“I, Tertius, who wrote down this letter, greet you”
I, Tertius, who wrote down this letter, greet you in the Lord. (Romans 16:22 BSB)
What it sounds like today
Wait, someone else wrote Romans?
The cultural key
Tertius is the amanuensis, the trained secretary who took the letter down; dictation to a secretary was the standard way substantial letters got written, and secretaries ranged from shorthand stenographers to co-composers. Authors then authenticated the result in their own hand: 'See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand' (Galatians 6:11); 'I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. This is the sign of genuineness in every letter of mine' (2 Thessalonians 3:17), a needed measure, since forged letters circulated (2 Thessalonians 2:2).
Recovered meaning
Romans came through a secretary's pen, and the secretary got to say hello, the only voice besides Paul's inside a Pauline letter. The practice quietly explains style differences among the letters and the function of Paul's famous 'large letters' signature.