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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Romans 16:1 - 16:1
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
I commend (sunistēmi). The regular word for letters of commendation as in 2Co 3:1 (sustatikōn epistolōn). See also Rom 3:5. So here Rom 16:1, Rom 16:2 constitute Paul’s recommendation of Phoebe, the bearer of the Epistle. Nothing else is known of her, though her name (Phoibē) means bright or radiant.
Sister (adelphēn). In Christ, not in the flesh.
Who is a servant of the church (ousan diakonon tēs ekklēsias). The etymology of diakonos we have had repeatedly. The only question here is whether it is used in a general sense or in a technical sense as in Phi 1:1; 1Ti 3:8-13. In favour of the technical sense of “deacon” or “deaconess” is the addition of “tēs ekklēsias” (of the church). In some sense Phoebe was a servant or minister of the church in Cenchreae. Besides, right in the midst of the discussion in 1Ti 3:8-13 Paul has a discussion of gunaikas (1Ti 3:11) either as women as deaconesses or as the wives of deacons (less likely though possible). The Apostolic Constitutions has numerous allusions to deaconesses. The strict separation of the sexes made something like deaconesses necessary for baptism, visiting the women, etc. Cenchreae, as the eastern port of Corinth, called for much service of this kind. Whether the deaconesses were a separate organization on a par with the deacons we do not know nor whether they were the widows alluded to in 1Ti 5:9.