Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Paul’s Places – Part 3: When in Rome 2
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Paul’s Places – Part 3: When in Rome 2
Episode 162 – Paul’s Places – Part 3: When in Rome 2
Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God.
Script:
Greet my relatives+ Andronicus and Junia, who were in jail with me ... Greet Narcissus and the others in his family, who have faith in the Lord… Greet Rufus, that special servant of the Lord, and greet his mother, who has been like a mother to me.
Romans, chapter 16, verses 7, 11, and 13, Contemporary English Version
********
VK: Hello! I’m Victoria K. Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. We’re very happy to join with you today as we continue forward with our new series on Anchored by Truth. We’ve entitled this series “Paul’s Places.” By “Paul” we’re referring to the Apostle Paul who wrote at least 13 of the books out of the 27 books that comprise the New Testament. The Apostle Paul, of course, started out life named “Saul.” But after an encounter on the road to Damascus with the risen Christ he became the foremost apostle to the gentiles. God used Paul to write almost half of the New Testament including the book we’re focusing on today – the epistle to the Romans. To help us learn more about “Paul’s Places” we have RD Fierro back in the studio. RD is an author and the founder of Crystal Sea Books. RD, in our last episode we started focusing on the book of Romans but we had so much to say we didn’t get finished. Why don’t you give us a brief summary of what we learned and where we’re heading?
RD: Well, I’d like to start by also greeting our listeners. The people who regularly listen to Anchored by Truth know that we are focused on demonstrating the inspiration, inerrancy, and infallibility of scripture. And sometimes that means we undertake subjects you won’t hear on other Christian radio shows or podcasts. This is not a criticism in any way but we want our listeners to understand that we do recognize that we frequently ask them to more deeply probe the scripture and the story behind them more deeply. And we ask them to think carefully about not only the Bible but also the logic that emerges from the point of view that denies the Bible.
VK: Like the fact that if someone denies the truth of scripture they would be hard pressed to explain the large volume of fulfilled prophecy that scripture contains. The only good explanation for the hundreds of prophecies that we can demonstrate that have been fulfilled is that those prophecies were given to human writers by a God who, in the words of Isaiah, chapter 46, verse 10, says “Only I can tell you the future before it even happens.” Denying the authenticity produces an incoherent worldview that cannot explain well documented historical events.
RD: Right. But in order for us to demonstrate in our shows we must ask listeners not to just read the Bible but also come to know something about ancient history including the places and cultures that existed thousands of years ago.
VK: And that’s the big reason we wanted to undertake this study series on “Paul’s Places.” Paul’s Places is all about the epistles, or letters, that the Apostle Paul wrote to various churches. And in our Bibles the titles assigned to those epistles, which we also call books, are geographic names like Romans, Corinthians, Philippians, etc.
RD: Right again. One of the reasons we can have complete confidence in the accuracy, the truth, of the Bible is because you can locate those cities on a map. We know where Rome, Corinth, and Philippi were located during the first century AD and we know things about their history that allow us to get greater insight into why a particular epistle, or letter, was sent to that group.
VK: For instance, we know that at that time Paul wrote his letter to the church in Rome, Rome as a city and an empire was pretty much at the peak of its power. So Paul wrote the most complete description of the doctrines and principles of the Christian faith to a church located in the most important city in the empire. And, as we mentioned last time, the Roman Empire was where God began the distribution of the gospel. Later, including today, the gospel would spread far beyond the boundaries of the old Roman Empire but God chose to begin the gospel’s spread within the Roman Empire. So, at the time Paul wrote Romans we can be very sure he knew he was writing an important letter to the church located in the most important city of his time. This makes sense. Paul knew his letters would circulate beyond his initial recipient or audience. And he knew people from all over the empire would travel to and through Rome. So, it was simply good common sense for him to ensure that the letter, he wrote to the church in Rome was a thorough discussion of the foundations of the Christian faith. Wow. I guess I sort of answered my own question about summarizing what we discussed last time.
RD: Pretty much.
VK: But that still leaves where do we go from here? You said you wanted to also do today’s episode of Anchored by Truth to the book of Romans.
RD: Yes, I do. Today I want to focus on a part of the book of Romans that I suspect most people just skip right over – the greetings and salutations.
VK: Really? With all of the deep doctrine that the book of Romans contains you want to go right to the last chapter where there is essentially just a laundry list of names that Paul sends greetings to. Why is that?
RD: Because the greetings and salutations help illustrate our basic point for doing this series. Paul’s letters, even the seemingly mundane details, like a list of people he sends greetings to, illustrate the coherence of scripture. And buried in amongst one of the most extensive list of greetings in all of Paul’s letters there are some very interesting names.
