Priscilla Papers ◆ Vol. 26, No. 3 ◆ Summer 2012  •  5 

Does the New Testament Name Only Men as Local Church Officers?Philip B. Payne

Even if the New Testament identified by name many men and no women as local church officers—in particular, elders, overseers, or pastors—this would not logically exclude women from local church leadership. After all, the New Testament does not name any Gentile men with those titles either. Does this exclude them from those leadership positions?

However,  apart  from  Jesus  Christ  (Heb  13:20;  1  Pet  2:25; 5:4),  the  New  Testament  does  not  identify  any  man  or  woman by name as an overseer  (episkopos) or pastor  (poimēn,  literally, “shepherd”). John refers to himself in 2 John 1 and 3 John 1 as “the elder,”  but  nothing  in  either  context  associates  this  title  with  a local church or with administrative duties. The article (ho, “the”) indicates that this title refers to something unique, which would not apply  to  local  church administration.  It probably  identifies something like the last surviving elderly apostle and eyewitness of Christ. The only other New Testament association of “elder” with any named person is Peter’s self-identification in 1 Peter 5:1 as “the fellow-elder (sumpresbyteros) and witness of Christ’s suf-ferings and the glory that is to be revealed.” This “was the essential qualification of an Apostle in the strict sense,”1 identifying Peter not as the leader of a local church, but of “the whole church.”2

The only person named with an explicit title of local church leadership is not a man at all, but a woman: “I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is deacon of the church in Cenchrea. I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been a leader of many, including myself also” (Rom 16:1–2). 

“Deacon,” as in the NIV 2011, is the best translation of diako-nos here. The same title was used for a pagan religious office and could apply to women.3 This is not the feminine Greek noun for deaconess (diakonissa), and in context certainly does not mean “maid.”4  Cranfield  argues  it  is  “virtually  certain  that  Phoebe  is being described as ‘a (or possibly “the”) deacon’ of the church.”5 Even Calvin says she had “a public office in the Church.”6

Paul’s  logic is natural: “Help her in whatever matter she has need, because she is a leader of many, including myself also.” It should not be surprising that Paul, who calls all believers to sub-mit to one another (Eph 5:21), should himself submit to the local leadership in churches he visited. 

If Paul had intended to say simply that Phoebe had “helped” others, it would have been natural for him to repeat paristēmi to make his reason parallel his request. Translations such as the pre-2011 NIV, which repeats the word “give her any help . . . for she has been a great help,” hide the fact that the Greek verb translated as  “help  [her]”  (parastēte  from  paristēmi,  “I  help,”  which  com-bines para, “alongside,” with histēmi, “I stand”) is almost oppo-site in meaning to the word describing Phoebe as a prostatis “one who leads,” which combines pro, “in rank before” with histēmi, “I stand.” G. H. R. Horsley identifies citations of prostatēs to iden-tify the president of an association.7 Horsley also cites “Sophia, ‘the second Phoibe’” and six other  inscriptions or papyri about 

“female  deacons  and  office-holders”  that  were  discovered  and published in 1979 alone.8

Every meaning of every word in the New Testament related to  the word Paul chose  to describe Phoebe as a “leader”  (pros-tatis) that could apply in Romans 16:2 refers to leadership. This includes the usage shortly before in Romans 12:8, “Let the one in leadership  [ho poistamenos] govern diligently”;  1 Thessalonians 5:12, “respect those who . . . have charge over you [poistamenous] in the Lord”; and 1 Timothy 5:17, “The elders who rule [proestōtes] well are worthy of a double honor.” Used in relation to the family, the word means, “ruling one’s household” (1 Tim 3:4, 5, 12). 

Prostatis can also, like the Latin patrona (“patroness”), denote the legal representative of strangers and their protector, for aliens were deprived of civil rights.9 C. K. Barrett, however, argues that meaning does not fit Romans 16:2 because “Phoebe cannot have stood in this relation to Paul since he was born free, Acts 22:28.”10

The NRSV translation, “for she has been a benefactor of many and  of  myself  as  well,”  has  the  disadvantage  that  this  meaning is not listed by the lexicons Liddell Scott Jones (LSJ)11 or Bauer Arndt  Gingrich  (BAG).12  Additionally,  Paul’s  companion  Luke uses  a  different  word  for  “benefactor”  in  Luke  22:25,  “those  in authority over them are called benefactors [euergetai].”13 

Thus, the lexical evidence and the context of Phoebe’s stand-ing in the church strongly favor the normal meaning of the term prostatis, namely, “leader.” Since her leadership was in the church, it  would  entail  spiritual  oversight.  Even  Charles  C.  Ryrie,  who teaches  that  woman’s  role  in  church  is  “not  a  leading  one,”  ac-knowledges  that prostatis  “includes  some kind of  leadership.”14 This term almost always refers  to an officially recognized posi-tion of authority.15

Since Romans was written before any surviving reference to the office of a  local church “overseer,”  “deacon” may have been the only officially recognized title for a local church leader at that time and place. If by prostatis (“leader”) Paul identifies a church office here, then he describes Phoebe using two titles for a church office  that  may  have  been  equivalent  to  the  later-documented titles “overseer,” “elder,” and “pastor.”

