What Does Romans 16:21 Mean?

(21-23) The companions of St. Paul add their own greetings to the Roman Church. (21) **Timotheus.**—Timothy had been sent on in advance from Ephesus (Acts 20:22). He would seem to have gone on into Greece and to Corinth itself (1Corinthians 4:17; 1Corinthians 16:10). He had thence rejoined St. Paul on his way through Macedonia (2Corinthians 1:1), and he was now with him again in Greece. In the other Epistles (2 Cor., Phil., Colossians , 1 and 2 Thess., and Philem.), when Timothy was present with St. Paul at the time of his writing, he is joined with him in the salutation at the outset. Why his name does not appear in the heading of the present letter we can hardly say. Perhaps he happened to be away at the time when it was begun; or, St. Paul may have thought it well that a church which was entirely strange to him, and to which Timothy too was a stranger, should be addressed in his own name alone. **Lucius.**—This may, perhaps, be the Lucius of Cyrene mentioned in Acts 13:1; but the name is too common for anything to be asserted positively. **Jason.**—A Jason is mentioned as having received St. Paul and his companions on their first visit to Thessalonica, and getting himself into trouble in consequence (Acts 17:5-9). It would be some slight argument for this identification if the word “kinsmen” were taken in its narrower sense; there would then be a reason why St. Paul should have found hospitality in the house of Jason. **Sosipater.**—Possibly “Sopater, the son of Pyrrhus, of Berœa,” mentioned in Acts 20:4 (corrected reading).