PHOEBE ON THE ROAD TO ROME by Bobbie Ann Cole
Phoebe was
Paul’s trusted letter carrier to Rome.
Wikicommons / Vatican
In those
times, communication was night and day different from today's instant messaging
and email. Letters, usually dictated and handwritten by a scribe on scrolls of
papyrus or parchment were the only way to spread messages, teachings, and
instructions among communities without going in person.
DEACONESS AND BENEFACTOR
One notable figure associated with delivering such
a letter in the New Testament is Phoebe. She is briefly mentioned in the Book
of Romans as a deaconess of the church in Cenchreae, a port city near Corinth.
Phoebe was entrusted with delivering the
letter that would become known as Romans to the believers in Rome. That she was
chosen is a mark of the high regard in which she was held among the early
Christian community:
"I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae. I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of his people and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been the benefactor of many people, including me."(Romans 16:1-2)
This confirms Phoebe’s generosity, as well as her
own means.
DANGERS OF ROAD TRAVEL
The task she was given of delivering Paul’s
letter was fraught with danger. Road travel at this time, perforce on foot,
horseback or by donkey, was challenging, especially in the Mediterranean region
where bandits and robbers would ambush unsuspecting individuals or groups.
Phoebe would not have gone to Rome alone. Along
with her own entourage, she may have found herself travelling with itinerant farm
workers, merchants, pilgrims or folk visiting family.
As a deacon of the early church, she probably
had connections with other believing communities to facilitate stop-offs along
the way. Nevertheless, her trip was a significant undertaking.
INCLEMENT WEATHER AND MORE
Travellers had to contend with the vagaries of
weather, including extreme heat, cold, rain, and storms. Paul appeared to avoid
travel in winter, (1 Cor. 16:6, 2 Tim. 4:21), while in spring, there could be
floods.
Those wonderful Roman roads were unpaved and
uneven outside of the city as folk travelled on foot, horseback or by donkey. There
were precarious cliffs to negotiate and catastrophic events like landslides and
earthquakes.
Add to this the ever-present peril of
encountering wild animals such as wolves, bears, hyenas and big cats.
UNSAFE CITIES
Cities were no safer. Illness en route would
be an ever-present danger. You would be exposed to the spread of pandemics,
plagues and famines. Inns might be unsanitary.
And there was the further risk of running into
an uprising in this politically unstable region of the Mediterranean.
TRAVEL BY SEA
Travel by sea was just as hazardous, despite
boats hugging the shoreline. Paul himself survived three shipwrecks: Malta (Acts
27-28), Cauda (off the coast of Crete, Acts 27:39-44), and in the Adriatic, (2
Cor. 11:25).
SCROLL SAFETY
How, then, could one ensure a scroll did not
go down with the ship or end up as the booty of a bandit?
Firstly, scrolls were often kept dry and clean in pouches
sealed jars or cylindrical scroll cases of wood, leather or metal.
It’s my view that, given the circumstances of
the time, a scribe would have been wise to make several back-up copies of any document
that would be running the gauntlet of being transported anywhere.
DELIVERY
Phoebe wasn’t just a postie. In those days, you
didn’t only deliver a letter and watch the recipient tear off the wax seal to
read it.
Paul would have coached Phoebe at length on all
the points he wanted to get across. The letter itself would have served more as
an aide-memoire for Phoebe, who would have declaimed it, possibly to the
assembled congregation, possibly to other congregations, too.
TRUSTWORTHY
Since getting the letter to its destination was
so difficult, we can assume that Phoebe was chosen for specific qualities, primarily
that she was trustworthy: Paul entrusted his letter to Phoebe because her home
Christian community in Cenchreae trusted her and considered her reliable.
Her understanding of her faith would have
helped her convey the message of Paul’s letter accurately, with the appropriate
emphases, to the believers in Rome.
Early Christianity relied heavily on trusted
messengers like Phoebe to spread the message across regions, forge connections
and strengthen communities.
We know so little about this intriguing, special
woman. We can only guess at all she endured to get Paul’s letter into the hands
of the Christian community in Rome.
Well done, Phoebe, God’s good and faithful
servant.
Bobbie Ann Cole
Author, Speaker and Writing Teacher
Bobbie lives in Jerusalem
where she is studying for a Masters in Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University.
She is looking forward to better understanding Jesus’ world.
Sign up to her blog at http://scrollchest.com and be the first to read
her blog posts and receive her weekly newsletters about her life in Israel.
This is interesting, Bobbie. There is a longer reconstruction of Phoebe's life in the book by Paula Gooder.
ReplyDeleteI have seen that book on Amazon, Susan. It's on my wish list: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Phoebe-Story-Paula-Gooder/dp/1444791745/
ReplyDeleteLovely post, Bobbie! Thank you and thanks for bringing up more information about Phoebe. She is mentioned briefly by Paul in Romans as a deaconess. She is one of those women rarely spoken of except to serve as an example that women are allowed positions of authority in the church! Blessings.
ReplyDeleteExactly, Sophia. Apparently, through the centuries, church leaders tried to make out that she was a man!
DeleteFascinating. Thank you! I didn't know any of this. I'm going to send a link to this post to my son and daughter in law whose 8 month old daughter is called Phoebe. They wanted a biblical name but I'm not sure they know this level of detail about it! I certainly didn't.
ReplyDeleteIt is a beautiful name, Deborah, a Greek one with associations with the moon. Phoebe was a Greek woman of means, it would seem. I imagine her as beautiful to look at, as well as to befriend, just as I am sure your granddaughter will grow up to be.
DeleteFascinating! I am glad our heroines of faith are becoming better known.
ReplyDelete