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| A Mosaic of Simplicia Rustica in the Vatican's Pio Cristiano Museum |
Welcoming a Sister in Christ
Letters of commendation helped open doors of hospitality for traveling Christians (cf. 12:13).2 “Phoebe” [Φοίβη] (a Greek name meaning “bright” or “radiant,” an epithet of Phoebus Apollo) was a Christian “sister” [ἀδελφή],3 one of at least eight females named or alluded to in this chapter. Perhaps such an unusually large number of women are included in Paul’s greetings so that sister Phoebe was sure to receive a warm reception and ease her transition.4 It is commonly believed that she was the one entrusted with delivering the letter to Rome,5 although the text itself is not explicit enough to confirm this popular conjecture. Nor is it necessary to assume she traveled alone, a distance of over 740 miles (1,192 kms) from Cenchreae to Rome, a journey that would have taken nearly a month. As a female, a patroness (v. 2), and presumably a person of means, solo travel would have been unlikely.6
The Roman brethren are to “welcome [προσδέχομαι] her in the Lord in a way worthy [ἀξίως]7 of the saints,” an opportunity to implement the exhortation of 15:7; and “help” [παριστάνω], lit. “stand beside,”8 fulfilling 12:3-13. Whether Phoebe was on business or moving to Rome or just visiting, she had a ready church family to provide whatever assistance was needed.
Phoebe may have already been acquainted with Prisca and Aquila (v. 3), seeing that “Cenchreae” was the southeast seaport of Corinth (cf. Acts 18:18).9 As a result of the eighteen-month evangelistic efforts of Paul, Aquila, Priscilla (Prisca), Silas, and Timothy in Corinth (Acts 18:1-18a), plus extensive follow-up work, the gospel spread beyond the city limits throughout the province of Achaia (cf. 15:26),10 including Cenchreae about six miles (9.6 km) from Corinth, where another “church” [ἐκκλησία]11 was planted.
A Servant of the Church
Phoebe is described as “a servant” [διάκονον] of this congregation, the accusative form of διάκονος, which has historically been transliterated “deacon” in English versions of Philippians 1:1 and 1 Timothy 3:8-13. It is often surmised that Phoebe was “a teacher and leader in the church,”12 which is not only speculative and anachronistic but gives the appearance of an agenda-driven grasping at straws.13
The basic meaning of διάκονος is “servant” or “helper,” and in this sense every member of the Lord’s church is to be a διάκονος (a term void of any inherent leadership responsibilities).14 The cognate διακονία (cf. 11:13; 12:7; 15:31) conveys humble “service” rather than authoritative leadership and is applicable to what is expected of all followers of Christ.15 In fact, what Paul says about Pheobe is comparable to how Martha’s hospitable serving is described (Luke 10:38-40). When applied to a Christian woman, therefore, whether the word διάκονος is rendered “servant,” “minister,” or even “deaconess” (which is not an actual biblical word),16 it does not change the function designated by the term nor does it alter what a woman is allowed or not allowed to do in the church. The terms “servant” [διάκονος] and “leader” [ἡγεμών] represent very different concepts.17
EXCURSUS: A FURTHER OBSERVATION ABOUT THE ROLE OF “DEACONESS”
In 1 Timothy 3:11, listing qualifications of deacons, Paul includes: “Their wives [γυναῖκας] likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things” (ESV). The question is whether γυναῖκες here refers to women in general, women assisting deacons, female deacons, or wives of deacons. If “deaconess” were an official position in the early church,18 this would still be a role of service rather than unrestricted leadership and would not change her overall function in the community (as already established in the previous chapter, 1 Tim. 2:11-15). While all Christian women ought to exemplify these stipulated characteristics (cf. 1 Tim. 2:9-15; 5:5-10; contrast 5:11-15; 2 Tim. 3:6-7), the immediate context concerns men serving in the official capacity as congregational deacons, one of the requisites being “the husband of one wife” (v. 12). Contextually, therefore, this