Rom 16:17-27 | TNotes | STEP | 16:17 people who cause divisions: Paul had trouble with divisive false teachers elsewhere (see Galatians, Colossians, 1 Timothy), so he warned the Roman church about this danger.

16:17 ^a people who cause divisions: Paul had trouble with divisive false teachers elsewhere (see Galatians, Colossians, 1 Timothy), so he warned the Roman church about this danger.
16:20 ^b The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet: Paul alludes to the curse that God pronounced upon the serpent after he had deceived Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Gen 3:15 ^c). Christ, the offspring of Eve, will soon crush Satan under the feet of the church (cp. Matt 16:18-19 ^d).
16:21 ^e Timothy was one of Paul’s closest ministry associates. Timothy accompanied Paul on his second missionary journey (Acts 16:2-3 ^f) and was with Paul in Corinth while Paul wrote this letter to the Roman church (see Acts 20:2-4 ^g).
16:22 ^h Tertius was the scribe (or amanuensis) who wrote the letter as Paul dictated. Most ancient letter writers employed such a scribe.
16:23 ⁱ This Erastus was probably the individual Paul sent from Ephesus to Macedonia during his third missionary journey (Acts 19:21-22 ^j; see 2 Tim 4:20 ^k). An inscription in Corinth mentions an Erastus who was a city magistrate, possibly the same Erastus mentioned here.
Summary for Rom 16:25-27: 16:25-27 ^l This doxology makes a very appropriate conclusion to Paul’s letter and its argument, reprising many of the themes found at the very beginning (1:1-15 ^m).

• The doxology is missing in two late manuscripts and is in different places in other manuscripts (after 14:23 ⁿ and after 15:33 ^o). Therefore, these verses might have been added to Paul’s letter at a later time. However, the majority of manuscripts do include the doxology at the end of the letter, and it uses vocabulary and themes common in the rest of the letter. Paul most likely wrote it himself as a conclusion to the letter. 16:25 ^p plan (literally mystery): For Paul, the mystery is the truth about God and his plan that was not clearly known in the Old Testament era but which has been revealed in the New Testament era. While the Old Testament predicted the conversion of Gentiles, it did not make clear that Gentiles would become equal members of the people of God without becoming proselytes of Judaism.
16:26 ^q so that they too might believe and obey him: Paul uses the same language about the mission to the Gentiles that he used in 1:5 ^r, creating a beautiful frame around the letter as a whole.