‘Greet My Jewish Friends Among You’: The Recipients in Romans Beyond Encoded Reader (Rom. 16:3–16)
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: In recent years, a growing number of interpreters propose that the audience in Romans is purely gentile. Problematic for this position is that Jewish persons are greeted by Paul towards the end of the letter in Romans 16:3–16. Respondents appeal to an ancient epistolary convention suggesting that second-person greetings to a third party identify those who are not among the letter’s recipients. Also, the encoded reader is said to be a gentile. This study, however, presents from ancient epistolary conventions most relevant to Rom. 16 that second-person plural greetings assume the third parties are among the same community as the letter recipients. Internal evidence from Rom. 16:6 and 16:16 also confirms this viewpoint. As well, beyond the encoded reader, a reading that affirms the historical recipients of the letter suggests that these recipients include the persons who are named in Rom. 16.
Source: Religions
DOI: 10.3390/rel16121563
Author: B. J. Oropeza
Institution: Azusa Pacific University
Language: English
Subfield: Religious studies
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,172
OpenAlex ID: W4417266384