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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.ย. 2024
- #Phoebe #WomanDeacon #Prostatis #Romans16
At first glance, Phoebe hardly seems noticeable. Her story is literally only two verses long in the Bible.
But on second glance, Phoebe begins to emerge as a most remarkable woman indeed. So, just as skilled archaeologists measure out a tell, then carefully sift, layer by layer, the packed dirt and stones to unearth the ancient secrets buried within, so you and I will need to do some careful sleuth work to reveal the woman the Apostle Paul spoke so highly of. For help, I turned to six scholarly sources whose work is cited at the end of this presentation.
I Carrier of the Epistle to Rome
II Cenchreaen Church Deacon
III Christian Benefactor of Many
Writing of Romans
Most scholars place the writing of the Apostle Paul’s Epistle to Rome somewhere in the vicinity of his third missionary journey, and most likely when he was in Corinth. I posit, in this video, that it was Phoebe who helped Paul commission the scribe Tertius to write down Paul’s narration. Because Phoebe was the one to carry this deep, rich treatise on theology and doctrine, she would have needed to be familiar with it, because she was the one who was going to read it, and teach on it.
I think Paul, Prisca, and Aquilla spent enough time in Cenchreae to get Romans written and rehearsed, and to make all the arrangements for Paul to get to Jerusalem for the festival. and Phoebe to Rome with Paul’s Epistle.
Basic Timeline
Beginning somewhere in the early 50’s AD:
In Acts 18:1-11, Paul stayed with Prisca and Aquilla in Corinth for about a year and half. A few months in, Silas and Timothy joined them, after having stayed for a time with the Berean believers.
Towards the end of that time, Paul made a vow to the Lord-many think this was a Nazarite vow-in the Corinthian seaport of Cenchrea.
Once he had shaven, Paul set sail for Syria with Prisca, and Aquilla, but, before he left he promised he would return to Cenchreae to spend more time there.
When they arrived in Ephesus, it was understood Prisca and Aquilla would stay, and Paul would move on. He stayed for only about three months, as he preached in the synagogue to a warm and inviting audience, and promised to return
From there, Paul journeyed to Caesarea where he disembarked for a brief time, possibly to visit where Philip the Evangelist lived, the man who had led the Ethiopian official to accept Christ. Like father, like daughter, all four of Philip’s daughters were known prophets.
Soon, Paul was headed to Jerusalem for a brief visit to touch base with the apostles, James, and the churches there.
Acts 18:22 says Paul “went up and greeted the church.” Went up means he traveled up Mount Zion to the city of Jerusalem - wherever one was in Israel or the world, north or south, one always went up, literally up the mountain, to Jerusalem. Then, it says, Paul “went down” to Antioch. Even though Antioch was north of Jerusalem, one still went physically down from mount Zion and spiritually down from God’s holy city to the rest of the world.
Paul then spent a month or so in Antioch
From Antioch Paul headed points west, going through Galatia and Phrygia to encourage and strengthen the churches he had established there.
Alexandria, on the north coast of Africa, the delta of Egypt, was Apollos’ birthplace, who had begun a preaching ministry, and was taken under the tutelage of Prisca and Aquilla.
In Acts 19 Paul went back to Ephesus, where he established a very solid church during the longest period of service in any place he visited. After about two years in Ephesus, Paul decided to head for Jerusalem but going through Macedonia and Achaia first.
57 AD, Three Months in Corinth
Paul spent about three months in Greece - Athens and Corinth - then decided to go back through Macedonia on his way to Jerusalem rather than risk going through Syria, since he caught wind of a secret plot to kill him.
I think it is possible that one of the significant ways Phoebe acted as benefactor was to finance the writing of Romans. Since Cenchreae was one of Corinth’s two port cities, it seems reasonable to me that Paul would have engaged with Phoebe on this joint project.
Meanwhile, Prisca and Aquilla, along with many other believers, were making their way back to Rome after Emperor Claudius’ edict expelling Jews (and therefore, Jewish believers) had expired. They were the perfect contacts for Phoebe, since she had already spent time with them when they had traveled with Paul.
It is, of course, all conjecture! But, I think, reasonable, considering the evidence.
Each video is designed to offer background scholarship on the topic, including setting, culture, original language, and archaeology, as well as a theological study.
The "Broken, Searching, Trusted, Powerful" series is a companion to the book, available on Amazon, and published by Wipf and Stock.