VK: Such as?
RD: Such as the name we heard about in our opening scripture that is found in Romans 16:13. Paul told the recipients of his letter to the church in Rome to “Greet Rufus, that special servant of the Lord, and greet his mother, who has been like a mother to me.”
VK: Well, obviously Rufus and his mother were pretty special to Paul, but why is his inclusion in the list of greetings so significant?
RD: To understand that we have to flip over to the Gospel of Mark, specifically Mark, chapter 15, verse 21.
VK: In the contemporary English Version that verse reads “Simon from Cyrene happened to be coming in from a farm, and they forced him to carry Jesus' cross. Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus.” Hmmm. Interesting. So, the gospel writer Mark mentions the same name as Paul does in his closing to the book of Romans. Why is that?
RD: For a variety of reasons. Tradition says Mark wrote his gospel while he was living in Rome or at least that his gospel was written to the Roman church. If so, it would make good sense that he would include this seemingly incidental note in his gospel. Rufus would have been well known within the church in Rome. So, the fact that his father was the one who actually was pressed into service to carry Jesus’ cross would have been of great interest to that church. And while we can’t be sure of exactly when it is obvious that at some point Paul had spent some time with Rufus and Rufus’ mother. And while we can’t be exactly sure when that might have happened, one possibility is in the city of Antioch in Syria. We learn that from Acts 13:1.
VK: In the Contemporary English Version that verse says, “The church at Antioch had several prophets and teachers. They were Barnabas, Simeon, also called Niger, Lucius from Cyrene, Manaen, who was Herod's close friend, and Saul.” Saul, of course, is the Apostle Paul before Luke, who wrote Acts, began to refer to him as Saul. We covered that in our last episode. But how does this verse give us any insight into the relationship between Paul and Rufus and Rufus’ mother?
RD: Well, the first thing that we have to know is that “Simon” is just another form of the name “Simeon.” The second thing is that we know from Acts 11:20 that one of the first recorded outreaches of the gospel beyond the Jews was to people who were called “Grecians” in Antioch. And we know that outreach was done by men from Cyprus and Cyrene. So, notice we now know of two men from Cyrene who are mentioned by name. Lucius in Acts 13:1 and Simon from Mark 15:21. Cyrene is on the northern coast of Africa in what is modern day Libya. Also remember that Cyrene was mentioned in the list of places which had people attending that first Pentecost after Jesus’ resurrection.
VK: So, what you are saying is that the Simon of Cyrene who was compelled to carry Jesus’ cross may have been one of people who made that outreach in Antioch. Cyrene is on the North African coast of the Mediterranean. Simon had come up to Jerusalem for the Passover feast because that was one of the 3 mandatory feasts for faithful Jews. Simon, like very many of the strangers who came to the Jerusalem for the feast, probably had trouble finding a room in the city. So, he probably had to go to one of the outlying villages to stay while he was at the feast. He may have been going to the city from his lodging when he encounters the procession leaving the city heading to place where Jesus was going to die. Staying outside the city he probably knew nothing about Jesus’ trial that morning.
RD: Right. Simon of Cyrene (not Simon Peter who was one the disciples) had no idea he was going to encounter the crucifixion procession as it is passing out of the gate. The centurion leading the procession grabs Simon at random to help the fainting Christ to carry the heavy Cross. Simon probably thought Jesus was a common criminal, and would resent what he was being compelled to do it. But I like to think that when he got close to Jesus he was touched by the soul-conquering power of Christ. As such, Simon of Cyrene was quite likely an eyewitness to the crucifixion. But it is also possible that he was also an eyewitness to the resurrection. Remember what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:6.
VK: 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, verse 6 says, “After this, [Jesus] appeared to more than five hundred other followers. Most of them are still alive, but some have died.” So, you are thinking that it possible that Simon of Cyrene might have been among that group of 500?
RD: Yes. The Bible does not tell us exactly when that group of 500 saw the risen Christ, but many scholars think that it might have been at the time of ascension – when Jesus went back to heaven. That is described in Acts, chapter 1. That chapter tells us that many of the future apostles were there but since the ascension happened right outside Jerusalem it’s quite possible many more members of the church were there. It would make sense that Simon of Cyrene, having carried the cross, would have remained around Jerusalem through at least the end of the Passover feast. Well, by that time Jesus had risen. One commentator, Alexander MacLaren has said, “It is possible that this may be our Simon, and that he who was the last to join the band of disciples during the Master’s life and learned courage at the Cross was among the first to apprehend the world-wide destination of the Gospel, and to bear it beyond the narrow bounds of his nation.”
