Tertius

TERTIUS tur'-shi-us (Tertios):

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" (Romans 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 shalish 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" (2 Thessalonians 3:17; Colossians 4:18; 1 Corinthians 16:21). How far this may have influenced the style of his letters is discussed in Sanday-Headlam, Romans, Introduction, LX.

S. F. Hunter

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Bibliography Information

Orr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor. "Entry for 'TERTIUS'".  "International Standard Bible Encyclopedia".  1915.