“I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae. I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worth of his people and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been the benefactor of many people, including me” (Romans 16:1-2.)
Romans closes with one of the longest sections of greetings of any of Paul’s letters. The first name on the list was “our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae” (Romans 16:1). Who was Phoebe, why did Paul mention her so prominently, and what what can we learn from her example?
Phoebe was the letter-carrier for Paul’s message to Rome.
Mail delivery could be a chancy thing in the Roman world. Sending a letter often depended on finding a trustworthy person to carry it, or perhaps luckily finding someone who happened to be going the same direction and could be trusted to carry the letter. Paul generally relied on trusted friends or colleagues to carry his letters to their recipients. Paul’s commendation of Phoebe and request that the Roman church “give her any help she might need” indicates that Phoebe was entrusted with carrying Paul’s letter to Rome.
Phoebe may have helped interpret and explain Paul’s letter to the church at Rome.
Some scholars have suggested that Phoebe may have been the lector who read Paul’s letter to the Roman congregation. While possible, there is not a great deal of evidence to support the idea that the letter carrier normally would be the person who read the letter aloud to the congregation. However, since the letter carrier had been with the letter writer, letter carriers often did play a role in helping the recipient understand the writer’s message. As Paul Head* has written:
Perhaps the crucial point for our thinking about the delivery of Pauline letters is the understanding that the trusted letter-carrier often has an important role in extending the communication initiated by the letter. The letter-carrier thus brings fuller personal knowledge into the communication process, which is only partly embodied in the letter. This is particularly the case with the type designated as ‘Letters of Recommendation’ (a genre influential in Paul’s letters precisely when introducing letter-carriers), where the bearer invariably has a crucial role in explaining in person the generally fairly coded requests for help. It is generally accepted that the Pauline co-workers who functioned as letter-carriers had an important role in the communication strategy of Paul, offering a personal representative to present his letter (already a speech which substitutes for the apostolic presence). The papyrological evidence surveyed here supports the further idea that in the Pauline tradition the accredited letter-carriers functioned not only as personal private postmen, but as personal mediators of Paul’s authoritative instruction to his churches, and as the earliest interpreters of the individual letters. They related the specific material in their letter to what they knew of Pauline teaching more generally.
So while Phoebe may not have actually read the letter to the congregation, she quite possibly had a role in helping the congregation understand and interpret what Paul had written.
Phoebe was probably a deacon.
There is some discrepancy in how the major translations handle Phoebe’s description in Romans 16:1. The NIV and NRSV call Phoebe a “deacon”; the NASB and ESV stick with “servant.” The Greek word is diakonos, which can be used for a range of meanings including “servant,” “messenger,” or “deacon.” However, Phoebe is also described as a diakonos of “the church at Cenchreae.” While I acknowledge that this view is not unanimous among scholars and commentators, I think that the addition of the phrase “of the church at Cenchreae” makes it probable that Phoebe served in some official capacity as a deacon in the Cenchrea congregation (see for example N.T. Wright in the New Interpreters’ Bible Commentary,
Thomas Schriner in the Baker Exegetical Commentary volume on Romans, or Douglas J. Moo in the commentary on Romans from the NIV Application Commentary series).
Phoebe used her wealth to promote the gospel.
Paul said that Phoebe was a “benefactor of many people, including me” (Romans 16:2). The patron-client system was a dominant feature of Roman society. Patrons did favors for or financially supported their clients with the understanding that the client would in some way be obligated to his patron. Acquiring clients was one way for a patron to show his prestige and power.
Yet Paul goes to great lengths to avoid invoking patron-client relationships between himself and those who supported his ministry. While Paul was grateful and had deep bonds of fellowship and love with those who supported him, Paul obligated himself to no one but the Lord. When Paul encouraged the churches to give, Paul exhorted them to do so generously as a response to the generous grace God had shown them, not expecting anything in return. Perhaps this is why Paul takes care to first introduce Phoebe as “a sister.” Phoebe was likely a wealthy woman who had the resources at her disposal to travel. She used her resources to support Paul’s ministry as well many others, but she did so as a sister in Christ–not expecting anything in return.
So what can we learn from Phoebe’s example?
Whatever else Phoebe may have been, she was first a servant. The root of diakonos, after all, does mean servant. Though Phoebe was likely a prominent, wealthy woman, Paul didn’t trust the precious letter of Romans to her because of her wealth. He trusted her as the letter-carrier for Romans because she had proved herself to be a servant of the Lord. If we want to have influence, we first have to be willing to serve.
Phoebe was also willing to use the resources at her disposal to further the gospel. Travel in the ancient world was not a simple matter of jumping in the car or catching a plane. Traveling from the port-city of Cenchreae to Rome would have required a significant investment of money and time. But Phoebe willingly spent both. It seems to have been a way of life for Phoebe. In addition to being a prominent member of her local church, Phoebe also supported Paul’s ministry and many others. Phoebe was willing to generously give from what she had–not hoarding her resources, but stewarding them for the kingdom. We are called to do the same.
Q: What do you learn from Phoebe’s example?
Mail chimp form
*Head, Peter M. “Named letter-carriers among the Oxyrhynchus Papyri.” Journal For The Study Of The New Testament 31, no. 3 (March 2009): 279-299. ATLASerials, Religion Collection, EBSCOhost (accessed April 28, 2016).
8 comments
Amazing how God used the women in the Bible 🙂
Great series on women of the Bible, Leigh. And I hadn’t really thought much about Phoebe before this post. A great encouragement. Thanks!
I like hearing the lesser told stories of the characters of the bible, especially the women. As women who write about God’s word, I think understanding the women of the bible is especially relevant for me.
I think so too. They give us good role models to follow, and there’s a lot of diversity in the roles they played. It’s a fascinating study.
I never gave Phoebe a second thought, Leigh. There is so much to be learned about her from the choice of words Paul used to describe her. I enjoy this series and I’m eager to see who you teach us about next.
I don’t recall ever reading about Phoebe. You have me interested in reading about her in my Bible.
She just gets one line, but she played an important role.
Thanks, this is a conformation to women who understand the importance and service of being a Patriarch to the ministry. It is an honor to serve God in this manner.
Comments are closed.