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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadMatthew Poole Commentary - Romans 16:7 - 16:7
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Salute Andronicus and Junia; it may be rendered Junius. Some think this Junia was a woman, and the wife of Andronicus; others take them both for men.
My kinsmen; so he calls them, either because they were Jews, Rom_9:3; or because they were of the same tribe; or because they were more nearly related to him by consanguinity and affinity.
My fellow prisoners; i.e. they had been imprisoned for the gospel, as well as he: the apostle had been often in prison himself, 2Co_11:23. We read, Act_16:23, of his being imprisoned at Philippi, and it may be these two were his fellow prisoners, for we read of other prisoners there besides Paul and Silas, Rom_16:25,26.
Who are of note among the apostles; i.e. they were well known to the apostles, and were in good esteem with them: not only the twelve, together with Paul and Barnabas, but other teachers are sometimes called apostles, or messengers; see 2Co_8:23 Phi_2:25. Some have thought these two, Andronicus and Junia, were of the number of the seventy disciples, who are mentioned Luk_10:1. Others, that they were of the one hundred and twenty, who are mentioned in Act_1:15; or of those that were converted by the first preaching of Peter, and the rest, Act_2:41 4:4. By what follows, it appeareth they were of considerable standing in Christianity.
Who also were in Christ before me: there are three things for which he commends these two persons: the first is, their sufferings for Christ; the second is, their fame among the apostles; and the third is, their forwardness in conversion. This was Mnason’s commendation, Act_21:16. When he saith, they
were in Christ, he intimates the virtue and power of faith to incorporate us into Christ, as branches into a vine.