Bible Translator

Phoebe, Head Minister

People who object to women as head ministers, or priests, pastors, must not realise that Phoebe was a head minister, and been a minister over Paul.
In the Bible, the letter to the Romans was written around 57 AD by Paul. Irenaeus, Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin Martyr and Marcion all assume Pauline authorship. 2 Cor. 8:10-11 shows that Paul was on his way from Ephesos to Corinth, and was directing the Corinthians in the matters of finances for the Jerusalem assembly. In Romans 15:26-28 Paul states that he has just completed the collection of finances for the believers in Jerusalem after visiting the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. This corresponds to Acts 20:1-3, thus pinpointing the time as the year after Paul left Ephesos on his third missionary journey. Paul gave the letter to Phoebe to take to Rome. He establishes her credentials as a leader in Romans 16:1-2 where he calls her a “deacon” and “presiding officer”. Paul is writing a formal recommendation, which necessitates giving Phoebe’s title on the basis of her leadership. He needs to establish her credentials as his emissary to Rome. Phoebe is coming to Rome on Paul’s behalf for a specific project, and Paul asks the Romans to assist her. The question of Paul’s whereabouts when he wrote the letter largely depends on whether chapter 16 is part of Romans. Chapter 16 appears to have been written from Corinth. Phoebe, who was to take the letter, was a deacon of the church in Kenchreai, the eastern port of Corinth. Here's the Bible text: Romans Ch.16:1-2: "I recommend to you Phoebe our fellow believer, who is a deacon of the assembly in Kenchreai, so that you will admit her into your company, the Lord’s company, in a manner worthy of the people devoted to God, and stand by her in whatever matters she needs you to help in. For indeed she became a presiding officer over many, and over me also!"The prostatis referred to a person of the front-rank, the ruler or chief of a body of people. It was also a term which referred to those who gave protection to people who did not have civil rights. The King James Version and Revised Standard Version incorrectly render prostatis as “helper”, the NIV as “(she has been) a great help”, the NEV as “good friend”.
If Bible translators do not believe that women were or should be ministers, they will translate the text accordingly. Vine wrote, “That her ministry did not take the form of preaching or teaching, it is safe to assume.” Commenting on Paul’s use of prostatis, Vine does note that the word was “evidently chosen instead of another which might have been easily used” but adds that the use must be "metaphorical”. However, there is no example of metaphorical use in all Greek writings.
The word prostatis used here for a woman was altered in the 9th century in some inferior manuscripts to parastasis, “one who stands by / assistant”. This is not surprising as the (Latin) Vulgate incorrectly translated prostatis as the Latin adstitit, “one who stands by / assistant”. Yet the word prostatis was used for women no less than it was for men. The 4th century woman Tullia, a Chief City Official, was described as prostatis. (I.Eph. IV.1063) Far earlier, in Macedonia, prostates was the name for the senior civic official beside the king. (N.G.L. Hammond, Journal of Hellenic Studies 105 (1985) 156-60.) In Macedonia after Alexander’s death, Krateros was entrusted with the prostatis of the kingship while the king, Arridos, was abroad. When the office of prostates eventually lapsed, the high honors associated with it lived on in the use of its title, prostasia. This was demonstrated as late as 1985.
The translations of most New Testament versions are based on a lack of understanding of Greek word meaning.
For centuries, the meanings of numerous New Testament words remained unknown. Bible lexicographers, that is, people who compose dictionaries of word meaning, look at the occurrences of a particular word. Many words which appeared in the New Testament were not found anywhere else, which made grasping their meaning difficult. However, when the papyri and inscriptions (written at the time of the New Testament) were unearthed, many of these words appeared commonly in all sorts of different contexts, and thus their meaning became apparent. Some papyri and inscriptions were discovered in the late 1880s but a huge number after the mid 1970s.
Yet nearly every New Testament translation of today follows the traditional Bible translations of the earlier versions, which were published centuries before the evidence from the papyri and inscriptions revealed to us the meanings of numerous New Testament words.

posted by Ann Nyland @ 8:10 PM