Church Hopping

Paul was the author of 13 books of the Bible. He probably wrote other letters to many churches, but they are not included in the canon due to an elaborate conspiracy, dating back to Constantinian Rome, which hid the fact that Jesus was married, until the secret was revealed in 2006 by Forrest Gump and Magneto. All you need to make money it seems is a statement that flies in the face of thousands of years of traditionally held beliefs. So my time has arrived………..

Paul did not write the book of Romans.

Actually I don’t really think Paul wrote most of those so called “epistles.” It’s all there in Romans 16:22. A guy named Tertius wrote the book of Romans. One sec, Ron Howard is knocking on my door.

Alright, so it really isn’t as controversial as I make out. More that likely Tertius was just Paul’s amanuensis. I just learned that word. It means someone who writes what someone else dictates, like a stenographer. Paul was very educated or so he thought a la Galatians 1:14. He more than likely knew at least four languages and probably wrote his own copy of the Hebrew Bible while he was studying in Jerusalem. So he was more than capable of writing all 13 of the epistles attributed to him. But he was also a very busy man as you see in 2 Corinthians 11:24-28. So to help him out one of his disciples wrote down as he dictated, Tertius being the lucky guy to write Romans. Tertius just wanted to throw in his own hello when writing Romans. Paul said, “I’ll check with God to see if that’s cool with him” and apparently God said, “Yes, you may include your ‘hello’ in my guide for salvation that will be distributed throughout history to all mankind.”

You would probably be correct in assuming that most of Paul’s letters were dictated to an amanuensis. It seemed to be a common practice to dictate letters, but allow the author to write the last few lines themselves as a sort of signature. You can see this at the end of many of Paul’s other letters such as 2 Thessalonians 3:17 and Colossians 4:18 and 1 Corinthians 16:21. This would have authenticated the source, as well as made it more personal. Similar to the modern day practice of checking to see if the signature in a salutation was written by hand with a pen or printed on there.

Tertius is never mentioned again in the Scriptures. His name means “third son” which have caused many to think that Quartus (”fourth son” from Romans 16:23) might have been his little brother. Both being the children of uncreative parents. But Tertius does have one thing going for him. I (heretically) imagine people discussing the books of Romans in heaven and Tertius just sitting back saying, “Oh did you like that…cause I wrote it you know.”

References:

• ISBE
• Holman Bible Dictionary
• Romans 16:22-23
• 1 Corinthians 16:21
• 2 Corinthians 11:24-28
• Galatians 1:14
• Colossians 4:18
• 2 Thessalonians 3:17