---
title: Romans 16:5
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/romans-16-5/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/romans-16-5.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Romans 16:5
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Romans 16:5

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> Greet also the church that meets at their house.  Greet my beloved Epenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in the province of Asia.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "Also greet the congregation that is in their house"

## JW Usage

Watchtower commentary takes Romans 16:5 as describing first-century house churches as a transitional arrangement before the development of formal Christian gathering places. The Kingdom Hall pattern is treated as the modern equivalent. The "congregation" terminology is preserved across the NWT to align with JW Kingdom Hall vocabulary rather than the "church" language of consensus translations.

## Protestant Usage

Romans 16:5 — "the congregation that is in their house" — is the New Testament's normative gathering pattern. Paul greets house churches in Rome, Corinth (1 Cor 16:19), Colossae (Col 4:15), Philemon's house (Philemon 1:2), and elsewhere. There were no Kingdom Halls, no centralised programs directed by a Governing Body, no mandatory twice-weekly meetings. Hebrews 10:24-25 commands "consider one another so as to incite to love and fine works, not forsaking our meeting together" — the imperative is mutual encouragement, not building attendance. Two Christians in a coffee shop, three at a Bible study, a family praying together — all fulfil the verse. The Watchtower has built a mandatory institutional framework on top of a New Testament that knew only organic household-based gathering.

## NWT Issue

The NWT renders ekklēsia as "congregation" rather than "church" (consensus ESV/NASB/NIV/KJV). Lexically defensible — ekklēsia means "assembly" — but the NWT's systematic preference reframes the assembly term to fit JW Kingdom Hall vocabulary and avoid "church" connotations. The choice is consistent across the NWT and shapes how readers encounter every Pauline reference to the gathered people of God.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Meeting Attendance Is Not What Hebrews 10:25 Commands](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/hebrews-10-25-meetings.md) — Hebrews 10:24-25 / Romans 16:5 / Colossians 4:15 [Practice]