VK: So, you are following MacLaren’s line of thinking with respect to Simon of Cyrene. Simon of Cyrene was at Jerusalem for the celebration of the Passover feast but he winds up encountering Jesus in a very unique way. Having encountered the living Christ he stays in Jerusalem where, just a few days later, he might have encountered the risen Christ. He may even have been among the group that saw Jesus ascend and then stayed in Jerusalem for a little while longer and been one of the Cyrenians [sigh-ren-ee-ans] mentioned at Pentecost. Well, certainly that would have been a transformative experience – so transformative Simon of Cyrene might have been in the group that began carrying the gospel outside Judea to places like Antioch in Syria.
RD: Yes. And we know from Acts, chapter 11 that Paul spent over a year in Antioch. That would have been plenty of time for him to come to know Simon and his family which would have included Rufus and Rufus’ mother. We also know that Paul returned to Antioch several times even after he began his series of missionary journeys so he would have had the opportunity to renew his connection with the family. So, if sometime during Paul’s long missionary career he found out that Rufus and his mother had moved to Rome it would make perfect sense that Paul would have send very warm greetings when he finally wrote to the Roman church.
VK: Well, how long was it between the time Paul might have first encountered Simon and Rufus in Antioch and Paul wrote the letter to the Romans?
RD: Probably more than a decade.
VK: So, Rufus and his mother would not have been just friends of Paul’s but old friends? I see what you mean that the information in the greeting and salutations isn’t something that we can just gloss over. There’s a whole story buried underneath those 15 or 20 words.
RD: Exactly. And let’s remind everyone of the really big point. Contrary to some uniformed critics, the Bible is not filled with “myths and fairy tales.” The Bible does contain reports of supernatural events but it reports those events in the same way it reports mundane or secular matters. But the entirety of the story that the Bible reports, when examined carefully, is coherent and consistent with what we know from extra-Biblical sources about people, places, and culture.
VK: As we said last time, it’s a very simple principle. If we have a friend who we know to be honest and truthful and then one day that friend tells us they saw something extraordinary our first impulse should be to trust their report. We can trust their report because we have a track record and history with that person that tells us that person consistently tells the truth. Naturally, the opposite might be true. If we know somebody who consistently lies then we might have reason to doubt them, even if occasionally they tell us something that is true.
RD: Right. Character matters. And when the Bible’s character is tested in ways we can verify it always stands up to the test.
VK: So, are there any other items you want to point out from the greetings and salutations in Romans?
RD: Sure. Let’s take a look at 3 of the other names: Andronicus, Junia, and Apelles. Andronicus and Junia were, like Paul, Jews. Apelles is a common Greek name. This helps illustrate the point we made last time that in the book of Romans Paul spent a lot of time discussing the relationship between the Jews and Gentiles with respect to redemptive history and the emerging 1st century church. Also, the name Aristobulus [air-is-tahb-u-lus] is interesting.
VK: The name Aristobulus is the same name as one of Herod the Great’s grandsons who was known to be a friend of the Roman Emperor Claudius. Claudius reigned from 41 AD to 54 AD. The book of Romans was likely written in 57 AD, but no earlier than 55 AD. So, the inclusion of Aristobulus is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, we know that that name was in use during that period of history and was known in the city of Rome. But, second, Paul says to “Greet those who belong to the household of Aristobulus.” So, that greeting is not necessarily to Aristobulus [air-is-tahb-u-lus] himself but either to members of his family or servants of the family. This means that by the time Paul wrote Romans the gospel had been heard at even the upper levels of Roman society.
RD: Right. And among the list of names Paul includes in his salutations and greetings are names of people who were, in all likelihood, servants or slaves. The names Urbanus and Stachys were common slave names. Urbanus was a Roman name. Stachys was a Greek name. And in the greeting Paul calls Stachys “my beloved.” This demonstrates that Paul was indifferent to the social or economic status of people he associated with or ministered to. Paul brought the gospel to all levels of his society – whether high or low, rich or poor, slave or free.
VK: And one person on the greetings list in Romans who may have been from a high level is Narcissus. There was a person named Narcissus who was an aide to the Emperor Claudius who was forced to commit suicide by Agrippina [eh-grip-peen-a]. Agrippina was the younger sister of Emperor Caligula, the niece and fourth wife of Emperor Claudius and the mother of emperor Nero. She forced Narcissus to kill himself after Nero became the emperor probably because he would have been a rival when it came to giving Nero advice. Yikes. As we’ve said, there are stories buried in this seemingly simple list of names.
