Lives of Scripture

Tertius appears in a single verse, inserting his own voice briefly into the flow of Paul's letter to the Roman church: 'I, Tertius, who write this letter, greet you in the Lord' (Romans 16:22). This detail confirms what was standard practice for Paul's letters -- that Paul typically dictated his letters to a scribe who wrote them down, rather than writing every word by his own hand (compare Galatians 6:11, where Paul notes writing a final portion 'with my own hand' as a departure from his usual practice). Tertius's brief personal greeting, tucked into the middle of Paul's own list of greetings to various believers in Rome, shows a level of trust and warmth between Paul and his scribe -- Tertius was evidently not merely a hired hand taking dictation mechanically, but someone personally known to and valued by the Roman believers as well, close enough to the ministry to add his own word of greeting to one of the most theologically significant letters ever written. Nothing else is recorded of Tertius's background or later ministry, but his single sentence preserves a small, human window into how Paul's letters were actually produced -- through the faithful, largely unheralded labor of a scribe who is remembered by name precisely because Scripture itself chose to include his voice.