and who had an immense influence with Claudius. Narcissus was put to death by

Agrippina shortly after the accession of Nero, about three or four years before the epistle

to the Romans was written.

Tryphena and Tryphosa were probably sisters, and both names occur in the

inscriptions.  Both names are derived from truphe, "luxury", and there may be an

intended contrast here in the Apostle's use of the word "labour" to describe their service.

Having sent greetings to so many, the Apostle now says: "Salute one another with a

holy kiss" (Rom. 16: 16). Paul sends the same exhortation to two other churches

(I Cor. 16: 20; I Thess. 5: 26), and Peter also speaks of "a kiss of charity". The defining

of the kiss each time may be because of the false charges that were made against the

believers. The sexes did not intermingle in the Church as they do to-day, and the idea of

a brother kissing a sister in Christ in the Church is not in mind. The Rabbis did not

permit more than three kinds of kiss: the kiss of reverence, the kiss of reception, and the

kiss of dismissal.  This form of salutation is not in vogue in the West, and any local

custom that expresses Christian love may rightly take its place.

Before the Apostle sends greetings from those who were with him (Rom. 16: 21-23),

he pauses to give a serious word of warning to the Church at Rome. The fact that this

warning comes almost at the end of the epistle instead of in the opening chapter as in

Galatians and I Corinthians, possibly indicates that the evil had not in this case grown to

any extent, but that the Apostle realized that it was there, and that a word of warning was

needed. Wherever the Apostle and the truth committed to him penetrated, there, sooner

or later, would the Judaizers and their evil teaching follow. In the record of the Acts, we

find that the Apostle had scarcely returned from the great evangelistic work recorded in

Acts 13: and 14:, before it became necessary to go to Jerusalem in order to counteract

the evil that was being wrought by "certain men which came down from Judæa"

(Acts 15: 1). Those who seek to follow in the Apostle's footsteps are also conscious that

there is the same sequence to-day, and, while we do not fill our pages with warnings and

exposures, there are times when silence would mean an unfaithful discharge of our

The false teachers whom the Apostle had in mind when he wrote to the Roman church

are characterized in a twofold way:

There are two words that are translated "division" in the Epistles. The first of these is

schisma, "a rent", as in I Cor. 1: 10, and, literally, in Matt. 9: 16. Where this word is

used it indicates a serious division within the Church. The second word is the one used

here in Romans: dichostasia, meaning a "dissension", a symptom of the disease which, if

unchecked, will end in schism. The word is used only three times by the Apostle--in

Rom. 16: 17, I Cor. 3: 3 and Gal. 5: 20. The context of each reference indicates that

this dissension arises not so much from ignorance of the truth but rather from self-seeking

and the flesh.