keep our faith by oneself either. Jesus died on the cross in order for us to accept each other’s differences and weaknesses so that we can build up a relationship of mutual suport. Do you have any people whom you have that kind of relationship with? As our human relationship is unstable and sometimes even breaks, maybe you have given up and no hope in people. In fact, human relationship has its limit. However, we have known that Jesus can tie us together for us to support in each other’s weaknesses. Is Your Church serving you as a community where you can expect to have that kind of relationship? I hope so.
(Prayer) Dear God, please guide us both in the matters of ourselves and those of others to carefully reflect on what you would say, rather than being bounded by our common sense or our limited perspectives. Whether we are woman or man, whether we are both sexes or none, regardless of any sexual identification we have, help us remember that each of us is a human being equally loved by you, so that we all can live with pride.。 We believe that there is no one on earth whom you don’t love. Enable us to bring your love more to this world. Dear our Lord Jesus, we pray this in your name, Amen.
Summary
At the end of Paul’s letter to the Romans, we find a long list of names that cannot be found in any of his other letters. What we understand from this long list is that women were central in the life and work of the church, that there was a mix of people, both slaves and free, that there were Jews and gentiles, and that rather than being a solitary evangelist, Paul was supported by the work of many people. Our faith in Jesus transcends sex, status, and ethnicity and binds us together, enabling us to help one another.
For Discussion
1. What do you think about the changes in interpretation around “Junia”?
2. WDo you think there is any discrimination in Your Church based on sex, status, or ethnicity?