What Does Romans 16:22 Mean?
I, Tertius, who wrote this letter, embrace you in the Lord.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
I Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the Lord.THE KEY
The hand behind the letter steps into view as a person who sends its readers a welcome.
THE MEANING
Τέρτιος (Tertios, “the third”) steps forward through the letter and greets you in the Lord. That welcome reaches you now through writing: a human voice crosses the page and addresses you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A greeting on a page is not impersonal here: Tertius’s writing carries his own welcome to its readers.
THE ROOT
ἐπιστολή
epistolē
GROWS FROM
στέλλω (stellō), within ἐπιστέλλω (epistellō)
send, dispatch; with ἐπι-, send a message to someone
The Greek name for the letter bears the movement of sending: a message has been dispatched toward its reader. Tertius’s writing carries a welcome across the distance between his hand and the people addressed.
ALSO GROWS
epistellō: send a message to; write to
ἐπιστέλλω
This sending action sits behind ἐπιστολή, so the epistle is communication put on its way to someone.
apostellō: send out; dispatch
ἀποστέλλω
The shared στέλλω stem names a message or messenger set in motion from its sender.
ἀσπάζομαι
aspazomai
GROWS FROM
ἀσπάζ-
aspaz-
greet, welcome, receive warmly
“embrace” in this verse is aspazomai. This is a personal welcome, not merely a closing formula. Its word family makes Tertius more than an unseen hand: a named person reaches through writing to address the readers.
ALSO GROWS
aspasmos: greeting; salutation
ἀσπασμός
The related noun names the greeting as an act in its own right.
aspazontai: they greet; they welcome
ἀσπάζονται
Romans 16:16 uses the same verb family for assemblies greeting the readers, showing this welcome can travel through many voices.
THE PATTERN
A written message carries its sender’s voice and presence across distance.
These are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the remnant of the elders who were carried away, to the priests, to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon.Therefore I write these things while away, lest, being beside you, I should cut sharply, according to the authority the Lord gave me, for building up and not for tearing down.The embrace of me, Paul, by my own hand.THE THREAD
Embrace one another with a set-apart kiss. The assemblies of the anointed one embrace you.The same Greek verb ἀσπάζομαι (aspazomai), meaning greet or welcome, names both the mutual greeting and the assemblies’ greeting here. Romans 16:22 gives that shared welcome a single named human voice: Tertius.
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