RD: Yes. But all this reinforces the primary reason we are doing this “Paul’s Places” series. The Apostle Paul wrote his epistle, our Bible book, Romans in or around 57 AD. By that time he had been on the “missionary road” for over a decade – likely up to 15 years. He had travelled widely through the Roman Empire and he knew who was influential within the empire.
VK: He also knew how the people within the Roman world thought about things and of course, he knew the essential elements of the emerging Christian faith as well or better than anyone. What you’re saying is that when he sat down and wrote his letters, the epistles that would become the books of our Bible he did so carefully and thoughtfully. And that’s just Paul operating as a human being. He was also under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. So, when he penned these letters he was teaching and encouraging throughout the letter even in the parts we might tend to skip over like the salutations and greetings. But what we see in those salutations and greetings reinforces what we know about the churches in the cities to which he was writing – their world, the things they were dealing with generally and specifically, and what they needed to mature in their faith.
RD: Very well said. In Romans Paul was writing to a church composed of Jews and Gentiles, Greeks and Romans, well-educated leaders and ordinary servants, and people he knew well and some he had never met. So, in the main body of the letter he addressed issues of doctrine and principle that the people of that church (and all subsequent churches) needed to hear. And because Rome was the hub of the Roman Empire he knew whatever he sent to them would travel far and wide. So, he was thorough in what he wrote and comprehensive in areas that were or might be confusing. The character of the church made it sensible for him to do that and the city in which the church was located made it essential that he do that.
VK: And when it came to deciding who to greet specifically and how to greet them he was equally careful. He pointed out a couple of people who had been Christians longer than he had, he gave special credit to Rufus whose family may very well have played a unique role in church history, and he recognized people from all up and down the social status ladder. And he greeted women as well as men which would have been somewhat out-of-the-ordinary in that world. All of that points to the authenticity of the letter and therefore increases our confidence in the letter’s accuracy and trustworthiness.
RD: Yes. Paul took more time in the book of Romans to discuss the interaction between Jews, gentiles, the church, and the history of salvation than in any other book he wrote but his concern for doctrine did not overcome his concern for the people. Paul wanted his readers to be as passionate about the gospel as he was but he knew that passion for faith had to be tied to genuine love among believers.
VK: This harkens back to the Gospel of John, chapter 13, verse 35 where Jesus said, By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” That’s from the New International Version. The New Living Translation says, “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” Paul proved he was a genuine disciple by expressing love for the people he was writing to. First, he did so by writing them truth even when he knew those truths would be hard on some of the readers. Second, he did so by forming friendships and remembering people by name.
RD: In its day the Roman church was unique. As the earliest manifestation of an emerging church in the center of the world’s most powerful empire of the time its influence eclipsed that of what most of its members probably thought. But think about this. There were names of Roman slaves that have been commemorated for all eternity because of their participation in that church. The names of those slaves are, in many ways, truly exalted beyond the names of most of the world’s kings, emperors, generals, presidents, and corporate bigwigs.
VK: The New Living Translation of James, chapter 4, verse 10 says, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.” In a very real way in composing those greetings and salutations that is what Paul did.
RD: Right. The letter to the church in Rome was a real letter written by a real man to real people – people just like us. Like all of the parts of the Bible, Paul’s letters are perfectly consistent with what we know about the larger context in which they were written. But not only are they consistent with the people, places, and facts of history they are consistent with God’s eternal proclamations. Part of the evidence of the truth of the book of Romans is the un-designed consistency that it shares with other books in New Testament. That consistency makes Romans coherent even at a granular level that few people ever both to look.
VK: This sounds like a great time for a prayer. Today, let’s listen to a prayer that we may all be faithful stewards of the resources that have been entrusted to us. Faithful stewardship is evidence of our own faithfulness to the cause of Christ.
---- PRAYER TO BE A FAITHFUL STEWARD
VK: Before we close we’d like to remind our audience that a lot of our radio episodes are linked together in series of topics so if they missed any episodes in this series or if they just want to hear one again, all of these episodes are available on your favorite podcast app. To find them just search on “Anchored by Truth by Crystal Sea Books.”
If you’d like to hear more, try out crystalseabooks.com where “We’re not perfect but our Boss is!”
(Opening Bible Quote from the Contemporary English Version)
Romans, chapter 16, verses 7, 11, and 13, Contemporary English Version
Mark 15:21 Commentaries: They pressed into service a passer-by coming from the country, Simon of Cyrene (the father of Alexander and Rufus), to bear His cross. (biblehub.com)
Romans 1 Barnes' Notes (biblehub.com)
View all episodes
By R.D.Fierro
5
11 ratings
Episode 162 – Paul’s Places – Part 3: When in Rome 2
Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God.