Amen
I still struggle to see how this great exposition only has 337 views. It should be 300k views
Thank you Bruce, sure do appreciate you!
I went to your site, thinking you were my good friend Bruce C. E. Fleming, and saw your wonderful work. I subscribed. Grace and peace.
@@GraceandPeaceJoanne Just subbed to ur chanel too. keep up the goood work
She was a deacon which translates servant and/or minister. Yes, women were deacons and ministers of the first, original church. An early Roman letter to Trajan from Pliny the Younger informing how the rise and spread of the Christans was being lead by slave women. Yes, the letter reads, lead by women. Two of these such church leaders were captured and tortured. If you haven't already, you should look into this Roman letter. It's amazing!
We know what Paul wrote in Timothy about women church leaders and how this is related to Corinth. You could do a chapter on The Women of Corinth. That would take some deep sleuthing
That's a good idea! I just finished my masters and am taking a gap year, then hope to head into a PhD program. My area of emphasis is the first three hundred years of the church, because I think that time period has been misunderstood. I am aware of the letter you're talking about, but I've never read the whole thing. I'd love to, though. This is the year for me to do things like this.
@@GraceandPeaceJoanne I have no doubt you will accomplish your goal.
May God bless you in all your endeavors in His service.
That was so informative! So we’ll researched! Amazing! The best I’ve heard on TH-cam! Bravo
Thank you so much! Really grateful there was something here for you,and thank you for writing.
Wow!!!!
I love 💖😘 how you enlightened me about the ministry of Phoebe and a trustworthy woman of Jesus Christ as a minister, courier, and distributor of the written epistles of Paul: and I love how you corporated her like Lydia and Priscilla and Aquila: and I love 💖😘 how you provided the Laws of the trajectory of how women could live independently without breaking boundaries in a man's world 🌎🌍. I love how you demonstrated Phoebe's depending upon the LORD, and how she was unhindered by demonic influence through the power of the Spirit of God to carry out her mission or missions. Thank you again for your factual and inspiring message!! One question: have you thought 🤔💬 of writing a novel about the woman of God, Phoebe, Martha and Mary of Bethany, and others?
Thank you so much for your warm encouragement! I love these women of God from antiquity. Their courageous faith spurs me on.
And it's funny you should ask! I am two days away from completing grad school, and the very first thing I thought about doing was to knuckle down and start writing books!
I can listen to exegesis over and over again
i came again
Phoebe was young enough to read a letter, travel. Older women could not have been able to read or have strength to travel..
I've not heard that perspective before. What age do you think would have made Phoebe too old to read or travel, and why?
@@GraceandPeaceJoanne we can have a very good guess of the age of many Gospel characters, what they might have looked like and what kind of clothes they wore. Phoebe is one of those characters we can have a good deal of information from by just reading what Paul says about her. She most likely was a Roman citizen or at least a woman that could have relatively safe passage through the empire. There were no reading glasses in those days so people usually had the help of younger people who would write or read their letters to others on their behalf(Titus, Timothy, Silas, Phoebe, etc). She was younger than 40 when she carried that letter and probably traveled with a group of people NOT ALONE..
Notice that Silvanus is the same Silas and this young man helped Peter write his famous letter from Rome.
Thank you for explaining that a little more. Yes, we really can know a lot more about people in the first century (or earlier) than one might think. And old age certainly can bring weaker eye sight and a weaker body over all. Agreed, she certainly did not travel alone. As a women wealthy enough to be a benefactor, and head of her own household, she certainly had a retinue to take care of her travel needs and personal safety. She may also have been instrumental in providing the services of a scribe (or scribes) once she reached Rome, at the very least, to help each church secure their own copy of Paul's letter.
There is one case, at least, of an elderly person reading and writing on their own in the person of John, penning the Revelation of Jesus Christ from the Isle of Patmos. There are other examples from antiquity of elderly people traveling, reading, and writing (Polycarp comes to mind, who was in his eighties), though perhaps they were in the minority, it's hard to say.
It sounds like you are a student of the scriptures and of ancient history! Thank you for taking time to reply, I appreciate it.
@@GraceandPeaceJoanne John was a miracle. God kept him with youthful strength even in his old age. He could run and move like nobody in his 80s. But still, it's probably he had some help writing what he saw in Patmos. He was not alone. There were most likely dozens of people vanished in that island.