Romans 16:1

Romans 16:1-16. A commendation, and many salutations

1. I commend Lit. But, or now, I commend. The particle marks transition to a new subject.

Phebe Strictly, Phœbe. Nothing is known of Phœbe beyond the information in this passage. It is probable that she was the bearer of the Epistle to Rome; for no other bearer is mentioned, and the prominence of this notice of her suggests a special connexion with the writing. See further below. The early Christian converts seem to have had no scruple in retaining a pre-baptismal name even when the name (as in this case) was that of a heathen deity. Cp. Hermes, (Romans 16:14); Nereus, (Romans 16:15); and such derivative names as Demetrius(3 John 1:12).

a servant of the church Plainly the word "servant" here bears more than a menial reference: Phœbe was in some sense a dedicatedhelper of the community at Cenchreæ, and very probably a person of substance and influence. There is good evidence of the existence in the Apostles" time of an organized class of female helpers in sacred work; for see especially 1 Timothy 5:3-16. Just after the apostolic age the famous Letter of Pliny to Trajan indicates that such female helpers (ministræ) were known in the Bithynian Churches; and for two centuries from the time of Tertullian (cir. a.d. 210) allusions to them are frequent, and shew that they were largely employed both in the relief of temporal distress, chiefly among women, and also in the elementary teaching of female catechumens. They were regularly set apart by imposition of hands. As a rule, they were required to be of mature age, (rarely of less than 40 years,) and in most cases they appear to have been widows and mothers. By the 12th century the Order had been everywhere abolished. (See Bingham's Antiquities, Bk. II. ch. xxii.) We must not assumethat Phœbe was a deaconess in the full later sense of the word; but that her position was analogous to that of the later deaconesses seems at least most probable.

" The church:" here in the very frequent sense of a local community of Christians.

Cenchrěa In the Gr. Cenchreæ: the Eastern port of Corinth. Cp. Acts 18:18. See Introduction, ii. § 1.