Phoebe

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

(Φοίβη, a Greek name)

Phoebe is a woman introduced by St. Paul to his readers in  Romans 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,  Romans 16:14; Nereus,  Romans 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’ (τὴν ἀδελφὴν ἡμῶν, οὖσαν [καὶ] διάκονον τῆς ἐκκλησίας τῆς ἐν Κενχρεαῖς) and as one who ‘hath been a succourer of many and of mine own self’ (αὐτὴ προστάτις πολλῶν ἐγενήθη καὶ ἐμοῦ αὐτοῦ).

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 ( Acts 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 ( Acts 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  Romans 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’ (ἐν ᾧ ἂν ὑμῶν χρῄζῃ πράγματι). If πρᾶγμα bears here its common forensic sense ( 1 Corinthians 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 πρᾶγμα may be illustrated by  Matthew 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,  Romans 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 ( 2 Corinthians 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 (συνίστημι δὲ ὑμῖν Φοίβην) 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 ( Romans 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 προστάτις indicates that she was a woman of means. Προστάτις is the fem. of προστάτης, in its strictly legal sense the wealthy and influential citizen who acted as representative and guardian of the μέτοικοι (‘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 προϊστάμενος and προεστώς, applied to leadership in the Church in  1 Thessalonians 5:12,  Romans 12:8,  1 Timothy 5:17. Descriptive of Phoebe’s relation to ‘many,’ presumably at Cenchreae (perhaps at Corinth also), προστάτις 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 ( Romans 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,  Acts 16:15;  Acts 16:40), and that she ‘mothered’ him as did the mother of Rufus ( Romans 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,’  Romans 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 διάκονος, 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,  1 Corinthians 16:15-16). Parallel with the term διάκονος is the term ἀδελφή (F. J. A. Hort, The Christian Ecclesia, 1897, p. 208, where the καί 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.

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

The first and one of the foremost of the list of Christians in the last chapter of Romans ( Romans 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:  Acts 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 (  1 Timothy 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 ( 1 Timothy 5:9-13). Phoebe was the bearer of this epistle, written from the neighbouring Corinth in the spring of A.D. 58.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

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,  Romans 16:1-2, is worthy of special notice, because of its bearing on the question of the deaconesses of the apostolic Church.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

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

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Romans 16:1-2Deacon

Webster's Dictionary

(n.) The pewee, or pewit.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

See Phebe

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

( Φοίβη , Radiant), a deaconess of the Church at Cenchreae, recommended to-the kind attention of the Church of Rome by Paul, who had received hospitable treatment from her ( Romans 16:1). A.D. 55. Her name occurs first in the long list of Christian men and women of whom express mention is there made. For the most part these were persons who had been previously known to Paul, and had some connection with him in his apostolic labors, but were at the time residing in Rome. Phoebe, however, was in the neighborhood of the apostle, probably still in Cenchreae, and was on the eve of setting out for Rome — on what business it is not said; but that she had something of importance in hand is evident from the request of the apostle, that the Christians at Rome would "receive her in the Lord, and assist her in whatever business she had need of them" ( Romans 16:2). (See Paul). It is probable that she was the bearer of the Epistle to the Romans. (See Epistle To Romans). "What is said of her is worthy of especial notice, because of its bearing on the question of the deaconesses of the Apostolic Church. On this point we have to observe,

(1) that the term Διάκονος , here applied to her, though not in itself necessarily an official term, is the term which would be applied to her if it were meant to be official;

(2) that this term is applied in the Apostolical Constitutions to women who ministered officially, the deaconess being called Ἡ Διάκονος , as the deacon is called Ὁ Διάκονος ;

(3) that it is now generally admitted that in  1 Timothy 3:11 Paul applies it so himself;

(4) that in the passage before us Phoebe is called the Διάκονος of a particular Church, which seems to imply a specific employment;

(5) that the Church of Cenchreee, to which she belonged, could only have been a small Church: whence we may draw a fair conclusion as to what was customary, in the matter of such female ministration, in the larger churches;

(6) that, whatever her errand to Rome might be, the independent manner of her going there seems to imply (especially when we consider the secluded habits of Greek women) not only that she was a widow or a woman of mature age, but that she was acting officially;

(7) that she had already been of great service to Paul and others ( Προστάτις Πολλῶν , Καὶ Ἐμοῦ Αὐτοῦ ), either by her wealth or her energy, or both; a statement which closely corresponds with the description of the qualifications of the enrolled widows in  1 Timothy 5:10;

(8) that the duty which we here see Phoebe discharging implies a personal character worthy of confidence and respect." (See Deaconess).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

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" (  Romans 16:1 ,  Romans 16:2 ). (1) "Our (Christian) sister": Paul calls the believing husband and wife "the brother or the sister" ( 1 Corinthians 7:15 ), and also asks, "Have we no right to lead about a wife that is a sister?" ( 1 Corinthians 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  Acts 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 ( Romans 16:1 ,  Romans 16:2 ).

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

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 . It is probable that she was the bearer of the Epistle to the Romans.