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Rom_16:1-2. Recommendation ( συνίστημι , comp. 2Co_5:12, et al.; see Jacobs, ad Anthol. IX. p. 438; Bornemann, ad Xen. Symp. iv. 63, p. 154) of Phoebe, who is held to be the bearer of the epistle,—a supposition which there is nothing to contradict. In the twofold predicate, ἀδελφ . ἡμῶν (our, i.e. my and your Christian sister) and οὖσαν διάκ . κ . τ . λ ., there lies a twofold motive, a more general and a more special one, for attending to the commendation.
διάκονον ] feminine, as Dem. 762. 4 : διάκονον , ᾗ τις ἐχρῆτο . The designation by the word διακόνισσα , not used in classical Greek, is found only subsequently, as frequently in the Constitutt. apost. See, on these ministrae, as they are called in Pliny, Ep. x. 97, the female attendants on the poor, sick, and strangers of the church, Bingham, Orig. I. pp. 341–366; Schoene, Geschichtsforsch. üb. d. kirchl. Gebr. III. p. 102 ff.; Herzog, in his Encykl. III. p. 368 f. Very groundlessly Lucht, because this service in the church was of later date (but comp. Rom_12:7; Php_1:1), pronounces the words οὖσαν … Κεγχρ . not to belong to Paul, and ascribes them to the supposed editor. Respecting the χῆραι , 1Ti_5:9, see Huther in loc.
Κεγχρεαί , eastern port of Corinth, on the Saronic Gulf. See Wetstein. Comp. on Act_18:18.
ἵνα αὐτὴν , κ . τ . λ .] Aim of the commendation.
ἐν κυρίῳ ] characterizes the προσδέχεσθαι as Christian; it is to be no common service of hospitality, but to take place in Christ, i.e. so that it is fulfilled in the fellowship of Christ, in virtue of which one lives and moves in Christ. Comp. Php_2:29.
ἀξίως τῶν ἁγίων ] either: as it is becoming for saints (Christians) to receive fellow-Christians (so ordinarily), or: “sicut sanctos excipi oportet,” Grotius, Chrysostom. The former (so also Fritzsche and Philippi) is the correct explanation, because most naturally suggesting itself, as modal definition of the action of receiving.
καὶ γὰρ αὐτή ] nam et ipsa, for she also on her part (not αὕτη , haec).
προστάτις ] a directrix, protectress (Lucian, bis accus. 29; Dio Cass. xlii. 39; Dindorf, Soph. O. C. 459, and Praef. ad Soph. p. LXI.; Lobeck, Paralip. p. 271). She became (i.e. se praestitit, Kühner, ad Xen. Anab. i. 7. 4) a patrona multorum through the exercise of her calling. Paul might, indeed, have written παραστάτις , corresponding to παραστῆτε (Xen. Mem. ii. 1. 32; Soph. Trach. 891, Oed. C. 559; comp. ἐν νόσοις παραστάτις Musonius in Stob. fl. p. 416, 43); but he selects the word which is conformable to her official position, and more honourable.
καὶ αὐτοῦ ἐμοῦ ] and of myself, my own person (see on Rom_7:25). Historical proof of this cannot be given. Perhaps Paul had once been ill during a sojourn with the church of Cenchreae.