Phoebe

Phoe´be, a deaconess of the church at Cenchrea, recommended to the kind attention of the church of Rome by St. Paul, who had received hospitable treatment from her (Rom 16:1). It is probable that she was the bearer of the Epistle to the Romans.

Phoe’be. (radiant). The first, and one of the most important of the Christian persons, the detailed mention of whom nearly all the last chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. (A.D.55). What is said of her, Rom 16:1-2, is worthy of special notice, because of its bearing on the question of the deaconesses of the apostolic Church.

The first and one of the foremost of the list of Christians in the last chapter of Romans (Rom 16:1-2). "A servant (Greek "deaconess") of the church at Cenchrea" (the eastern port of Corinth; where Paul had his head shorn for a vow: Act 18:18). Pliny’s letter to Trajan (A.D. 110) shows that deaconesses existed in the Eastern churches. Their duty was to minister to their own sex (1Ti 3:11 translated "deaconesses" literally, "women"). Phoebe was just going to Rome; Paul therefore commends her to their reception as "in the Lord," i.e. a genuine disciple: as becometh saints to receive saints; and to assist her in whatever she needed their help; for "she had been a succourer (by her money and her efforts) of many and of Paul himself." The female presbytery of widows above sixty is distinct from the deaconesses (1Ti 5:9-13). Phoebe was the bearer of this epistle, written from the neighbouring Corinth in the spring of A.D. 58.

See PHEBE.

PHŒBE.—The bearer of the Epistle to the Romans (Rom 16:1). She was a ‘deaconess’ of the church at Cenchreæ. See Deaconess.

fē´bḗ (Φοίβη, Phoı́bē; the King James Version Phebe): Described by Paul as (1) “our sister,” (2) “who is a servant of the church that is at Cenchrea,” (3) “a helper of many, and of mine own self” (Rom 16:1, Rom 16:2). (1) “Our (Christian) sister”: Paul calls the believing husband and wife “the brother or the sister” (1Co 7:15), and also asks, “Have we no right to lead about a wife that is a sister?” (1Co 9:5 margin). The church was a family. (2) The Greek word translated “servant” is diákonos. “Servant” is vague, and “deaconess” is too technical. In the later church there was an order of deaconesses for special work among women, owing to the peculiar circumstances of oriental life, but we have no reason to believe there was such an order at this early period. If Phoebe had voluntarily devoted herself “to minister unto the saints” by means of charity and hospitality, she would be called diakonos. (3) The Greek word prostátis translated “helper” is better “patroness.” The masculine is “the title of a citizen in Athens who took charge of the interests of clients and persons without civic rights” (Denney). Many of the early Christian communities had the appearance of clients under a patron, and probably the community of Cenchrea met in the house of Phoebe. She also devoted her influence and means to the assistance of “brethren” landing at that port. Paul was among those whom she benefited. Gifford thinks some special occasion is meant, and that Paul refers to this in Act 18:18. The vow “seems to point to a deliverance from danger or sickness” in which Phoebe may have attended on him.

It is generally assumed that this letter was taken to Rome by Phoebe, these verses introducing her to the Christian community. In commending her, Paul asks that the Roman Christians “receive her in the Lord,” i.e. give her a Christian welcome, and that they “assist her in whatsoever matter she may have need” of them (Rom 16:1, Rom 16:2).

(Öïßâç, a Greek name)

Phoebe is a woman introduced by St. Paul to his readers in Rom_16:1-2, presumably as the bearer of the letter. She is not mentioned again in the NT, and nothing further is known of her than may be gathered from this reference. The name is that of the moon-goddess, the sister of PhCEbus (Apollo). It is interesting to notice that a Christian woman in the Apostolic Age did not think it necessary to discard the name of a heathen deity. Two men among these saluted in Romans 16 also bore the name of a god (Hermes, Rom_16:14; Nereus, Rom_16:15). The martyrologies and inscriptions testify to a similar indifference at least in the first three centuries.

Phoebe is described (RV_) as ‘our sister, who is a servant of the church that is at Cenchreae’ (ôὴí ἀäåëöὴí ἡìῶí, ïὖóáí [êáὶ] äéÜêïíïí ôῆò ἐêêëçóßáò ôῆò ἐí Êåí÷ñåáῖò) and as one who ‘hath been a succourer of many and of mine own self’ (áὐôὴ ðñïóôÜôéò ðïëëῶí ἐãåíÞèç êáὶ ἐìïῦ áὐôïῦ).

Cenchreae (q.v._), a small town on the Saronic Gulf, was the eastern port of Corinth, about seven miles from the city. It is natural to suppose that the local church was founded during St. Paul’s first visit to Corinth. At the close of his stay of eighteen months he sailed from Cenchreae on his way to Syria (Act_18:18) and (unless the latter part of the verse refers to Aquila) before setting out he shaved his head, ‘for he had a vow.’ It was during his second (recorded) visit to Corinth that he wrote the letter containing Phoebe’s introduction. A Jewish plot prevented him from sailing again from Cenchreae, and he returned to Syria via Macedonia (Act_20:3).

