Phoebe, Trusted Servant

“ I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae, that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints, and help her in whatever she may need from you, for she has been a patron of many and of myself as well.” –Romans 16:1-2 (ESV).

Paul commended Phoebe to the church at Rome, and, indeed, she may have been the bearer of his letter to the church at Rome, as many scholars believe.  If this be the case, Phoebe would have taken the letter soon after Paul wrote it in Corinth in 57 AD when he was on his third missionary journey.  Cenchrea, where Phoebe served as a servant in the church (the word in the Greek, diakonos, means “deacon” and also “servant”)  Phoebe may well have been a deaconess in her home church at Cenchrea.  Her hometown was a port city just 6.5 miles east of Corinth.  On the third missionary journey, Paul spent many months at Corinth (some scholars say 18 months), time for him to do much teaching, write the letter to the Romans, and make acquaintance with those who had responsibilities for leadership in the church.  We can imagine that Phoebe sat many times and listened to Paul preach and teach.

He instructs the church at Rome to welcome Phoebe “in a way worthy of the saints.”  Would there have been some suspicion of a woman being chosen for such an important task as delivering a letter from the Apostle Paul?  His commendation of her was doubtless intented to give her a good introduction to the Christians at Rome, far removed from her hometown of Cenchrea.  To be greeted as a saint, and to greet her in a saintly way (reciprocal action) indicated that both she and the Roman Christians would benefit from her going there.

Phoebe may have been moving from Cenchrea to Rome for some reason unidentified in the scripture.  Paul encouraged the Roman church to “help her in whatever she may need from you.”  She deserved this help, for she herself had been a “patron,” indicating that she had helped many and had assisted Paul as well.  Patron carries the idea of financial assistance and certainly hospitality. Another synonym for patron in its feminine form is “protectress.”  As such, she would have served by visiting the sick, helping orphans and widows, assisting young women in the faith, and giving to the poor. As Phoebe traveled from Corinth to Rome, she had a long sea voyage around the southern tip of the province of Achaia and probably to the port of Rhegium in Sicily.  Then, changing ships, she would sail to the port of Puteoli in mid-western Italy and take an overland route to Rome as Paul would do later when he had appealed to Caesar for justice in his case.  Perhaps the help Phoebe needed when she arrived at Rome was assistance in finding living quarters and work.  We cannot help but wonder about a woman’s safety as she traveled such a distance with an important mission like delivering Paul’s letter.  But we have proof that her mission was successful, for now we ourselves have the privilege of reading the epistle to the Romans and benefiting from its deep theology and teachings on the righteousness, mercy and judgment of God.  Phoebe stands as a model of servanthood and as one willing to make adjustments in her life.  How we wish we had more information about her.  But what we know serves us well as we seek to emulate her example of service.

Phoebe, Woman with a Special Assignment

“I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae, that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints and help her in whatever she may need from you, for she has been a patron of many and of myself as well.” –Romans 16:1-2 (ESV).

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.