text: Paul's scribe in the epistle to the Romans was Tertius, the date is AD 58. Paul is dictating a letter, in his room at the house of Gaius in the city of Corinth. He has been preaching in Corinth for some months, and has won many converts. For some time he has been planning to send a letter to a group of Christians in another city. Would Tertius be kind enough to come to the house of Gaius, some time this week and write a letter from Paul's dictation? Arriving at the house of Gaius, Tertius takes his seat at the writing table, stylus in hand. \nTertius is etching Paul's words on a papyrus sheet, one phrase at a time. Paul reclines on a couch, or perhaps in his enthusiastic manner walks back and forth across the room. While Tertius writes one clause, Paul thinks of the next. As he rapidly dictates the sentences, Tertius writes them down as fast as he can. He probably wrote the final copy of the letter in a "cursive" or running style of hand writing, which was different than the letters which were used in permanent books, just as our script is different than print. No spaces between the words in Tertius letter, and almost no punctuation marks.