How many original translators were there, approx

[Paul Younan]

How do we explain this verse in the Peshitta?

Romans 16:22 "I Tertius, who inscribed this epistle in the Master, ask for your peace."

Shlama Akhi Chuck,

I don't think Saul/Paul wrote much himself, thus we see the explicit remark in Col. 4:18 about his own handwritten salutation. Galatians 6:11 also, "..see with what big letters I write..." It's commonly accepted that scribes wrote much of what Paul dictated, even at times in chains. He seems to chime in with his own writing towards the end of his epistles.

I think our explanation of the verse from an Aramaic primacy perspective presents the same challenges as would be present from a Greek primacy perspective - this was an epistle addressed to a community of believers in Rome, the capital, where Latin was the official tongue. Who were they, and what language did they speak? Many of the people addressed to in the salutation are Jews...for example, Aquila (Acts 18:2), Andronicus, Junias and Herodion, whom Paul calls his "kinsmen", "fellow Jews", etc.

So we still have a Jew, dictating an epistle to a community of believers (seemingly mostly Jews) in Rome. Was that epistle in Latin, Greek or Aramaic ? The texts are the key witnesses, that's all we have. All else is guessing.

+Shamasha