Script:
Greet my relatives+ Andronicus and Junia, who were in jail with me ... Greet Narcissus and the others in his family, who have faith in the Lord… Greet Rufus, that special servant of the Lord, and greet his mother, who has been like a mother to me.
Romans, chapter 16, verses 7, 11, and 13, Contemporary English Version
********
VK: Hello! I’m Victoria K. Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. We’re very happy to join with you today as we continue forward with our new series on Anchored by Truth. We’ve entitled this series “Paul’s Places.” By “Paul” we’re referring to the Apostle Paul who wrote at least 13 of the books out of the 27 books that comprise the New Testament. The Apostle Paul, of course, started out life named “Saul.” But after an encounter on the road to Damascus with the risen Christ he became the foremost apostle to the gentiles. God used Paul to write almost half of the New Testament including the book we’re focusing on today – the epistle to the Romans. To help us learn more about “Paul’s Places” we have RD Fierro back in the studio. RD is an author and the founder of Crystal Sea Books. RD, in our last episode we started focusing on the book of Romans but we had so much to say we didn’t get finished. Why don’t you give us a brief summary of what we learned and where we’re heading?
RD: Well, I’d like to start by also greeting our listeners. The people who regularly listen to Anchored by Truth know that we are focused on demonstrating the inspiration, inerrancy, and infallibility of scripture. And sometimes that means we undertake subjects you won’t hear on other Christian radio shows or podcasts. This is not a criticism in any way but we want our listeners to understand that we do recognize that we frequently ask them to more deeply probe the scripture and the story behind them more deeply. And we ask them to think carefully about not only the Bible but also the logic that emerges from the point of view that denies the Bible.
VK: Like the fact that if someone denies the truth of scripture they would be hard pressed to explain the large volume of fulfilled prophecy that scripture contains. The only good explanation for the hundreds of prophecies that we can demonstrate that have been fulfilled is that those prophecies were given to human writers by a God who, in the words of Isaiah, chapter 46, verse 10, says “Only I can tell you the future before it even happens.” Denying the authenticity produces an incoherent worldview that cannot explain well documented historical events.
RD: Right. But in order for us to demonstrate in our shows we must ask listeners not to just read the Bible but also come to know something about ancient history including the places and cultures that existed thousands of years ago.
VK: And that’s the big reason we wanted to undertake this study series on “Paul’s Places.” Paul’s Places is all about the epistles, or letters, that the Apostle Paul wrote to various churches. And in our Bibles the titles assigned to those epistles, which we also call books, are geographic names like Romans, Corinthians, Philippians, etc.
RD: Right again. One of the reasons we can have complete confidence in the accuracy, the truth, of the Bible is because you can locate those cities on a map. We know where Rome, Corinth, and Philippi were located during the first century AD and we know things about their history that allow us to get greater insight into why a particular epistle, or letter, was sent to that group.
VK: For instance, we know that at that time Paul wrote his letter to the church in Rome, Rome as a city and an empire was pretty much at the peak of its power. So Paul wrote the most complete description of the doctrines and principles of the Christian faith to a church located in the most important city in the empire. And, as we mentioned last time, the Roman Empire was where God began the distribution of the gospel. Later, including today, the gospel would spread far beyond the boundaries of the old Roman Empire but God chose to begin the gospel’s spread within the Roman Empire. So, at the time Paul wrote Romans we can be very sure he knew he was writing an important letter to the church located in the most important city of his time. This makes sense. Paul knew his letters would circulate beyond his initial recipient or audience. And he knew people from all over the empire would travel to and through Rome. So, it was simply good common sense for him to ensure that the letter, he wrote to the church in Rome was a thorough discussion of the foundations of the Christian faith. Wow. I guess I sort of answered my own question about summarizing what we discussed last time.
RD: Pretty much.
VK: But that still leaves where do we go from here? You said you wanted to also do today’s episode of Anchored by Truth to the book of Romans.
RD: Yes, I do. Today I want to focus on a part of the book of Romans that I suspect most people just skip right over – the greetings and salutations.
VK: Really? With all of the deep doctrine that the book of Romans contains you want to go right to the last chapter where there is essentially just a laundry list of names that Paul sends greetings to. Why is that?
RD: Because the greetings and salutations help illustrate our basic point for doing this series. Paul’s letters, even the seemingly mundane details, like a list of people he sends greetings to, illustrate the coherence of scripture. And buried in amongst one of the most extensive list of greetings in all of Paul’s letters there are some very interesting names.
