The Life We're Looking For by Andy Crouch

Author:Andy Crouch [Crouch, Andy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2022-04-19T00:00:00+00:00

NOT A SLAVE, BUT A GUEST

At Gaius’s table, Paul has dictated his long list of greetings (see Rom. 16:1–16). He has added a concluding exhortation and blessing (see verses 17–20). And now, we might imagine, he pauses.

For days, Tertius has been focusing on the page in front of him, perhaps employing the technique of tachygraphy (shorthand) that Greek scribes had invented to keep up with the spoken word. But now Paul has stopped speaking. And I imagine that Tertius looks up to see whether this is the end of the letter—and realizes that Paul is looking at him.

And Paul says to him, “Tertius, you should greet them.”

Perhaps Tertius is from Rome and knows the Roman church better than Paul himself; perhaps, like Paul, he has never been to Rome. But while it was not unknown for scribes to add their greetings to letters, Tertius’s greeting “in the Lord,” with the words that follow, breaks new ground. His appearance as a co-author of Paul’s letter expands the circle of brothers and sisters to include those who do the anonymous work, those who normally take orders, those who arrive without being greeted and depart without being noticed. Those who were named something like “number three.”

Paul sees Tertius. He is Paul’s brother, not just a hired hand. And the text goes on, most likely in Tertius’s own voice: “Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer, and our brother Quartus, greet you” (verse 23). Tertius is not just a slave in Gaius’s house—he is a guest, apparently alongside a city leader like Erastus. He is not just an employee—he is part of the “whole church” that meets in Gaius’s home.

And then there is the fascinating reference to “our brother Quartus.” Tertius, “third,” passes on greetings from Quartus, “fourth.” Could this be Tertius’s own younger brother? Whether his biological brother or just his brother in the Lord, here is another with a name of necessity, no longer just a number but a guest and brother at Gaius’s table. A person.

“I Tertius, the writer of this letter” (verse 22). In those brief words, a revolution in the Roman world is set in motion—a transformation in personhood already playing itself out around the table in the home of Gaius in Corinth, in the home of Prisca and Aquila in Rome, and indeed (we learn from Paul’s letter to the Philippians) in the household of Caesar himself.

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