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NOTES for Rom 16:1-16

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1 I commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea:
2 That ye receive her in the Lord, as becometh saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you: for she hath been a succourer of many, and of myself also.
3 Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus:
4 Who have for my life laid down their own necks: unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles.
5 Likewise greet the church that is in their house. Salute my wellbeloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ.
6 Greet Mary, who bestowed much labour on us.
7 Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen, and my fellowprisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me.
8 Greet Amplias my beloved in the Lord.
9 Salute Urbane, our helper in Christ, and Stachys my beloved.
10 Salute Apelles approved in Christ. Salute them which are of Aristobulus' household.
11 Salute Herodion my kinsman. Greet them that be of the household of Narcissus, which are in the Lord.
12 Salute Tryphena and Tryphosa, who labour in the Lord. Salute the beloved Persis, which laboured much in the Lord.
13 Salute Rufus chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.
14 Salute Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, and the brethren which are with them.
15 Salute Philologus, and Julia, Nereus, and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints which are with them.
16 Salute one another with an holy kiss. The churches of Christ salute you.
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Paul's letters often end with rather long lists of the names of those with whom God had brought him together in one way or another during his apostolic ministry. These names say nothing to us; they are not found anywhere except in Paul's own letters. His addressees were probably familiar with all the names the apostle mentions, or with the people who bore them. But what are they to us?

And yet the matter is not so simple. The Church exists not only in history, not only in time. It also exists above time. Above history. In the Kingdom, where there is no history as we know it, and none of the linear time to which we are accustomed. In the Kingdom, where no name and no person is forgotten, wherever and whenever that person lived, and wherever and whenever he met Christ and entered into the life of the Kingdom.

For Paul himself the Kingdom is an absolute and unconditional reality. And that means that for him there are no distances and no separations. Everyone with whom he has entered into relationship becomes his own forever. And not because the apostle has a good memory, though he probably had no problems with memory.

It is simply that all the relationships Paul formed with one person or another were part of the Kingdom. Because he had no other life. Therefore all of them belong to eternity no less than to time. Or even more: for the Kingdom is only projected into that stream of time in which we live, while in its fullness it exists where all such streams in all their multitude merge into the harmonious unity that we call eternity.

The uniqueness of relationship with each person and to each person is possible only from eternity, as a projection of relationships formed in eternity into that temporal stream which, through misunderstanding, we often consider the only reality. But for Paul the eternity of the Kingdom was far more real than the ever-slipping stream that we call reality. And in this eternity of the Kingdom he remembers all those with whom God brought him together and clearly sees all whom he remembers.

Other notes

 
For Rom 16:1-16
1 I commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea:
2 That ye receive her in the Lord, as becometh saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you: for she hath been a succourer of many, and of myself also.
3 Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus:
4 Who have for my life laid down their own necks: unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles.
5 Likewise greet the church that is in their house. Salute my wellbeloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ.
6 Greet Mary, who bestowed much labour on us.
7 Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen, and my fellowprisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me.
8 Greet Amplias my beloved in the Lord.
9 Salute Urbane, our helper in Christ, and Stachys my beloved.
10 Salute Apelles approved in Christ. Salute them which are of Aristobulus' household.
11 Salute Herodion my kinsman. Greet them that be of the household of Narcissus, which are in the Lord.
12 Salute Tryphena and Tryphosa, who labour in the Lord. Salute the beloved Persis, which laboured much in the Lord.
13 Salute Rufus chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.
14 Salute Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, and the brethren which are with them.
15 Salute Philologus, and Julia, Nereus, and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints which are with them.
16 Salute one another with an holy kiss. The churches of Christ salute you.
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Passing on greetings and introducing those whom he wanted to introduce to the Roman Christians...  Read more

Passing on greetings and introducing those whom he wanted to introduce to the Roman Christians, Paul probably does not accidentally mention each person's merits and the role each of those introduced played in his life and ministry. After all, the ministry both of Paul himself and of those whom he introduces to the Roman church (as well as those to whom he sends greetings) was not simply church ministry. Above all, it was witness to the Kingdom and witness of the Kingdom. And such shared witness is what binds Christians in our not yet fully transformed world.

Properly speaking, only such a bond can be called spiritual in the strict sense of the word. In fact, any relationships between people in our transforming world remain purely natural, a matter of nature, until the breath of Christ and the Kingdom enters them, the breath that is, properly speaking, the "spirit" mentioned in the familiar Russian Synodal translation. And the breath of the Kingdom can enter interpersonal relationships only when the very life of those whom these relationships bind belongs to the Kingdom.

But in our not yet fully transformed world, to live in the Kingdom means to bear witness; it cannot be otherwise, for the Kingdom that the Savior brought into the world is "not of this world." The world can see it only thanks to those who, like Jesus Himself, show it to the world. And the world also looks at the relationships of such witnesses with one another as witness, because if a person has become a witness of the Kingdom, his whole life becomes witness. Therefore any relationships of Christians with one another become a joint witness to the Kingdom, not only when two people preach together or carry out some other church ministry, but also when they simply appear together before people's eyes.

One could say that the very coexistence of Christians becomes a witness (or, if they forget this, an anti-witness) of the Kingdom. And Paul, understanding this perfectly, recalls above all those moments of common witness in which, as is clear, his connection with those he mentions in his letter was most vividly revealed. So even greetings and introductions become, under his pen, a witness to the Kingdom.

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