Did Secretaries Write The New Testament Books?

Who really wrote Romans? Before quipping, “Paul,” we should note Romans 16:22: “I Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord.” This means that while Paul wrote Romans, he used a secretary named Tertius to do so. Consider this letter from a Jewish woman Babatha, who lived in Jordan around the year AD 100:

Babatha deposed as aforestated through her guardian for this matter, Judah . . . [second hand] I, Babatha daughter of Shim‘on, have deposed . . . against John son of Eglas and ‘Abdoöbdas son of Ellouthas, guardians of my orphan son Jesus, according to the aforestated conditions. I, Eleazar son of Eleazar, wrote for her by request, because of her being illiterate. (P. Yadin 15, ll. 31-35)

A secretary prepared Babatha’s legal document. In the first century, the actual senders in situations like this one commonly wrote personal notes at the end as a means for demonstrating the document authentic—usually repeating the main points, as it would seem Babatha did. When we have original letters, we can see this practice reflected by a change in handwriting, which modern scholars notate with [second hand]. When the letter sender knew the letter was likely to be read aloud, the sender used a different expression. For example, in Cicero’s letter, closing greetings are given before Cicero apparently picked up the pen for himself to make some final remarks. He began by noting, “The rest I write to you in my own hand” (Cic. Att. 12.32.1). We see the same thing happening in Paul’s letter to the Galatians, just before Paul repeats its main points (see Gl 6:11) .

Babatha used a secretary because she was illiterate. She couldn’t even write the closing part herself. Eleazar wrote it for her. This was common in antiquity. But Paul was well educated, so why would he use a secretary? Today people tend to think of literacy as the ability to read and write. In antiquity, however, it was the ability to read. Handwriting is largely a matter of practice.

In Galatians 6:11, Paul notes his handwriting is a bit large and clunky, a problem commonly faced by those needing to handwrite a letter when they rarely pick up a pen. Typing may provide a fitting analogy. Fifty years ago, most people didn’t type; secretaries did that. So while most anyone could read typing, trying to type something personally was for most a slow and clumsy process of pecking out one letter at a time.

Ancient secretaries were skilled at cutting papyrus (paper), trimming pens, mixing ink, scoring the lines, and writing neatly. They also knew the proper phrases and expressions associated with the kind of document desired.

New Testament (NT) writers contracted secretaries who would arrive with a stack of wax tablets for taking notes. When a secretary left, he prepared a draft and returned. At that visit, the writer listened to the draft and made corrections. The pair then repeated the process until the document was exactly what the writer wanted. At that point, the secretary prepared a nice copy for dispatch and usually a copy for the author to retain. In the case of a letter like Romans, all these secretarial services cost in today’s dollars about $2,300. New Testament documents were not carelessly or hastily dashed off in one evening.