Hidden Pillars: When the Roll Call Isn't Just Names

🏛️ Hidden Pillars: When the Roll Call Isn't Just Names

By Dr. Shawn Michael Greener
www.TrueWordFaithforLife.com
© 2025 Shawn M. Greener. All rights reserved.

Romans 16.  Teaching on this LIVE!  THIS Thursday at 7 PM Eastern!

A chapter most people skip.

A chapter often treated like the “credits at the end of the movie”—just a list of names. But what if that chapter is actually one of the most powerful revelations in the entire New Testament?

In Hidden Pillars: The Saints of Romans 16, I invite you to walk with me through what might be the most overlooked battlefield in the Word of God. Because these weren’t just greetings. These were commendations under persecution. These were coded affirmations of spiritual authority, sent straight into the belly of the beast—Rome.

What Paul does here is nothing short of revolutionary.

🔍 They Had No Stage—But They Changed the World

The names listed in Romans 16 are not random. They are courageous. They are dangerous. They are diverse.

• Priscilla (Prisca) is named before her husband Aquila—a cultural statement of her prominence as a teacher and house-church leader.
• Junia is called “outstanding among the apostles”—and the early Church confirmed she was a woman.
• Rufus’ mother is mentioned as a spiritual mother to Paul himself.
• A Persian woman (Persis), Roman sisters (Tryphena & Tryphosa), a Jewish man who carried Yeshua’s cross (Simon of Cyrene’s son, Rufus)—all named, all honored.

These men and women were living between empire and eternity. Their faith was not convenient. It was costly. Their impact wasn’t visible. It was eternal.

🕯️ The ANE Context: Names Were Declarations

In the Ancient Near Eastern worldview, a name carried weight. To name someone in a letter sent to Rome—a city of executions, prisons, and torture—was to place a target on their back.

But Paul does it anyway.

Why? Because these people mattered to the Kingdom.

As Dr. Michael Heiser noted, the early Ekklesia upended Roman social structures. Status wasn’t earned by wealth or citizenship—it was earned by obedience, faithfulness, and shared suffering.

⚔️ What About You?

This isn’t just a history lesson. It’s a mirror.

If a letter like Romans 16 were written today to your city, would your name be on it?

Would they say you labored faithfully?
That you opened your home?
That you risked your reputation, your career, your comfort—for the Gospel?

We are not called to admiration. We are called to action.

🙏 New to Faith? Here's Your First Step…

If this message stirred something in your spirit, and you’ve never truly surrendered your life to God—start here. I’ve included a Prayer of Salvation in the podcast and in every blog post like this. Don’t wait. Say it from your heart. Say yes to Him.

Listen to the Full Podcast Episode Here ➤
Order the Book ➤ www.TrueWordFaithforLife.com

Listen LIVE 7/24 at 7 PM EDT on Rumble & YouTube!

📘 Remember to ask for my Study Guide: Saints of Romans 16

✍️ Final Thought

The Kingdom doesn’t need more celebrities.
It needs pillars.
Hidden ones. Faithful ones.
Ones who will serve when no one’s clapping. Ones who will stand when no one sees.

Be that one.

Shalom b’Shem Yeshua,
Dr. Shawn Michael Greener
A Follower of The Way