Romans 16:5b-10 Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in Asia. 6 Greet Mary, who has worked hard for you.
Paul next sends greetings to quite a number of people that he knows in Rome. It is remarkable that he had this many contacts in Rome. It explains part of the reason he planned to stop there on his way to Spain.
Epaenetus is mentioned as the first convert in Asia. This says a lot about him in only a few words. What would it take to be the first convert? He must have been seeking and searching for meaning and found this in Jesus Christ. Something connected for him when he heard the gospel preached. Paul does not say that he was present for this, but that is the assumption. What does Paul mean here by “Asia”? Would this have been his first missionary journey into Asia-Minor, Galatia, Ephesus, or the general area of Turkey today? Another question is, how and why did Epaenetus go to Rome? We do not know the answers to these questions, but here is a man who had walked with Christ for some time whom Paul knew and who was part of the Roman church.
Mary was a fairly common name among Jews, as we can see several Mary’s in the Gospels. We do not know anything about this Mary, but highly unlikely this is a Mary from the Gospels, otherwise there would be some mention here. Mary the mother of Jesus was with the Apostle John. This Mary had worked hard in the Roman church. She is like many church women I have known. They work behind the scenes in so many ways to keep the ministries of the church moving forward. We do not know anything of what this Mary did for the Roman Christians but it was substantial enough that Paul knew about it from his long distance.
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