Romans 16
Phoebe commended, servant of the assembly at Cenchreae — a patron of many. The verb of greeting twenty-one times — Prisca and Aquila who laid down their neck, Epaenetus firstfruits of Asia, Andronicus and Junia notable among the apostles, women who laboured, Rufus and his mother, assemblies in houses. A holy kiss. Turn away from those who make dissensions and stumbling blocks — beguiling by fine speech and blessing. The God of peace will crush Satan under your feet. Greetings from fellow workers and from Tertius who wrote the letter. The base text closes with the blessing of v.24 — it does not print the doxology (25-27).
Why this rendering
Rom.16.1 Observation
Syntactic observation
Συνίστημι δὲ ὑμῖν Φοίβην τὴν ἀδελφὴν ἡμῶν, οὖσαν καὶ διάκονον τῆς ἐκκλησίας τῆς ἐν Κεγχρεαῖς … αὐτὴ προστάτις πολλῶν ἐγενήθη καὶ ἐμοῦ αὐτοῦ — I commend to you Phoebe our sister, who is also a servant of the assembly in Cenchreae … she herself has become a patron of many, and of me myself. συνίστημι is the verb by which righteousness (3:5) and love (5:8) were ‘commended’ — one word also where a person is commended. διάκονος is the same ‘servant’ as the authority of 13:4 and Christ of 15:8; the text coins no separate feminine — ‘deaconess’ would let a later office run ahead of it. προστάτις occurs only here in the New Testament — the feminine noun of προΐστημι (12:8, preside): one who stands before and protects. ‘Patron’ loses that root. ἐκκλησία is the ‘assembly’ of Matt 16:18 and Acts 5:11; Cenchreae is the eastern port of Corinth (where Paul shaved his head, Acts 18:18).
Rendering options · 2
Basis One word, one rendering; the same form for men and women.
Basis Reading it as the name of an office.
Rejected The same reason ἐκκλησία is not ‘church’: no later institutional name is imported ahead of the text.
Lost in translation
προστάτις ↔ προΐστημι (12:8 preside) — ‘patron’ has no ‘standing before’ in it.
Why this rendering
Rom.16.7 Observation
Syntactic observation
ἀσπάσασθε Ἀνδρόνικον καὶ Ἰουνίαν τοὺς συγγενεῖς μου καὶ συναιχμαλώτους μου, οἵτινές εἰσιν ἐπίσημοι ἐν τοῖς ἀποστόλοις, οἳ καὶ πρὸ ἐμοῦ γέγοναν ἐν Χριστῷ — greet Andronicus and Junia, my relatives and my fellow captives, who are notable among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me. The base text accents ⸀Ἰουνίαν — the accent on the penult is the accusative of the woman’s name Ἰουνία (Junia); a man’s name (‘Junias’) would need the accent moved to the last syllable. The variant mark is that split of accent. Uncial manuscripts carry no accents, so the letters cannot decide; the base text reads the woman, and this edition follows it: Junia. ἐπίσημοι ἐν τοῖς ἀποστόλοις is kept as ‘notable among the apostles’, leaving both readings — notable apostles among the apostles, or well known to the apostles. ἐπίσημος is the word attached to Barabbas in Matt 27:16 (‘notorious’); it carries good and bad sense alike, and English must split it (notorious / notable). συναιχμάλωτος is αἰχμάλωτος (captive, Luke 4:18) with συν-.
Rendering options · 3
Basis Reads ⸀Ἰουνίαν as printed; ‘among the apostles’ is left open.
Basis Reading with the accent moved to the last syllable (a convention of the received-text tradition).
Rejected The base text does not print it so; adopting it means leaving the base text.
Basis Narrowing ἐν to ‘to’.
Rejected ἐν τοῖς ἀποστόλοις keeps both readings open; the rendering does not close it.
Lost in translation
ἐπίσημος — one word with Barabbas’ ‘notorious’ (Matt 27:16); English must split it as notorious / notable.
Why this rendering
Rom.16.17 Observation
Syntactic observation
σκοπεῖν τοὺς τὰς διχοστασίας καὶ τὰ σκάνδαλα … ποιοῦντας, καὶ ἐκκλίνετε ἀπ’ αὐτῶν· οἱ γὰρ τοιοῦτοι … διὰ τῆς χρηστολογίας καὶ εὐλογίας ἐξαπατῶσι τὰς καρδίας τῶν ἀκάκων — look to those who make the dissensions and the stumbling blocks, and turn away from them; for such people … through fine speech and blessing beguile the hearts of the innocent. σκοπέω is the verb of Luke 11:35 (‘look to it’). ἐκκλίνω is the verb of 3:12 (‘all have turned aside’), here of turning away from people — one verb for the road of sin and for those who make sin. In v.18 χρηστολογία (only here in the New Testament) is χρηστός (good; Luke 6:35) + λόγος, ‘good speech’, and εὐλογία is the ‘blessing of Christ’ of 15:29 — the text uses the word ‘blessing’ for deceiving talk, and the rendering keeps ‘blessing’ so the twist stays visible. ἄκακος negates κακός (evil) — Korean keeps ‘without evil’; English ‘innocent’ loses the root. In v.19 ἀκέραιος (unmixed) is the word of Matt 10:16, ‘unmixed as the doves’.
Rendering options · 2
Basis The text chose that word; it must be visibly the word of 15:29.
Basis The familiar paraphrase.
Rejected No word for flattery in the text; the twist — ‘blessing’ used to deceive — disappears.
Lost in translation
The κακός inside ἄκακος — ‘innocent’ does not show ‘evil’.
ἐκκλίνω — one verb in 3:12 (‘turned aside’) and 16:17 (‘turn away’).
Why this rendering
Rom.16.24 Observation
Syntactic observation
⸂Ἡ χάρις τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ μετὰ πάντων ὑμῶν.⸃ ⸀Ἀμήν. — The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. The base text closes Romans with this verse — it has no 16:25-27 (the doxology ‘Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ … glory for ever’). Its critical apparatus (measured on 2026-09-19 from the apparatus file in the SBLGNT repository) records that ‘Ἡ χάρις … ὑμῶν’ of 16:24 is printed by the Byzantine majority text and omitted by Westcott-Hort, Tregelles and Nestle-Aland 28; that where v.24 ends with ‘Ἀμήν’, those three print the doxology of vv.25-27 (Τῷ δὲ δυναμένῳ …); and that after 14:23 the Byzantine majority text prints the same doxology. So the base text prints v.24 (with ⸂⸃ marks) and prints the doxology neither after chapter 14 nor after chapter 16 — the three critical editions drop v.24 and place the doxology after 16, the Byzantine text keeps v.24 and places it after 14; the base text sides with neither. Romans in this edition is therefore 16 chapters, 24 verses at the end, 430 verses in all — of the seventeen versions consulted, only WEB omits the doxology, and ten omit v.24 (Korean Revised, New Korean Revised Standard, ASV, BSB, ESV, NET, NIV2011, NLT, MSG, Tischendorf). Verse 20 carries the same blessing (μεθ’ ὑμῶν); a benediction twice in one letter is why v.24 reads to many as a later addition.
Rendering options · 2
Basis Verses the base text does not print are not translated (the rule of John 5:4, Mark 7:16, Luke 17:36).
Basis Readers will look for a doxology almost every version prints.
Rejected Bracketing what the base text does not print would invent a grade the base text did not give — the brackets of Luke 22:19b-20 are the base text’s own.
Lost in translation
The ⸂⸃ and ⸀ marks the base text puts on v.24 — the grade ‘a verse the base text is not sure of’ does not reach the translation.