Reimund Bieringer: Phoebe’s Fateful Future: The Cenchreaen diakonos and the Origins of Early Christian Female Ministry

Phoebe is regularly referred to in contemporary discussions about women deacons. Not a few of those who are convinced that women served as ordained deacons or deaconesses during several centuries of the early church have understood Phoebe as a forerunner or prototype of female diaconal ministry. Among other things this can be seen in the use of the word “deaconess”, the title used in later centuries, in the translation of the original Greek word diakonos which Paul uses to refer to the role of Phoebe in Rom 16:1. For understandable reasons Phoebe’s role in the Pauline churches was understood in light of later developments of female ministry (cf. Schüssler Fiorenza, Women in the Pauline Churches, p. 211). In the first part of this paper we shall trace this influence of Patristic interpretations of Phoebe on 19-20th century historical-critical exegesis. In the second part we shall present an alternative understanding of the role of Phoebe as diakonos in the literary context of the corpus Paulinum and the New Testament in general. We are convinced that this analysis will provide a more reliable foundation for the reconstruction of the origins of early Christian female ministry.