appears to be an instructive prelude to affirming not only a deacon’s marital status but the importance of being married to the right kind of spouse. God designed marriage as a partnership (Gen. 2:18, 24), and a wife who supports her husband in ministry is a great blessing, especially when ministering to females and families. By including this brief segment in the discussion, Paul provides “a reasonable basis for evaluating whether a man under consideration for a leadership role will have the support needed to effectively discharge his duties …. The opposite qualities would hinder her husband’s ministry and limit his influence…”19
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A Helper of Many
The service of Phoebe is described by Paul as “a patron of many and of myself as well.” The feminine noun προστάτις, signifying “protectress, patroness, helper” (BAGD 718) or “a woman in a supportive role, patron, benefactor” (BDAG 885), occurs only here in the NT.20 In community-oriented Mediterranean cultures, people instinctively “thought in terms of the collective group getting through life together.”21 Without government-generated welfare systems or any kind of wealth distribution, the societal expectation was that the more affluent would serve as benefactors or patrons for those of the lower class.22 This, then, was a normal practice in the early church, albeit adapted to the greater purpose of God (cf. 12:8), including how the needs of full-time evangelists were to be met. While Paul often depended on the financial assistance of churches (cf. 15:24), he also relied heavily on the hospitality and provision of individual Christians.23
Widowed patronesses were not uncommon in the ancient world,24 and the public ministry of Jesus and his disciples was financed by female contributors (Luke 8:1-3).25 In addition to Phoebe in Cenchreae and apparently Rufus’s mother elsewhere (Rom. 16:13), Christian benefaction was practiced by Lydia in Philippi (Acts 16:14-15), Jason in Thessalonica (Acts 17:3-9), Gaius and Erastus in Corinth (Rom. 16:23), and Onesiphorus in Ephesus and Rome (2 Tim. 1:16-18).
--Kevin L. Moore
Endnotes:
1 The first person “our” [ἡμῶν], used to express a special relationship with an individual, is replaced in some manuscripts by the third person ὑμῶν (“your”), most likely a scribal error. Only four first person plurals are found in chap. 16 (vv. 1, 9, 18, 20), almost certainly inclusive of the reading audience and perhaps the entire brotherhood. See C. E. B. Cranfield Shorter Romans 374-82; J. D. G. Dunn, Romans 2:886.
2 See also Acts 18:27; 1 Cor. 16:10-12; Col. 4:7-9; Eph. 6:21-22; cf. Phil. 2:25-30. “Security and hospitality when traveling had traditionally been the privilege of the powerful, who had relied upon a network of patronage and friendship, created by wealth. The letters of recommendation disclose the fact that these domestic advantages were now extended to the whole household of faith, who are accepted on trust, though complete strangers” (E. A. Judge,The Conversion of Rome 7).
3 Cf. Matt. 12:48-50; Mark 3:35; 10:30; 1 Cor. 7:15; 9:5; 1 Tim. 5:2; Philem. 2; Jas. 2:15; 2 John 13.
4 E. Y. L. Ng, “Was Junia(s) in Rom 16:7 a Female Apostle?,” JETS 63.3 (2020): 531.
5 C. F. Ball, Life and Times 173; F. F. Bruce, The Pauline Circle 88; B. D. Ehrman, A Brief Introduction to the NT 255; J. P. McNutt and A. B. Peeler, “Paul’s Most Beloved Letter Was Entrusted to a Woman,” Christianity Today (20 Oct. 2020), <Web>. The KJV includes a note at the end of the chapter, “Written to the Romans from Corinthus, and sent by Phebe servant of the church at Cenchrea.” There is even less evidence for the extended supposition that she publicly read and explained the letter.
6 Travelling in convoy was the norm (cf. Acts 13:2-5; 15:40–16:10; 18:18; 20:4–21:16). In addition to the dangers of travel (cf. 2 Cor. 11:25-27), women in the Roman world were expected to have at least one male guardian [tutela mulierum] when outside the home. See Tacitus, Annals 3.33.2-3; Gaius, Inst. 1.144; Cicero, Pro Mur. 27; cf. also L. Foubert, “The Lure of an Exotic Destination,” Hermes 1:44 (2016): 468-69, 475.
