Aristobulus introduced Phoebe and she walked to the front of the gathering. The atrium of the house was packed with maybe 50 people from different fellowships throughout the city. Rome was a melting pot and this cosmopolitan character was reflected in the varied make-up of the church. Some sat on benches, but most of the audience sat on the floor. People also stood along the walls, in alcoves, and in the doorways of rooms around the courtyard. Everyone was eager to hear Paul’s letter. Priscilla took a deep breath and glanced knowingly at her husband, Aquila. After she had returned to Rome, Priscilla had kept Paul up to date about the church there. More than a decade earlier, she and Aquila had been expelled from the city along with all other Jews by Emperor Claudius. In that time, they met Paul and with him founded the churches in Corinth and Ephesus. Meanwhile, Gentile believers had by necessity risen to positions of leadership in the growing Roman church. Now there were some tensions. Phoebe and Priscilla knew and liked each other well, and Phoebe had been teasingly coy about the contents of the letter that she was delivering. “You’ll find out soon,” she said with a smile. Phoebe was a prudent and capable woman, a Gentile, and a patron of Paul’s missionary efforts. In addition, she was a deaconess in the church in Cenchreae, a small port about half a day’s journey from Corinth. Standing in front of the crowd, Phoebe said nothing. In the quiet, you noticed noise from the city filtering in. Through a rectangular opening in the roof, you could see the sunset’s beautiful golden rose colors. Now, Phoebe started the address and from the first it was as if Paul inhabited her body. Priscilla smiled as it went on. The voice was Phoebe’s but the manner of delivery was exactly Paul’s. Obviously, Phoebe and Paul had spent some time practicing. There was the greeting and expression of his concern and goodwill, then a short introduction of his call to preach the gospel that reveals the righteousness of God, by faith from first to last. So far, so good. A long pause, then what turned out to be a strident invective against those who reject God. These people were without excuse and going from bad to worse. God’s wrath was upon them! Paul enumerated their numerous crimes with caustic detail. Phoebe’s voice was full of righteous anger as she thundered against the godless. Priscilla looked to her husband with concern as if to ask, “What is Paul doing?!” Another long pause as Phoebe slowly surveyed the room with a stern look. Some people nodded their heads and murmured in assent, while others shifted nervously. “But you,” said Phoebe-speaking-as-Paul, flipping around the subject to the hearers themselves. “You have no excuse when you pass judgement on these people yet do the exact same things yourselves!” A shocked silence. Phoebe’s voice now turned pleading: “Don’t you see that when you so easily condemn others, you look down on the richness of God’s kindness, forbearance, and patience? Don’t you see it was God’s kindness that eventually led us to repent?” +++++ I love the switch from Romans Chapter 1 to Chapter 2. Paul definitely turns the tables on the audience. In Romans 2:1, he even uses the singular “you” to drive the point home for each listener. I would love to have been a fly on the wall observing the delivery of that letter. In the time of the New Testament, a message like the Letter to the Romans would have been delivered by a picked person who had been coached by the author, and perhaps even ready to answer questions and provide more in-depth explanations on behalf of the person who sent them. I find it fascinating that Paul is sending Phoebe , a deaconess and a person of means who was able to help Paul and others (see Romans 16:1). Her name is taken from Greek mythology, indicating that she was almost certainly not a Jew. This was an interesting pick given that much of Romans addresses God’s plans for the Jews and Gentiles. In this story, I’m imagining what Phoebe’s delivery of the letter might have been like. From Romans 16, we gather there were multiple fellowships throughout the city including at Priscilla and Aquila’s house. (Again, I want people to notice that Priscilla is named first in Romans 16, not her husband. Take from that what you want.) From Romans 16, we also see that Paul knew a lot of people in the city but of course there would be many more that he didn’t know. It was one of the oldest churches. The Roman historian Suetonius says that the Jews were expelled from Rome by Claudius because they were causing disturbances “at the instigation of Chrestus.” This is almost certainly the expulsion mentioned in Acts 18:2, resulting in Priscilla and Aquila being in Corinth for a happy meeting with a lonesome Paul. Many scholars believe that the disturbance was tumult in the Jewish community due to the introduction of Christianity. Remember that among the 3,000 baptized at Pentecost were “visitors from Rome” (Acts 2:10) who brought the new faith back from Jerusalem at an early date. Read more by following the #biblemicrofiction hashtag.