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Roman Church
The church at Rome did not operate like the Corinthian church. This, according to Robert Banks, explains the rather unusual greeting in Romans: "To all God's beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints"1 instead of the "church" or "churches," as Paul writes in other letters.2 Banks argues that since "ecclesia" for Paul "cannot refer to a group of people scattered throughout a locality unless they all actually gather together, it is not possible for him to describe all the Christians in Rome as a church. The whole church of Rome never assembled in one place."3
In Romans 16, other congregations may be distinguished. The "brothers" with Hermas may refer to a house used both for Christian workers and for congregational meetings. The believers "from Caesar's house"4 and the Roman synagogues of the Augustesians and the Agrippesians, were probably congregations centering on the freedmen and slaves of those two households and meeting there. It is likely that they belonged to Narcissus, the wealthy freedman and confidant of the emperor Claudius, and to Aristobulus, the brother of Herod Agrippa I, who had lived in Rome. Upon their deaths, their households presumably became part of the imperial holdings but continued to be identified by their names.5 Various house churches in Rome were run by either Jewish or Gentile believers. How would their worship have been different? What do the diverse beliefs in Rome teach us about tolerance today?
1Romans 1:7 2see 1 Corinthians 1:2; 2 Corinthians 1:1; Galatians 1:2; 1 Thessalonians 1:1; 2 Thessalonians 1:1 3"Pauline Theology - Ministry and Society" by E. Earl Ellis 4Philippians 4:22 5Romans 16:14
"To all God's beloved in Rome."
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