Phoebe’s name means “pure, bright, shining.” The term “servant” that Paul gives to her can mean one who ministers or is a deaconess. The Greek word used is diaconos. She is from the church at Cenchreae, a town which was the eastern port city of the province of Corinth, an island nation in the Mediterranean Sea southwest of Greece. It was on his second missionary journey (about 49-52 AD) that Paul established the church there.
Paul recommends (another meaning can be “introduces”) “our sister Phoebe” to the Romans. Scholars believe that he may have entrusted her with the major job of delivering the scroll, the epistle, Paul had just written to the Romans. If, indeed, as scholars believe, Phoebe had the task of keeping safe and delivering to Rome the precious epistle of Paul to the Roman Christians, what a very special assignment she had! Think of a woman being entrusted as the bearer of the letter from the Apostle Paul to the church at Rome! She must have been counted trustworthy to be assigned such a responsible job. Danger was involved in performing this task. It was not considered safe for women to go either by land or by sea in that day, and to get to Rome from Cenchreae in Corinth (see a Bible map of Paul’s missionary journeys) would take both boat and land travel.
The date of posting of the letter has been set at about 56 A. D. toward the close of Paul’s third missionary journey. He was about to return to Jerusalem to take the offering of alms from the Corinthian churches to the persecuted and suffering Christians in Jerusalem. He wanted to get the letter safely to the believers at Rome. It had a very important message they needed to understand. A very simplified summary of a deeply spiritual epistle shows the subject of Romans to be the meaning and power of the gospel and its message of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. It was entrusted to Phoebe, servant, woman, deaconess, patron (“succourer”) of many. She had a major responsibility of getting her precious cargo, the epistle, from Paul to the believers at Rome. Phoebe would probably join a caravan, travel northward into Achaia and Macedonia, board a boat and travel across the narrow portion of the Mediterranean, and then by land again until she reached Rome. Along the way she would have opportunity to witness to those she met and share her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
When Paul says that Phoebe had been a patron (or succourer) of himself, some believe that he may have fallen ill while in Cenchreae and that Phoebe allowed him to stay in her home and nursed him back to health. We have no proof of this other than the meaning of the words “patron” and “succourer”. Paul also admonishes the Romans that they receive her “as becomes saints.” This strongly suggests she be welcomed as a saintly person, one who can enlighten them on the teachings of the Lord. She is regarded by Paul as one worthy of being accounted among the saints.
We have only this small reference to Phoebe, woman assigned to a special mission. But we know that she was faithful in her assignment because the Epistle to the Romans reached its destination. It also came to us through the preservation, transfer and canonization of the Bible of which the letter to the Romans is an important part. Edith Deen in Allo the Women of the Bible (New York: Harper, 1955, p. 232) says of her: “We can be sure her goodness and sympathy, her loyalty and kindness, and her industry and trustworthiness marked her as a woman whose ministry inspired all who came into her presence.”
We can learn much about faithfulness to our mission from Phoebe, an important letter-carrier of old.
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