7 Cf. Eph. 4:1; Phil. 1:27; Col. 1:10; 1 Thess. 2:12; 3 John 6.
8 Cf. Acts 27:23; 2 Tim. 4:17.
9 Corinth’s other seaport was northwest Lechaeum. The two seaports, heightening the city’s commercial and cosmopolitan status, were named after Leches and Cenchrias, the sons of Poseidon (god of the sea) and the nymph Peirene (cf. Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.2.3).
10 Acts 19:21; 2 Cor. 1:1; 9:2; 11:10; 1 Thess. 1:7-8.
11 All five occurrences of ἐκκλησία in Romans are in the final chapter with reference to the local church at Cenchreae near Corinth (v. 1), a local house church in Rome (v. 5), the church in Corinth meeting in Gaius’s home (v. 23), and groups of churches (vv. 4, 16). In secular Greek the term ἐκκλησία was applied to a political body assembled to conduct the affairs of the state (Acts 19:39; Josephus, Ant. 12.164; 19.332) or to any general gathering (Acts 19:32, 40). In the LXX it was regularly used to translate qahal [קָהָל] in reference to the assembly of the Israelites, esp. when gathered for religious purposes (Deut. 31:30; Judg. 20:2; cf. Acts 7:38; Heb. 2:12; Josephus, Ant. 4.309). The word was ready-made for Christian communities in that “Paul saw the church not only as in continuity with the old covenant people of God, but as in the true succession of that people” (G. D. Fee, First Corinthians 31-32). The traditional English rendering “church” etymologically goes back to the Greek κύριος (“Lord”), as used in the phrase “house of the Lord.”
12 K. Edmiston, “Fundamentalism in the Churches of Christ,” Jesus Creed (11 March 2020), <Web>; cf. also F. F. Bruce, Romans 252; J. D. G. Dunn, Romans 2:886-88; K. M. Elliott, Women in Ministry 15; R. Jewett, Romans 945; K. Schenck, A Biblical Argument for Women in Ministry and Leadership 17-18. The CEV paraphrases, “a leader in the church,” the Douay-Rheims Bible, “in the ministry of the church,” the NAB, “a minister of the church,” and Darby, “a minister of the assembly.”
13 Left-leaning scholarship reads “authority” into Paul’s terminology (cf., e.g., V. K. McCarty, Power and Authority 195-209). However, the oft-cited NT examples of women serving the Lord (e.g., Luke 2:36-38; John 4:28-29; 20:1-2; Acts 2:17-18; 21:9; Rom. 16:1-3; Phil. 4:2-3) are a far cry from the modern concept of female authority figures. Christian activity is by no means restricted to public leadership, and women are among the finest examples of faith, generosity, and service recorded in scripture void of preconceptions foreign to the biblical record. See K. L. Moore, “A Woman’s Service in the Church,” Moore Perspective (27 Dec. 2014), <Link>.
14 Matt. 20:26; 23:11; Mark 9:35. Leadership in the church is limited to those with certain qualifications and is not afforded to everyone (Rom. 12:4-8; Eph. 4:11-14; 1 Tim. 3:1-7).
15 Acts 11:29; 2 Cor. 5:18; 8:4; 9:1, 12-13; 11:8; cf. Rev. 2:19.
16 Used in the Amplified Bible, ISV, RSV, J. B. Phillips; also NCV, NET, ICB footnotes. The masculine “deacon” appears in the GOD’S WORD® Translation, NIV, NLT, NRSV; also CEB, MEV, WEB footnotes.
17 The word διάκονος is used in both a generic and a more limited sense in the NT, similar to the word πρεσβύτερος (“elder”) that is generally applicable to one who is older (cf. Luke 15:25; Acts 2:17), even in reference to older women (1 Tim. 5:2). But the same word is also employed in a special sense, referring to the position of leadership in a local congregation (Acts 14:23; Tit. 1:5). In order for a person to serve as either a πρεσβύτερος (elder) or a διάκονος (deacon) in the official sense, one must meet specific qualifications, which, according to biblical guidelines, exclude females (1 Tim. 2:8–3:13). At the same time, the fundamental role God has designed for women in the home and in the church is invaluable and unsuitable for unqualified persons of the male gender.