VK: Such as?
RD: Such as the name we heard about in our opening scripture that is found in Romans 16:13. Paul told the recipients of his letter to the church in Rome to “Greet Rufus, that special servant of the Lord, and greet his mother, who has been like a mother to me.”
VK: Well, obviously Rufus and his mother were pretty special to Paul, but why is his inclusion in the list of greetings so significant?
RD: To understand that we have to flip over to the Gospel of Mark, specifically Mark, chapter 15, verse 21.
VK: In the contemporary English Version that verse reads “Simon from Cyrene happened to be coming in from a farm, and they forced him to carry Jesus' cross. Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus.” Hmmm. Interesting. So, the gospel writer Mark mentions the same name as Paul does in his closing to the book of Romans. Why is that?
RD: For a variety of reasons. Tradition says Mark wrote his gospel while he was living in Rome or at least that his gospel was written to the Roman church. If so, it would make good sense that he would include this seemingly incidental note in his gospel. Rufus would have been well known within the church in Rome. So, the fact that his father was the one who actually was pressed into service to carry Jesus’ cross would have been of great interest to that church. And while we can’t be sure of exactly when it is obvious that at some point Paul had spent some time with Rufus and Rufus’ mother. And while we can’t be exactly sure when that might have happened, one possibility is in the city of Antioch in Syria. We learn that from Acts 13:1.
VK: In the Contemporary English Version that verse says, “The church at Antioch had several prophets and teachers. They were Barnabas, Simeon, also called Niger, Lucius from Cyrene, Manaen, who was Herod's close friend, and Saul.” Saul, of course, is the Apostle Paul before Luke, who wrote Acts, began to refer to him as Saul. We covered that in our last episode. But how does this verse give us any insight into the relationship between Paul and Rufus and Rufus’ mother?
RD: Well, the first thing that we have to know is that “Simon” is just another form of the name “Simeon.” The second thing is that we know from Acts 11:20 that one of the first recorded outreaches of the gospel beyond the Jews was to people who were called “Grecians” in Antioch. And we know that outreach was done by men from Cyprus and Cyrene. So, notice we now know of two men from Cyrene who are mentioned by name. Lucius in Acts 13:1 and Simon from Mark 15:21. Cyrene is on the northern coast of Africa in what is modern day Libya. Also remember that Cyrene was mentioned in the list of places which had people attending that first Pentecost after Jesus’ resurrection.
VK: So, what you are saying is that the Simon of Cyrene who was compelled to carry Jesus’ cross may have been one of people who made that outreach in Antioch. Cyrene is on the North African coast of the Mediterranean. Simon had come up to Jerusalem for the Passover feast because that was one of the 3 mandatory feasts for faithful Jews. Simon, like very many of the strangers who came to the Jerusalem for the feast, probably had trouble finding a room in the city. So, he probably had to go to one of the outlying villages to stay while he was at the feast. He may have been going to the city from his lodging when he encounters the procession leaving the city heading to place where Jesus was going to die. Staying outside the city he probably knew nothing about Jesus’ trial that morning.
RD: Right. Simon of Cyrene (not Simon Peter who was one the disciples) had no idea he was going to encounter the crucifixion procession as it is passing out of the gate. The centurion leading the procession grabs Simon at random to help the fainting Christ to carry the heavy Cross. Simon probably thought Jesus was a common criminal, and would resent what he was being compelled to do it. But I like to think that when he got close to Jesus he was touched by the soul-conquering power of Christ. As such, Simon of Cyrene was quite likely an eyewitness to the crucifixion. But it is also possible that he was also an eyewitness to the resurrection. Remember what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:6.
VK: 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, verse 6 says, “After this, [Jesus] appeared to more than five hundred other followers. Most of them are still alive, but some have died.” So, you are thinking that it possible that Simon of Cyrene might have been among that group of 500?
RD: Yes. The Bible does not tell us exactly when that group of 500 saw the risen Christ, but many scholars think that it might have been at the time of ascension – when Jesus went back to heaven. That is described in Acts, chapter 1. That chapter tells us that many of the future apostles were there but since the ascension happened right outside Jerusalem it’s quite possible many more members of the church were there. It would make sense that Simon of Cyrene, having carried the cross, would have remained around Jerusalem through at least the end of the Passover feast. Well, by that time Jesus had risen. One commentator, Alexander MacLaren has said, “It is possible that this may be our Simon, and that he who was the last to join the band of disciples during the Master’s life and learned courage at the Cross was among the first to apprehend the world-wide destination of the Gospel, and to bear it beyond the narrow bounds of his nation.”
