Aristobulus

Biblical Record

Aristobulus appears only once in the Bible, in Romans 16:10. As Paul brings his letter to a close, he sends greetings to a number of believers in Rome, and in this verse he writes: "Salute Apelles approved in Christ. Salute them which are of Aristobulus' household." Both the Korean Revised Version and the New Korean Revised Version spell the name 아리스도불로 (Aristobulus).

The Korean term rendered "household," gwonsok (眷屬), denotes the members of a single house. The original text uses an expression meaning "those who belong to Aristobulus." The greeting is therefore addressed not to Aristobulus himself but to the people of his household. Scripture says nothing about his life, his occupation, or whether he was a believer.

Significance Within Scripture

In Romans 16 Paul greets many people by name. Some of these greetings are addressed not to individuals but to households or groups, and this verse is one such example. Scholars explain that in that period the expression "the household of so-and-so" could refer not only to family members but also to the slaves and freedmen attached to the house. For this reason the verse is frequently cited as evidence that the church in Rome included people of varied social standing.

Interpretations and Debates

The fact that Paul did not greet Aristobulus himself has given rise to several interpretations: that he had already died, that he was not a Christian, or that he was not in Rome at the time.

The nineteenth-century English scholar J. B. Lightfoot, among others, proposed identifying this man with Aristobulus, a grandson of Herod the Great who is known to have lived in Rome. In support of this view, proponents point to the very next verse (Romans 16:11), in which Paul writes, "Salute Herodion my kinsman," arguing that the name Herodion suggests a connection with the Herodian family. This identification, however, remains conjecture and is not confirmed by the text.

Eastern Orthodox tradition counts Aristobulus among the Seventy disciples sent out by Jesus and holds that he served as a bishop who preached the gospel in Britannia (present-day Britain). These accounts are later traditions and do not appear in the biblical text.

In the Korean Church

In the Korean church, Aristobulus is rarely the subject of a sermon in his own right. He is mentioned mainly in expository preaching through Romans or in treatments of the greetings in Romans 16, where preachers note that Paul remembered his co-workers and fellow believers one by one.