18 The NCV and ICB footnotes on Rom. 16:1 read, “Literally, ‘deaconess.’ This might mean the same as one of the special women helpers in 1 Timothy 3:11.”
19 A. Johnson, “Does Paul Give Qualifications for Deacons’ Wives?” in Entrusted with the Faith, ed. D. Y. Burleson (Henderson, TN: FHU, 2018): 362-63.
20 The sense of “benefactor,” common in secular Greek, is the probable usage here (E. Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity [3rd ed.] 67; D. J. Moo, Romans 915-16), so “we should see Phoebe and Paul’s relationship as working within a general reciprocity dynamic of benefaction, rather than within the specific relationship of the patron-client relationship” (E. D. MacGillivray, “Romans 16:2, προστάτις,” NovT 53 [2011]: 183-99). Some have attempted to assign a role of leadership to this term (e.g., R. R. Schulz, “A Case for ‘President’ Phoebe,” LIJ 24 [1990]: 124-27), but it is most unlikely that she exercised authority over the apostle Paul.
21 E. R. Richards and R. James, Misreading Scripture with Individualist Eyes 65-66; cf. E. Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity (3rd ed.) 9, 14-15, 161, 325.
22 In such an environment the problems in mid-first-century Thessalonica are more readily understood. Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy had to direct this young church to discipline “every brother idly walking … not working at all” (2 Thess. 3:6-15). It is plausible that “converts included those of the urban poor who had formed client relationships with wealthy members in the Thessalonian church, but who exploited the generosity of their new Christian patrons” (J. Weima, Thessalonians 601).
23 Acts 9:11-19; 16:15, 34; 17:6-7; 18:1-3; 20:11; 21:4, 7-10, 16-17; 24:23; 28:13-14; Rom. 15:24; 16:23; 1 Cor. 16:6; Gal. 1:18; Philem. 22. “These friends and co-workers, hosts and hostesses, had no other motive in being so helpful than love of Paul and love of the Master whom he served… in serving the one they were serving the other” (F. F. Bruce, The Pauline Circle 99-100).
24 E. R. Richards, “Reading, Writing, and Manuscripts,” in The World of the NT (eds. J. B. Green and L. M. McDonald) 349; cf. also J. N. Bremmer, “Pauper or Patroness,” in Between Poverty and the Pyre (eds. J. N. Bremmer and L. V. D. Bosch) 31-57.
25 Many women followed and ministered to Jesus (Matt. 27:55-56) and were outstanding examples of discipleship (Matt. 9:20-22; 15:22-28; Mark 12:41-44; 14:8-9; et al.), recognized for their good works (e.g., Acts 9:36-39; 1 Tim. 5:10). The greatest event in history was first witnessed and announced by women (Matt. 28:1-10). The first “missionary” to Samaria, besides Jesus himself, was female (John 4:28-30, 39-42). Women formed part of the nucleus when the Lord’s church began (Acts 1:14; 2:41), and the number of receptive women who obeyed the gospel was an important factor in the rapid growth of early Christianity (Acts 5:14; 8:12; 17:4, 12, 34). Among those in Berea who “searched the scriptures daily” and responded to the truth were noble-minded women (Acts 17:11-12). Because of their uncompromising faith these dedicated, first-century Christian ladies even suffered brutal persecution (Acts 8:3; 9:2; 22:4). The Philippi church initially consisted of women and met in a woman’s home (Acts 16:13-18, 40). Christian women were instructed to be “teachers of good things,” particularly with other women (Tit. 2:3-5), and to fulfill God-given ministries a number of them were endowed with the miraculous gift of prophecy (Acts 2:17-18; 21:9; 1 Cor. 11:5; cf. K. L. Moore, We Have No Such Custom 41-46).
Related Posts: Romans 16 (Intro), Greetings to Prisca & Aquila (Rom 16:3-5a)
Image credit: https://halsabbatical.com/2013/05/21/theodora-praxedes-and-the-role-of-christian-women-in-ancient-rome/
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