Tertius

There is a Scripture reading. It’s coming at the end today. Don’t look yet. I want to challenge your Bible Trivia skills first and if you look at the text, you’ll know the answer without stretching your memory. Here goes…Who was Tertius? I’m guessing only a handful of Bible trivia geeks will know.

              He was the guy who wrote the book of Romans. “Wait a minute,” you’re saying. “That’s not right. Paul wrote Romans. Everyone knows Paul wrote Romans.” Well, that’s true, but so did Tertius. He told us so right there in the book. Now, you can look at the Scripture Reading which is Romans 16.

              Romans 16 is one of the chapters we are tempted to skip or skim over. It is a lot of names, personal stuff, “greet” this person and that person. We don’t know much about any of the people named. And there toward the end of the chapter, we find this line: “I Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord.” See, Romans was written by Tertius.

              It seems Paul almost always used a secretary to whom he dictated to write his letters. Some speculate that he did so because he had poor eyesight. There is good evidence to back that theory. Romans is a logical, reasoned, thorough explanation of the gospel. I can’t imagine it was written casually. I wonder if Paul had Tertius read back to him what he had written several times. Were there corrections and multiple drafts?

              But there at the end, he slips his name in. Tertius. I assume a man with great penmanship, listening skills, and concentration ability. A guy who could be trusted to write what Paul said and not to interject his own “spin” on things. A Christian whose name would have never been known outside of the circle of his contemporaries had it not been for this sentence in Romans. The vast majority of Christians today couldn’t tell you who he was, yet he wrote (penned) the letter to the Romans.

              There are the big names in church history – the Spurgeons and Calvins and Whitefields – but they are the minority. Most Christians are of the Tertius sort. We live and die, and our names are soon forgotten. But the imprint is there whether or not human history recognizes it. We do our part, use our gifts, faithfully serve Christ, and play a role in the workings of Christ in history. No need to make an “I am Spartacus” statement. “I am Tertius” works fine.