Tertius

This man hath honourable mention made of him in Scripture, from his services to the Apostle Paul. (Rom. 16. 22.)

Ter´tius. We learn from Rom 16:22 (’I Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the Lord’), that the Apostle Paul dictated that epistle to Tertius. Some writers say that Tertius was bishop of Iconium.

A Christian whom Paul employed as his amanuensis in writing the epistle to the Romans, 1Ch 16:22 .\par

Ter’tius. (third). Probably a Roman, was the amanuensis, [A person whose employment is to write what another dictates.], of Paul in writing the Epistle to the Romans. Rom 16:22. (A.D. 55).

Paul’s amanuensis in writing the epistle to the Romans (Rom 16:22) from Corinth. His greeting inserted in the middle of Paul’s greetings to the Romans shows that he was well acquainted with the Roman Christians, "I Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the Lord"; his name too makes it likely he was a Roman.

[Ter’tius]

The Christian who wrote the Epistle to the Romans at Paul’s dictation, and who sent his own salutation to the saints. Rom 16:22.

TERTIUS.—St. Paul’s amanuensis who wrote Romans and added a personal salutation (Rom 16:22). It was the Apostle’s custom to employ a scribe (no doubt dictating shorthand notes, a common practice), but to add a short autograph himself. The autographs probably are: Rom 16:25-27, 1Co 16:21-24 (expressly), 2Co 13:13 f., Gal 6:11-18 (expressly), Eph 6:23 f., Php 4:21-23, Col 4:18 (expressly), 1Th 5:25-28, 2Th 3:17 f., (expressly). In the Pastoral Epistles and Philemon, which are personal letters, the presence of autograph passages is more uncertain.

A. J. Maclean.

tûr´shi-us (Τέρτιος, Tértios): The amanuensis of Paul who wrote at his dictation the Epistle to the Romans. In the midst of Paul’s greetings to the Christians in Rome he interpolated his own, “I Tertius, who write the epistle, salute you in the Lord” (Rom 16:22). “It is as a Christian, not in virtue of any other relation he has to the Romans, that Tertius salutes them” (Denney). Some identify him with Silas, owing to the fact that shālı̄sh is the Hebrew for “third (officer),” as tertius is the Latin Others think he was a Roman Christian residing in Corinth. This is, however, merely conjecture. Paul seems to have dictated his letters to an amanuensis, adding by his own hand merely the concluding sentences as “the token in every epistle” (2Th 3:17; Col 4:18; 1Co 16:21). How far this may have influenced the style of his letters is discussed in Sanday-Headlam, Romans, Introduction, LX.

(ÔÝñôéïò, a Latin name)

Tertius is the amanuensis of St. Paul who in Rom_16:22 interposes a greeting in his own name to the Apostle’s readers, ‘I Tertius, who write the epistle, salute you in the Lord’ (Revised Version ), or possibly, ‘I Tertius salute you, who write the epistle in the Lord’ (ἀóðÜæïìáé ὑìᾶò ἐãὼ ÔÝñôéïò ὁ ãñÜøáò ôὴí ἐðéóôïëὴí ἐí êõñßῳ). That St. Paul generally dictated his letters and added a few words in his own handwriting is clear from 1Co_16:21, Gal_6:11, Col_4:18, 2Th_3:17, and probably Phm_1:19. The amanuensis no doubt took down the Apostle’s words in shorthand, which was extensively used at the time, and later wrote out the letter for transmission (the employment of different amanuenses has been thought to account to some extent for the considerable diversity of style in the Pauline Epistles; see Sanday-Headlam, International Critical Commentary , ‘Romans’4, 1900, p. lx). Then St. Paul took up the pen and authenticated the letter, thus guarding against the palming off of forged documents under his name. Other postscripts of this kind have been suspected in the doxology (Rom_16:25-27) and in 2Co_13:11 ff., Php_4:21 ff., 1Th_5:25 ff. All this was quite in accordance with the custom of the time. If we can suppose, with some, that the ‘stake in the flesh’ from which the Apostle suffered was ophthalmia, or that he was unfamiliar with the use of the pen owing to his manual labour of tent-making, there would seem to be sufficient reason for St. Paul following the custom. Nothing further is known of Tertius. It is quite as unlikely that St. Paul kept a regular secretary as that Tertius was a slave whom he hired to do the work. He must have been a faithful attendant and companion of the Apostle, who, whether the alternative rendering given above be correct or not, ‘wrote the epistle in the Lord,’ i.e. as a Christian, in a spirit of loving service (see G. Milligan, Thessalonians, 1908, Note A, p. 124 ff.). His personal salutation does not necessarily imply that he was known to those to whom the letter was directed. If its destination was Rome, it is just possible that, as he bears a Latin name and was perhaps a Roman, he may have had friends among those whom the Apostle greets. If we suppose that the salutations were sent to Ephesian Christians, we may conjecture that Tertius had met many of them on the missionary journeys on which he may have accompanied St. Paul.

T. B. Allworthy.

(Romans 16)

- The scribe or secretary who wrote down Paul’s dictation. Interesting research suggests the original manuscript scroll of Romans was 12 feet (3.6m) long, and took some 12 hours for Paul to dictate. In the unhurried case of the Letter to the Romans, this would have been over a period of days, with frequent interruptions and possibly suggestions and comments from some of those present