Phbe

In Ro 16! St. Paul commends Pheebe to the Roman Christians. He describes her as (1) ‘our sister,’ (2) ‘a servant (διάκονος) of the Church that is at Cenchree’—the port of Corinth. (3) He asks that they ‘receive her in the Lord, worthily of the saints, and ‘assist her in whatso- ever matter she may have need of them.’ (4) He says that she has been ‘a succourer (προστάτις) of many,’ and of himself in particular.

It is generally assumed that Phoebe was the bearer of the Episile, and the words by which she is introduced (συνίστημι ὑμῖν) imply a formal introduction to the Roman community. Two points demand a short discussion : (1) How far is διάκονος technical? This is the only place where the office is referred to by name in the NT (for 1 Ti 3" 58" cannot be quoted), but the younger Pliny (Zp. X. χονὶ.

8) speaks of ministre in the Christian Church, and there are constant references to them under the names of διάκονος (ii. 26) and διακόνισσα (viii. 19, 20, 18) in the Apos- tolic Constitutions. Moreover, the circumstances of Oriental life must have made it necessary that there should be female attendants to perform for women what the deacons did for men, in baptism, in visiting the women’s part of the house, and in introducing women to the bishop or deacons (A post. Const. iii. 15, ete.)

There is no occasion, there- fore, for thinking that the word has not, at any rate to a certain extent, a technical meaning, but we have not sufficient grounds for assuming an order of deaconesses in the later sense. The translation ‘servant,’ however, is inadequate. (2) The description of her as προστάτις suggests that she was a person of some wealth and position. This word again is probably technical. It implies the legal representative or wealthy ‘patroness.'

Her residence at Cenchresse —the port towards Ephesus—would enable her to exercise the duties of hospitality, and to give other forms of assist- ance to Christians on their first landing in the country, and to help what must have been a small and struggling Church. She is commemorated on Sept. 3. ἘΞ Acta Sanctorum, Sept., vol. i. p. 602. A. C. HEADLAM. PHENICIA