Why did the Apostle Paul give personal greetings in Romans?
Saint George Preca has been likened as a successor to Saint Paul's evangelical work on the island of Malta. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “Salute Asyncritus , Phlegon , Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, and the brethren which are with them.” ( Romans 16:14 ) An interesting phenomenon occurs in the closing chapter of many of Paul’s epistles , which may at first seem incongruous with the biblical doctrine of plenary verbal inspiration. This phenomenon is the recital of various names of individuals—people in the churches from which, or to which, he was writing. Most of them are people about whom we know nothing except their names, as listed by Paul. There are 11 people mentioned by name in Colossians 4:7-17. In Paul’s final epistle to Timothy, right after he had written the great passage on the inspiration of the Bible ( 2 Timothy 3:16-17 ), he mentioned no less than 18 names. In the last chapter of Romans is listed 35 names, five of which are included in the one short verse of our text!