Phebe, Servant of the Church

“I commend unto you Phebe, our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea: that ye receive her in the Lord, as becometh saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you: for she hath been a succourer of many, and of myself also.” Romans 16:1-2

And that’s it! That’s all that the bible has to say about Phebe. So, what is there to discuss then about Phebe? What can we learn from this woman of the bible?

Well, let’s begin by "digging" just a little into the background setting to see what we can find out about “where” she was from, and “where” she was going, and then we’ll see if we can determine more specifics about who she was and what she did.

Phebe is obviously a woman (sister) and a believer, and part of the body of Christ located in Cenchrea. The only other mention of Cenchrea in the bible is in Acts 18;18 which tells us that Paul was at Cenchrea when he shaved his head in observance of a vow he had made. (This might have been a “vow of separation” for a certain period of time, as described in Numbers chapter 6, since that vow specifically mentions shaving one’s head…see verse 18 of Numbers 6.)

Referring to my Atlas of Bible Lands, I find a map showing Cenchrea to be a port city near Corinth, in fact only 7 miles from Corinth. Cenchrea has a “twin” port city called Lechaeum; both cities were on either side of an “isthmus” connecting the Corinthian portion of Greece to the Athenian portion of Greece. Cenchrea was on the southeastern side of the isthmus serving ships from the Aegean Sea and beyond; Lechaeum, on the northwestern side handled ships coming from the Ionian Sea. The ideal situation of these twin ports within but a few miles of Corinth, made Corinth one of the most important trade cities of ancient Greece. Its population at the time of Phebe and Paul is estimated to be about 500,000. It was a bustling commercial metropolis “famous for its bronze, pottery, and shipbuilding nearly 800 years before Christ;” the Greek poet Homer in 850 BC calls the city “wealthy Corinth.” (Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary).

That tells us a little about Corinth and by virtue of its proximity, Cenchrea, also. So now we know something about where Phebe came from....she was no small-town girl!

But Paul’s letter, addressed to the church at Rome, also informs us that Phebe has now travelled more than 800 miles (at the least) to deliver this, Paul’s letter (or so many biblical scholars believe she did), since it is in the very beginning of the letter that Paul provides a reference of sorts, or an introduction, of Phebe to the Roman church, recommending her highly, and enlisting the church at Rome to assist her in whatever way is necessary to help her complete her business in Rome. We do not know if this is church business or her own personal business, but Paul’s wording leads many biblical scholars to believe that Phebe was a business woman.

Certainly, the amount of time required to take a trip from Corinth to Rome in those ancient days of slow travel, coupled with the costs of such a trip, along with the fact that no husband is mentioned, leads us to believe that Phebe (some bibles spell her name Phoebe) is not your normal young-stay-at-home-mom type. She appears to be a “successful” business woman, having money with which to travel, but also a woman who in true Christian mode, is a giver or provider (succourer) of help (financial help as well as other types of aid?) to many in the young church at Corinth, including Paul himself, the apostle to that church.

The word “servant” used in this Romans passage, has been translated from the Greek to be a derivative of the word “diakonos”, or “deacon” (obviously, being a woman, she would be a “deacon-ness”). And that simple word, and the fact that Paul has so highly recommended her, has led to many a discussion in churches throughout the “church age” about whether or not women are to be given the office of “deacons” officially, or whether it just is to mean servant. Some churches (such as Lutheran) allow women to be deacons (or deaconesses). Many other protestant churches do not. To my knowledge Catholics, too, do not allow women to hold the position of deacon.

I believe the instructions given by Paul to Timothy concerning deacons are very simple and clear, telling Timothy that the wives of deacons must “be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things.” And that the deacons themselves must be “the husbands of one wife”. Somehow I don’t see how women then can hold the “office” of deacon in the church, for they don’t HAVE wives, they ARE the wives. It seems very simple to me.

But having said that, let me say that from what I see in my church, and you most likely find this to be true in your own church as well, the wives of our deacons are “deacons” in every sense of the word other than the “official” sense. They are “servants” and very hard-working servants at that. And their husbands are “servants” equally so. Our church is blessed to have both the deacons that we have and their wives as well. And I don’t think these women are bothered that they are not given the title of “deacon”. It certainly doesn’t stop them from giving all that they can give of their time, energy, and money to our little church. They are blessings to us all there.

As was Phebe, from what Paul says about her.

So, what was Phebe’s ministry? We don’t know for sure, as Paul doesn’t expound upon what her business was in Rome, and he doesn’t tell us specifically in what ways she ministered to (or served) the folks back home in the church at Cenchrea.

The word “succourer” in the original Greek is “prostatis”; defined, according to Strong’s Concordance, as:

“Prostatis – a patroness or assistant. Prostatis is the feminine form of prostates and denotes a protectress, a patroness. It is used metaphorically of Pheobe and is a word of dignity. It indicates the high esteem with which she was regarded, as one who had been a protectress of many. Prostates was the title of a citizen in Athens, who had the responsibility of seeing to the welfare of resident aliens who were without civic rights. Among the Jews it signified a wealthy patron of the community.”

This again indicates to us that Phebe was most likely a woman of means, financially well-off. This also tells us she most likely used her finances to help the fledgling church there in Corinth or those in need within the church, and perhaps not just the church there in Corinth, but further afield as well, possibly even the church in Rome to whom she carried Paul’s letter.

But I will let all of the above “digging” lead us into our next TWO subjects of study which I believe will be somewhat intertwined with each other during the next many weeks: the biblical “functioning” of the church according to Paul (what we will call the “primitive” church) and the primary ministry of service given to each believer at the moment of being born-again (what the Bible calls the “gifts of the Spirit”).

See you here tomorrow!