Lydia, Dorcas and Phoebe, Co-workers With the Apostles (2024)

Lydia is mentioned in Acts 16:11-15,40.

When Paul on his second missionary journey carried his preaching out ofAsia and into Europe, he began at the city of Philippi in Macedonia (north of Greece). His firstEuropean convert was a woman named Lydia, a merchant who dealt inpurple-dyed goods. (Purple dye, made from a certain mollusk, wasextremely expensive. One use of it was for the stripes in the togas ofRoman senators. Lydia's occupation suggests that she had considerablecapital.) She and her household wer baptized, and she invited Paul, withLuke and his other companions, to make her house their headquarters in Philippi.

Dorcas (or Tabitha in Aramaic -- both names mean "gazelle") is mentionedin Acts 9:36-42. She was a member of the early Christian community inJoppa, a seacoast town of Israel, and noted for her acts of charity, inparticular for making garments and giving them to needy widows. When shefell ill and died, Peter came to see her, and raised her to life. Hiswords to her, "Tabitha, kumi," (Tabitha, arise), are reminiscent of thewords of Jesus to the daughter of Jairus, "Talitha, kumi," (little girl,arise) as given in Mark 5:41. Whether this is anything more thancoincidence is hard to say. If the Aramaic words of Jesus had been quotedby Luke rather than by Mark, one might suppose that Luke was underscoringa resemblance between the two episodes (the reader is invited to look upboth stories, the former in M 9:18-26 = P 5:22-43 = L 41-56 andthe latter in A 9:36-42). As it is, I am not sure that Luke (orPeter, presumably Mark's source for his account) intends a connection.

Phoebe (the name means "bright" or "radiant": Apollo and Diana, the godand goddess of the sun and moon respectively, were often referred to as"Phoebos" and "Phoebe"), was a Diakonos of the Church at Chenchreae, theeastern seaport of the city of Corinth. (Corinth was on a narrow isthmusthat connected southern Greece (the Peleponessus) with northern Greeceand the mainland of Europe. Attempts had been made to dig a canal throughthe isthmus in order to shorten shipping routes, but no attempt wassuccessful till modern times. Accordingly many ships were simply draggedout of the water, put on rollers, and moved across the isthmus and intothe water on the other side. Naturally, the crew got shore leave.Naturally, Corinth became famous as a port that accommodated sailors withshore leave. This may account for the fact that Paul has a great dealmore to say about sexual matters when writing to the Corinthians than hedoes in other connections.) When Paul mentions her, she has left thevicinity of Corinth and is in Rome, so that Paul commends her to theChurch there.

There has been some dispute about whether Paul means to say that she wasa "deacon" in the Church (holding the same office held later by Athanasius in Alexandria and Lawrence in Rome), orwhether he refers to another office, that of the "deaconess," not thesame as a female deacon (but in that event, one would have expected afeminine form of the word), or whether he is simply using the word in anon-technical sense to mean someone known for her helpfulness and serviceto the Church. He calls her a Diakonos, a word which the Kjv translatesas "deacon" three times (Philippians 1:1, 1 Timothy 3:8,12), as "servant" seven times (includingthe reference to Phoebe) and as "minister" twenty times (includingreferences to Paul himself). It is a word that originally had the meaningin secular Greek of "someone who is responsible for, attends to,ministers to, or waits on a person or group of persons or a task or areaof responsibility." Later, it came to be used in a technical sense todenote a certain office in the church. One has to guess from the contextwhether it is being used in the technical sense or in the older,descriptive sense. A similar problem sometimes arises with Angelos, whichis Greek for "messenger, bringer of news." The form Euangelos means"bringer of good news," and gives rise to our word "evangelist." Whenmysterious beings gave messages to men from God, and then disappeared,they were called "messengers of God," or simply "messengers," and soAngelos came to mean sometimes "messenger" and sometimes "angel."Sometimes the context does not make it clear which is meant. Again, theGreek Martyros means "witness," but came to refer to the particular kindof witness who says, "Jesus is Lord," when he faces death for saying it.Hence, Martyros is sometimes to be translated "witness" and sometimes"martyr." Similarly, Episcopos can mean "overseer" or "bishop," andPresbyteros can mean "elder person" or "presbyter, priest."

Phoebe was in any event a person of consequence in a congregation nearCorinth, someone who had made a valuable contribution there.

PRAYER (traditional language):

Almighty God, who didst inspire thy servants Lydia, Dorcas andPhoebe to uphold and sustain thy Church by their loving andgenerous deeds: Give us the will to love thee, open our heartsto hear thee, and strengthen our hands to serve thee in othersfor the sake of thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth andreigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

PRAYER (contemporary language):

Almighty God, who inspired your servants Lydia, Dorcas andPhoebe to uphold and sustain your Church by their loving andgenerous deeds: Give us the will to love you, open our heartsto hear you, and strengthen our hands to serve you in othersfor the sake of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives andreigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.