VK: So, you are following MacLaren’s line of thinking with respect to Simon of Cyrene. Simon of Cyrene was at Jerusalem for the celebration of the Passover feast but he winds up encountering Jesus in a very unique way. Having encountered the living Christ he stays in Jerusalem where, just a few days later, he might have encountered the risen Christ. He may even have been among the group that saw Jesus ascend and then stayed in Jerusalem for a little while longer and been one of the Cyrenians [sigh-ren-ee-ans] mentioned at Pentecost. Well, certainly that would have been a transformative experience – so transformative Simon of Cyrene might have been in the group that began carrying the gospel outside Judea to places like Antioch in Syria.
RD: Yes. And we know from Acts, chapter 11 that Paul spent over a year in Antioch. That would have been plenty of time for him to come to know Simon and his family which would have included Rufus and Rufus’ mother. We also know that Paul returned to Antioch several times even after he began his series of missionary journeys so he would have had the opportunity to renew his connection with the family. So, if sometime during Paul’s long missionary career he found out that Rufus and his mother had moved to Rome it would make perfect sense that Paul would have send very warm greetings when he finally wrote to the Roman church.
VK: Well, how long was it between the time Paul might have first encountered Simon and Rufus in Antioch and Paul wrote the letter to the Romans?
RD: Probably more than a decade.
VK: So, Rufus and his mother would not have been just friends of Paul’s but old friends? I see what you mean that the information in the greeting and salutations isn’t something that we can just gloss over. There’s a whole story buried underneath those 15 or 20 words.
RD: Exactly. And let’s remind everyone of the really big point. Contrary to some uniformed critics, the Bible is not filled with “myths and fairy tales.” The Bible does contain reports of supernatural events but it reports those events in the same way it reports mundane or secular matters. But the entirety of the story that the Bible reports, when examined carefully, is coherent and consistent with what we know from extra-Biblical sources about people, places, and culture.
VK: As we said last time, it’s a very simple principle. If we have a friend who we know to be honest and truthful and then one day that friend tells us they saw something extraordinary our first impulse should be to trust their report. We can trust their report because we have a track record and history with that person that tells us that person consistently tells the truth. Naturally, the opposite might be true. If we know somebody who consistently lies then we might have reason to doubt them, even if occasionally they tell us something that is true.
RD: Right. Character matters. And when the Bible’s character is tested in ways we can verify it always stands up to the test.
VK: So, are there any other items you want to point out from the greetings and salutations in Romans?
RD: Sure. Let’s take a look at 3 of the other names: Andronicus, Junia, and Apelles. Andronicus and Junia were, like Paul, Jews. Apelles is a common Greek name. This helps illustrate the point we made last time that in the book of Romans Paul spent a lot of time discussing the relationship between the Jews and Gentiles with respect to redemptive history and the emerging 1st century church. Also, the name Aristobulus [air-is-tahb-u-lus] is interesting.
VK: The name Aristobulus is the same name as one of Herod the Great’s grandsons who was known to be a friend of the Roman Emperor Claudius. Claudius reigned from 41 AD to 54 AD. The book of Romans was likely written in 57 AD, but no earlier than 55 AD. So, the inclusion of Aristobulus is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, we know that that name was in use during that period of history and was known in the city of Rome. But, second, Paul says to “Greet those who belong to the household of Aristobulus.” So, that greeting is not necessarily to Aristobulus [air-is-tahb-u-lus] himself but either to members of his family or servants of the family. This means that by the time Paul wrote Romans the gospel had been heard at even the upper levels of Roman society.
RD: Right. And among the list of names Paul includes in his salutations and greetings are names of people who were, in all likelihood, servants or slaves. The names Urbanus and Stachys were common slave names. Urbanus was a Roman name. Stachys was a Greek name. And in the greeting Paul calls Stachys “my beloved.” This demonstrates that Paul was indifferent to the social or economic status of people he associated with or ministered to. Paul brought the gospel to all levels of his society – whether high or low, rich or poor, slave or free.
VK: And one person on the greetings list in Romans who may have been from a high level is Narcissus. There was a person named Narcissus who was an aide to the Emperor Claudius who was forced to commit suicide by Agrippina [eh-grip-peen-a]. Agrippina was the younger sister of Emperor Caligula, the niece and fourth wife of Emperor Claudius and the mother of emperor Nero. She forced Narcissus to kill himself after Nero became the emperor probably because he would have been a rival when it came to giving Nero advice. Yikes. As we’ve said, there are stories buried in this seemingly simple list of names.
