Romans 16:9 – Hugs and Kisses
Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and Stachys, my beloved.
Truth to Learn
Family members greet one another with signs of affection.
Behind the Words
The word “greet,” which we looked at back in verse three, is aspadzomai, which refers specifically to greeting a person with a hug. There are two other Greek words that carry roughly the same idea, that of a greeting or a salutation. They are philema, meaning “to greet with a kiss” and enagkalizomai, meaning “to embrace or hug.”
“Urbanus” is a common Roman slave name. It means “city-born.”
“Fellow worker” is the word sunergos, which we looked at back in verse three. It refers to someone who works together with someone else.
The name “Stachys” is a fairly rare Greek name. It means “an ear of corn.” There was a person of this name who was a member of the household of Caesar. Whether or not this is the same person cannot be verified.
Meaning Explained
Paul continues with his salutations to various people in the church at Rome. The two individuals in today’s verse are Urbanus and Stachys. Urbanus was quite possibly a slave owned by a Roman citizen and Stachys may have been a domestic servant in Caesar’s household. This is plausible since Paul greets the two brothers in Christ in the same verse, although we don’t know for certain anything about these two other than what Paul tells us here.
Notice how often Paul has used the word “greet” in this chapter. He continues to use this word repeatedly up through verse sixteen. As we pointed out in “Behind the Words” above, this is one of several Greek words that were commonly used to express a greeting. Two of the words imply a hug or an embrace and the other one implies a kiss. It was very common in the first century church to greet fellow Christians with hugs and kisses. There are many Churches today in which believers greet each other with a hug; however, few churches greet one another with a kiss. In the first century church is was very common for men to greet men with a kiss and for women to greet women with a kiss.
Later, in verse sixteen, Paul will suggest that the members of the church in Rome greet each other with a holy kiss, as he also does to the church in Corinth (1Corinthians 16:20 and 2Corinthians 13:12) and the church in Thessalonica (1Thessalonians 5:26). Likewise, the Apostle Peter in his first general epistle says to “greet one another with a kiss of love” (1Peter 5:14). Because of this common practice of hugging and kissing in the first century church, Christians were often characterized by outsiders as being incestuous.
Application
Since all Christians are part of the body of Christ and we all have a common Heavenly Father, we refer to each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. And, since we are all part of the same family, we should feel comfortable greeting one another with an affectionate hug.
In God’s service, for His glory,
Copyright © 2011 Will Krause. All rights reserved.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, send an e-mail to: