Romans 12:13
Communicating to the necessities of the saints. Pursuing hospitality.
Open Romans 12:13 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- necessitatibus sanctorum communicantes : hospitalitatem sectantes.
- Greek New Testament (SBLGNT)
- ταῖς χρείαις τῶν ἁγίων κοινωνοῦντες, τὴν φιλοξενίαν διώκοντες.
Haydock's commentary
Communicating 2 to the necessities of the saints. Making them partakers of what you have, by relieving them. (Witham)
2 Communicantes; koinonountes. Koinonein is often used by St. Paul for making others sharers by giving to them.
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
Clement of Alexandria The Instructor, Chapter XII. Continuation: with Texts from Scripture
“He that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness. Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love, in honour preferring one another. Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer. Given to hospitality; communicating to the necessities of the saints.”
St Augustine On Christian Doctrine, Examples of the Various Styles Drawn from Scripture
40. In the following words of the apostle we have the temperate style: “Rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father; and the younger men as brethren; the elder women as mothers, the younger as sisters.” And also in these: “I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is you reasonable service.” And almost the whole of this hortatory passage is in the temperate style of eloquence; and those parts of it are the most beautiful in which, as if paying what was due, things that belong to each other are gracefully brought together. …
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans, Homily XXI on Rom. xii. 4, 5
Ver. 13 . “Sharing with the necessity ( χρείαις , al. μνείαις , memories) of the saints.”