Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJames Hastings Dictionary of the NT: Hermas
Subjects in this Topic:
( Ἑñìᾶò , Rom_16:14)
Hermas is a Greek name, a contracted form of several names such as Hermagoras, Hermeros, Hermodorus, Hermogenes, etc., common among members of the Imperial household (J. B. Lightfoot, Philippians4, 1878, p. 176), It is the last of a group of five names (all Greek) of persons, and ‘the brethren with them,’ saluted by St. Paul. Nothing is known of any member of the group. It is conjectured that together they formed a separate ἐêêëçóßá or ‘church,’ the locality of which we shall suppose to have been Rome or Ephesus, according to our view of the destination of these salutations. Cf. Rom_16:5; Rom_16:15 and perhaps Rom_16:11, and 1Co_16:19 and perhaps Act_20:20. Possibly these five men were heads of five separate household churches, or leaders or office-bearers in the Church.
T. B. Allworthy.