Verse 6
Salute Mary who bestowed much labor on you.
Despite the fact that "on you" is preferred in the rendition here, upon what the translators considered strongly sufficient technical grounds, there is much to commend an alternate reading "on us," meaning "upon the apostle Paul," that being the translation preferred by Hodge on the grounds of its being better suited to the context. He wrote:
The assiduous service of Mary rendered to the apostle is a more natural reason of his salutation than that she had been serviceable to Roman Christians.[11]Wuest observed that:
The name in the Greek text is Marian, a Jewish name, the same as Miriam.[12]Nothing is known of this diligent Christian woman but what is said here; and even this is not absolutely clear, due to the question of who was the beneficiary of her labors; but whether it was upon Paul or upon the saints in Rome that her labors were expended, it is the degree and diligence of those labors which are brought to view here. The Greek word here translated "much labor" indicates work sufficiently heavy to produce weariness and fatigue.
[11] Charles Hodge, op. cit., p. 448.
[12] Kenneth S. Wuest, op. cit., p. 260.
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