Corpus-Paul

[Jeff Peterson <peterson AT mail.austingrad.edu>]

At 7:08 PM -0500 4/9/03, MillerJimE AT aol.com wrote:
>     But even if we treat the Pastorals as pseudepigraphs, I still think that
> Phoebe held a specific church office, however undeveloped it may have been at
> the time.  I would include Phoebe the deacon with the other examples listed
> above.

The question is complicated because Paul uses DIAKONOS generally of 
persons who serve for the people of God, including the earthly Jesus 
(Rom 15:8), Paul himself and his associates (2 Cor 6:4), and other 
missionaries as well (1 Cor 3:5; 2 Cor 11:23). In light of this, one 
may wonder whether the reference in Phil 1:1 is to two clearly 
defined offices or to those entrusted with oversight (corresponding 
to the functionaries in 1 Thess 5:12-13; 1 Cor 16:15-16) and those 
who assist them -- likely members of their households, given the 
reference to Stephanas' household in 1 Cor 16:15 and the naming of 
individuals before the church "in your [Philemon's] house" in Phile 1.

Phoebe is presented as a DIAKONOS, a "servant," of the church in 
Cenchreae, but it's unclear whether this describes her as holding a 
recognized office subordinate to one or more EPISKOPOI. The further 
description of her as "patron" (PROSTATIS) of many including Paul 
might suggest the more general meaning and put Pheobe in the role of 
householders like Philemon and Stephanas who devote their resources 
to the mission.

The remaining question is how the church structure advocated in 1 Tim 
relates to what we find in the undisputed letters: Does it reflect 
formalization of the ministry a generation or two after Paul, or 
merely an attempt to tighten up the structure evident in the 
undisputed letters in arguably the most important church of the 
Pauline mission so as to limit the spread of teaching Paul opposes? 
On this question I confess myself firmly undecided, leaning on MWF to 
Pauline authorship and on TThSat to deutero-Pauline; I take Sundays 
off.

Jeff Peterson
--
Jeffrey Peterson
Associate Professor of New Testament
Austin Graduate School of Theology
Austin, Texas, USA
> From randerson58 AT comcast.net  Thu Apr 10 12:35:54 2003
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Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2003 12:29:29 -0400
From: Richard Anderson <randerson58 AT comcast.net>
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<< Im sorry that I dont remember the name of the author, but theres an
excellent book titled "When Women Were Priests".  (and then some subtitle).
Very nice treatment of the phoebe= deaconess thing.
 Best
Jim >>

Karen Jo Toriesen, "When Women Were Priests" HarperSanFrancisco 1995

Richard H. Anderson