Missionaries, Apostles, Coworkers: Romans 16 and the Reconstruction of Women's Early Christian History

Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza

Article Type: Article

Publication Date: 10/1/1986

Issue: Romans (Vol. 6, No 4, Fall, 1986)

One can approach a text like Romans 16 with different questions and presuppositions. If one focuses attention on the theological teaching of Paul, this chapter is seen as a mere appendix to Paul’s theological testament in Romans. If one is interested, however, in the social realities of early Christian communities and the cultural and religious world in which they lived, much can be learned from this chapter. Although the indirect information conveyed by the list of greetings is very scanty, it nevertheless allows us to learn something about the social status and missionary activity of early Christians.

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