RD: Yes. But all this reinforces the primary reason we are doing this “Paul’s Places” series. The Apostle Paul wrote his epistle, our Bible book, Romans in or around 57 AD. By that time he had been on the “missionary road” for over a decade – likely up to 15 years. He had travelled widely through the Roman Empire and he knew who was influential within the empire.
VK: He also knew how the people within the Roman world thought about things and of course, he knew the essential elements of the emerging Christian faith as well or better than anyone. What you’re saying is that when he sat down and wrote his letters, the epistles that would become the books of our Bible he did so carefully and thoughtfully. And that’s just Paul operating as a human being. He was also under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. So, when he penned these letters he was teaching and encouraging throughout the letter even in the parts we might tend to skip over like the salutations and greetings. But what we see in those salutations and greetings reinforces what we know about the churches in the cities to which he was writing – their world, the things they were dealing with generally and specifically, and what they needed to mature in their faith.
RD: Very well said. In Romans Paul was writing to a church composed of Jews and Gentiles, Greeks and Romans, well-educated leaders and ordinary servants, and people he knew well and some he had never met. So, in the main body of the letter he addressed issues of doctrine and principle that the people of that church (and all subsequent churches) needed to hear. And because Rome was the hub of the Roman Empire he knew whatever he sent to them would travel far and wide. So, he was thorough in what he wrote and comprehensive in areas that were or might be confusing. The character of the church made it sensible for him to do that and the city in which the church was located made it essential that he do that.
VK: And when it came to deciding who to greet specifically and how to greet them he was equally careful. He pointed out a couple of people who had been Christians longer than he had, he gave special credit to Rufus whose family may very well have played a unique role in church history, and he recognized people from all up and down the social status ladder. And he greeted women as well as men which would have been somewhat out-of-the-ordinary in that world. All of that points to the authenticity of the letter and therefore increases our confidence in the letter’s accuracy and trustworthiness.
RD: Yes. Paul took more time in the book of Romans to discuss the interaction between Jews, gentiles, the church, and the history of salvation than in any other book he wrote but his concern for doctrine did not overcome his concern for the people. Paul wanted his readers to be as passionate about the gospel as he was but he knew that passion for faith had to be tied to genuine love among believers.
VK: This harkens back to the Gospel of John, chapter 13, verse 35 where Jesus said, By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” That’s from the New International Version. The New Living Translation says, “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” Paul proved he was a genuine disciple by expressing love for the people he was writing to. First, he did so by writing them truth even when he knew those truths would be hard on some of the readers. Second, he did so by forming friendships and remembering people by name.
RD: In its day the Roman church was unique. As the earliest manifestation of an emerging church in the center of the world’s most powerful empire of the time its influence eclipsed that of what most of its members probably thought. But think about this. There were names of Roman slaves that have been commemorated for all eternity because of their participation in that church. The names of those slaves are, in many ways, truly exalted beyond the names of most of the world’s kings, emperors, generals, presidents, and corporate bigwigs.
VK: The New Living Translation of James, chapter 4, verse 10 says, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.” In a very real way in composing those greetings and salutations that is what Paul did.
RD: Right. The letter to the church in Rome was a real letter written by a real man to real people – people just like us. Like all of the parts of the Bible, Paul’s letters are perfectly consistent with what we know about the larger context in which they were written. But not only are they consistent with the people, places, and facts of history they are consistent with God’s eternal proclamations. Part of the evidence of the truth of the book of Romans is the un-designed consistency that it shares with other books in New Testament. That consistency makes Romans coherent even at a granular level that few people ever both to look.
VK: This sounds like a great time for a prayer. Today, let’s listen to a prayer that we may all be faithful stewards of the resources that have been entrusted to us. Faithful stewardship is evidence of our own faithfulness to the cause of Christ.
---- PRAYER TO BE A FAITHFUL STEWARD
VK: Before we close we’d like to remind our audience that a lot of our radio episodes are linked together in series of topics so if they missed any episodes in this series or if they just want to hear one again, all of these episodes are available on your favorite podcast app. To find them just search on “Anchored by Truth by Crystal Sea Books.”
If you’d like to hear more, try out crystalseabooks.com where “We’re not perfect but our Boss is!”
(Opening Bible Quote from the Contemporary English Version)
Romans, chapter 16, verses 7, 11, and 13, Contemporary English Version
Mark 15:21 Commentaries: They pressed into service a passer-by coming from the country, Simon of Cyrene (the father of Alexander and Rufus), to bear His cross. (biblehub.com)
Romans 1 Barnes' Notes (biblehub.com)