Thousands and thousands of men eminent in their respective generations have been forgotten, and even their names have perished. Of a few the names have been recorded, and nothing more. Of the wise men who lived in the generation after David, only Solomon is now known to the world, while Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman and Calcol and Darda, the sons of Mahol, whose wisdom was such that Solomon alone excelled them (1 Kings 4:31), are known only by their names, and by these not one man in ten thousand knows them now. Who among their contemporaries could have dreamed that they would be thus forgotten?

      And here is Tertius, who was the real writer of the Epistle to the Romans; how many people recognize his name when they see it in print? How many, who shall read this article,, will escape some surprise, on seeing the statement that he wrote this well-known Epistle? How many there are who are not conscious of ever having heard his name! Who was he? His name Tertius (third) makes it probable that he was so named because he was his mother's third son. Quartus (fourth), who is mentioned in the next verse (Rom. 16:23), may have [416] been so called because he was the next younger brother of Tertius. If his parents used numerals for the names of their children, they could easily find names for all of them as they made their appearance. It would be Primus, Secundus, Tertius, Quartus, Quintus, Sextus, Septimus, and so on to the end.

      But this is not all that is known of Tertius. Often a single fact in a man's history reveals, indirectly, a great deal. He says, in a parenthesis (for it is only in a parenthesis that we learn anything about him), "I Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you." He was, then, a penman, a scribe. In his day, penmanship was an art, as it is at the present day in eastern lands--an art to which young men were trained as they are to stenography and typewriting in our own day. The most skillful teachers of penmanship in our day are not more expert than were the professional scribes of that day. That Paul employed Tertius to write, while he dictated the words, is proof that Paul intended to have a perfect manuscript, no word obscure, no letter omitted, no interlining. The manuscript was to be as free from imperfection as the thoughts were from error. Whatever might be the fate of that manuscript in days and years and centuries to come, it was to be given to the world inerrant. If errors should afterward creep into the text, it would be the fault of man, and this would make it the duty of man to detect and correct them. Could not Paul have thus written with his own pen? Perhaps not. He was brought up to the trade of a tent-maker, and not to that of a scribe.

      But we know one thing more about Tertius. He was a Christian. In writing at Paul's dictation he took the liberty, or was granted the liberty, to send his own salutation to the elect of God who dwelt in Rome. He [417] probably knew none of them by person, but he knew that when they should learn how Paul had honored him as his penman, they would take new interest in the penmanship of the Epistle, and accept thankfully his greeting. How much of Christian fellowship is here implied! When I get to heaven I shall be glad to see Tertius.

[SEBC 413-416]