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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJames Hastings Dictionary of the NT: Asyncritus
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( Ἀóýãêñéôïò , or Ἀóýíêñéôïò , a Greek name)
The first of a group of live names (all Greek) of persons ‘and the brethren with them’ saluted by St. Paul in Rom_16:14. Nothing is known of Asyncritus or of any member of this group. It is suggested that together they formed a separate ἐêêëçóßá , or church, within the Church of Rome. That such little communities existed in Rome, each with its own place of meeting, would appear from other similar phrases in Romans 16 : ‘the church that is in their house’ (Rom_16:5), ‘all the saints that are with them’ (Rom_16:15), and from the references to the Christian members of the ‘households’ of Aristobulus and Narcissus (Rom_16:10-11). This, of course, assumes the Roman destination of these salutations. If the Ephesian destination be preferred, there is evidence of similar house-churches at Ephesus in 1Co_16:19, and perhaps in Act_20:20 (see article Patrobas). The name Asyncritus has been found in an inscription of a freedman of Augustus (see Sanday-Headlam, Romans5, 1902, p. 427).
T. B. Allworthy.