We shall suppose that Phoebe herself was sailing eastward from Cenchreae or westward from Lechaeum, the port on the Corinthian Gulf, according to the view we take of the probable destination of Romans 16 (or Rom_16:1-2, detached by some scholars from the rest of the chapter). If these verses are an integral part of the Epistle to the Romans, the letter which Phoebe carried was this most important of the apostolic letters and her journey was to Rome. The Imperial post was not available for private correspondence, and such a letter could be sent only by special messenger or by a trusted friend who happened to be travelling. St. Paul bespeaks for Phoebe not only a welcome ‘in the Lord’ but assistance ‘in whatsoever matter she may have need’ (ἐí ᾧ ἂí ὑìῶí ÷ñῄæῃ ðñÜãìáôé). If ðñᾶãìá bears here its common forensic sense (1Co_6:1 [G. A. Deissmann, Bible Studies, Eng. tr._, 1901, p. 233]), business at the law-courts necessitated for her a visit to Rome (E. H. Gifford, ‘Romans,’ in Speaker’s Commentary, iii. [1881] 231), and the Apostle, hearing of her projected journey, seized the opportunity of writing and dispatching his letter. The impossibility, however, of determining the object of Phoebe’s journey from the use of ðñᾶãìá may be illustrated by Mat_18:19. The ‘matters’ in which she would require assistance might well have been connected with the church, and indeed she may have been specially sent to Rome by St. Paul, charged with the duty of ‘reinforcing and supplementing the Apostolic message’ with which she was entrusted (G. Milligan, Thessalonians, 1908, p. 130). If, on the other hand, Rom_16:1-21 (or 1-23) was addressed to the Church at Ephesus, Phoebe’s destination was that city. According to some scholars who hold this opinion, these verses are only a part of a letter the remainder of which has been lost. Others regard them as forming a complete letter of recommendation (2Co_3:1), written expressly for the purpose of introducing Phoebe, whatever her errand may have been, to the persons greeted in it (C. von Weizsäcker, Apostolic Age, Eng. tr._, i.2 [1897] 381), among whom, it may be noted, were a number of Christian women. Such letters were a characteristic feature of the Apostolic Church, as were the frequent journeys which necessitated them and the generous hospitality which they called forth. They were a protection against impostors and false teachers. They formed one of the strongest bonds which held together the separate and scattered Christian communities. The verb used by St. Paul (óõíßóôçìé äὲ ὑìῖí Öïßâçí) is the regular technical term in classical Greek and in the Greek of the papyri for introductions by letter. If we suppose that Phoebe was commissioned by the Apostle to visit the Ephesian Christians, we may perhaps find in the warning which he included in the letter (Rom_16:17-20) the reason for her mission.

That Phoebe was evidently preparing to travel alone suggests that she was a widow (Conybeare-Howson, The Life and Epistles of St. Paul, new ed., 1877, ii. 189 n._). The term ðñïóôÜôéò indicates that she was a woman of means. ÐñïóôÜôéò is the fem. of ðñïóôÜôçò, in its strictly legal sense the wealthy and influential citizen who acted as representative and guardian of the ìÝôïéêïé (‘resident aliens’) and others who had no civic rights. It corresponds to the Latin patronus. The term is not found again in the NT nor does it occur in the LXX_. It was, however, in use to denote the ‘patrons’ of the pagan religious societies, ‘who were frequently ladies of rank and wealth’ (T. M. Lindsay, The Church and the Ministry in the Early Centuries, 1902, p. 124 n._). It is closely related to the terms ðñïúóôÜìåíïò and ðñïåóôþò, applied to leadership in the Church in 1Th_5:12, Rom_12:8, 1Ti_5:17. Descriptive of Phoebe’s relation to ‘many,’ presumably at Cenchreae (perhaps at Corinth also), ðñïóôÜôéò must mean at the least that, in a special degree made possible by her circumstances, she discharged the duties of ‘communicating to the necessities of the saints’ and of ‘pursuing hospitality,’ which belonged to all Christians alike (Rom_12:13). Gifford (op. cit. p. 231) conjectures that the personal reference (‘and of mine own self’) may be to an illness in which Phoebe ministered to St. Paul at Cenchreae, and that his recovery was the occasion of his vow. Certainly we may assume that she received him into her home when he visited or passed through Cenchreae (cf. Lydia at Philippi, Act_16:15; Act_16:40), and that she ‘mothered’ him as did the mother of Rufus (Rom_16:13). The house in which the Apostle stayed naturally became a centre for the community, and if it was also used as the meeting-place of the church (cf. Gaius at Corinth, ‘my host and of the whole church,’ Rom_16:23), the owner must have been looked up to as a kind of ‘president,’ to whom the term ‘patron’ might suitably be applied. In some such way as this Phoebe devoted herself and her means to the service of the Church, and earned thereby the title of äéÜêïíïò, which no more means ‘deaconess’ in the later sense than it means ‘deacon’ when used to describe Apollos, Tychicus, Epaphras, Timothy, or the Apostle himself. The case of Phoebe may not be cited as evidence of the inclusion of women in the technical diaconate. With that of Prisca and others, it witnesses to the very important part played by women in the organization of the Church before informal ministries had given place to definite offices, and when rule and leadership were based only upon willingness to ‘serve’ (cf. the household of Stephanas at Corinth, 1Co_16:15-16). Parallel with the term äéÜêïíïò is the term ἀäåëöÞ (F. J. A. Hort, The Christian Ecclesia, 1897, p. 208, where the êáß is said to be ‘almost certainly genuine’). ‘Brother’ and ‘sister’ in the NT simply mean ‘fellow-Christian.’ St. Paul uses the term here and calls Phoebe ‘our’ sister, i.e., ours and yours, to remind those to whom he would introduce her that all Christians, whether personally acquainted or not, are already members of the same great spiritual family, of which God is Father and Jesus Christ the Elder Brother, and that they only need to be made known to one another to realize their close relationship in mutual love and helpfulness.

T. B. Allworthy.

(Romans 16)

- An important woman in the life of the early Church. A deaconess and contributor to the church, she probably carried this Letter to the Romans, one of the most valuable ever written (according to Martin Luther and many other Christians) the 800 miles by sea to Rome