Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Romans 16:17-27, Tertius, Gaius and Erastus
Paul warns against those who cause divisions, promises that God will soon crush Satan under the believers' feet, and passes on greetings from Corinth, including his scribe Tertius, his host Gaius and Erastus the city treasurer.
Romans 16:17-27, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul adds a sharp warning about people who stir up division and lead the unsuspecting astray with smooth words, and promises that God will soon crush Satan under the believers' feet. Then come greetings from his companions in Corinth: Timothy, Tertius the scribe who wrote the letter down, Gaius who hosts the church, and Erastus the city treasurer. The letter ends in praise to the one wise God.
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Crushing Satan under their feet echoes Genesis 3:15; Jewish sources often saw the serpent as Satan or his tool, and Paul applies the promise to believers (the cultural backgrounds notes; Keener; Heiser). Most letter writers dictated to scribes, often slaves, and scribes rarely added greetings of their own, which makes Tertius a fellow believer (the cultural backgrounds notes; Keener). A Latin inscription in the pavement near the Corinthian theater says that Erastus laid it at his own expense in return for his aedileship, an elected post over streets, markets and public buildings (the ESV Study Bible; the cultural backgrounds notes and article The Erastus Inscription). Whether he is Paul's Erastus is debated. Price and House favor it, since the name is rare and the only first-century instance yet found, and inscriptions from Asia Minor show Paul's title, oikonomos, used for such a post. The cultural backgrounds notes think he probably is, their article only that he may be. The Zondervan dictionary notes that such stewards were generally slaves or freedmen: "That he was the Erastus of Romans is possible, but not probable." The closing doxology stands in different places in the manuscripts; Carson, Moo and Morris think Paul wrote it.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Romans 16:20, 16:22 and 16:23-24
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Romans 16:20, 16:22 and 16:23, and article The Erastus Inscription
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on Romans 16:22 and 16:23
- Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm, ch. 28, Divine Misdirection
- J. Randall Price and H. Wayne House, Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology, Romans 16:23b The Erastus Inscription
- J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entry Erastus
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 8, Romans, Integrity, Literary History, and Text