In contrast  to everyone else Paul “greets”  in this chapter, he commands the Romans “to receive her [Phoebe].” The scholarly consensus is that this indicates that Phoebe delivered the epistle to the Romans as Paul’s emissary. As a result, she naturally would have  answered  the  Romans’  questions  about  it.  Consequently, just  as  Mary  in  the  Magnificat  is  the  first  Christian  exegete  of 

PHILIP BARTON PAYNE is well known for his stud-ies of New Testament textual criticism, the para-bles of Jesus, and the man-and-woman teachings of Paul. He has held New Testament teaching po-sitions at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Bethel Theological Seminary, and Fuller Theologi-cal Seminary.

6  •  Priscilla Papers ◆ Vol. 26, No. 3 ◆ Summer 2012

Scripture, Phoebe can properly be regarded as the first exegete of Paul’s letter to the Romans.

In conclusion, the only person unambiguously  identified by name with a title as a local church leader in the New Testament is Phoebe, and she is given what appear to be two such titles: “dea-con of the church of Cenchrea” and “leader (prostatis) of many.” Consequently,  the  argument  is  spurious  that,  since  women  are not given the  title “elder,” “overseer,” or “pastor” of a church  in the New Testament, they may not occupy those offices. The same logic would exclude men from these local church offices as well.

Notes

1.  J. H. A. Hart, The First Epistle General of Peter, vol. 5 in The Ex-positor’s Greek Testament, ed. W. Robertson Nicoll (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1970), 5:76.

2.  Johann Eduard Huther, Critical and Exegetical Handbook to the General Epistles of James, Peter, John, and Jude, vol. 10 in Meyer’s Com-mentary  on  the  New  Testament,  6th  ed.,  trans.  Paton  J.  Gloag,  D.  B. Croom, and Clarke H. Irwin (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1884), 10:328–29.

3.  E.g., see Corpus inscriptionum graecarum, ed. A. Boechkh (Berlin 1828–1877), 2.3037.

4.  See Demosthenes 24 (Against Timocrates, 384–322 BC), 197; Aris-tophanes, Ecclesiazusae (v/iv BC), 1116.

5.  C. E. B. Cranfield, The Epistle to the Romans, International Critical Commentary (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1979), 2:781.

6.  John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentaries, Romans  (Wilmington, DE: Associated, n.d.), 1522.

7.  Examples include the papyri O. Tebt. Pad. 67 and I Eph. III.668a.8.  G. H. R. Horsley, “Sophia, ‘the second Phoibe,’” New Documents

Illustrating Early Christianity: A Review of the Greek Inscriptions and Pa-pyri published in 1977/79  (NSW,  Australia:  Macquarie  University,  An-cient History Documentary Research Centre, 1982–87), 4:239–44, 242.

9.  E.g., Lucian, Bis accusatus 29, uses prostatis to mean “patroness,” according to A. M. Harmon (LCL) 3:140–41.

10.  C. K. Barrett, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (Lon-don: A. and C. Black, 1957), 283.

11.  LSJ 1526–27 identifies prostatis as the feminine form of prostatēs, for which it gives only the following meanings: “one who stands before, front-rank man . . . leader, chief . . . ruler . . . chief authors . . . adminis-trator . . . president or presiding officer . . . one who stands before and protects, guardian, champion . . . patron . . . suppliant . . . prostate gland.”

12.  The Bauer, Danker, Arndt, and Gingrich (BDAG)  lexicon, 885, does, however, list “a woman in a supporting role, patron, benefactor,” citing Horsley, “Phoibe,” 4:242–44. BDAG ignores Horsley’s citations of instances where this word means “guardian” (a person with legal author-ity) and “president.”

13.  LSJ, BAG, and BDAG identify euergetai as meaning “benefactor.”14.  Charles  C.  Ryrie,  The Role of Women in the Church  (Chicago: 

Moody, 1958), 140, 88.15.  See  the  examples  in  Leonard  Swidler,  Biblical Affirmations

of Woman  (Philadelphia,  PA:  Westminster,  1979),  310–11;  James  D.  G. Dunn,  Romans 9–16,  Word  Biblical  Commentary  (Dallas,  TX:  Word, 1988),  888–89;  and  Philip  B.  Payne,  “The  Interpretation  of  1  Timothy 2:11–15:  A  Response  to  Douglas  J.  Moo’s  Article,  ‘1  Timothy  2:11–15: Meaning and Significance,’” Trinity Journal 2 NS (1981): 169–97, 195, and Man and Woman, One in Christ (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009), 62–63.