Phoebe

c. AD 57· In the text

Tied to events dated from records outside the Bible, usually within a few years. How the dates are worked out

"bright, radiant" · Greek

A woman of the church at Cenchreae, the eastern port of Corinth, whom Paul commends to the believers in Rome at the close of his letter. He calls her a sister and a servant of that church, a word some translations give as deaconess. He asks the Romans to receive her and to help her in whatever she needs, because she had been a helper of many and of Paul himself. Hers is the first name in the long list of Romans 16, and she is commonly thought to have carried the letter to Rome.