Phoebe

A woman who carried Romans all the way to Rome, though only two verses of Scripture ever mention her.

Scripture tells us about Phoebe in only two verses — Romans 16:1-2. Yet a woman's whole life is contained in those two short verses. Paul introduces her: 'I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae.' Diakonos — servant, minister — is the word used for her. The same word Paul uses to describe himself. Someone who worked in the deepest place of the community.

Paul goes on to write, 'she has been a patron [prostatis] of many and of myself as well.' Prostatis means someone who looks after others with authority — a patron, a protector. She wasn't simply kind. She took responsibility for other people's futures with her own resources and standing. Paul himself says he was under her protection.

But the most decisive thing in her life was carrying a single letter. While staying in Corinth, Paul wrote a letter to the church at Rome — the letter later called the deepest work of theology in the New Testament. Whose hands he entrusted it to was not a decision made lightly. Paul entrusted it to Phoebe. She carried that letter from Cenchreae to Rome — a journey of about 1,200 kilometers. Upon arrival, she very likely read the letter aloud before the Roman church. The commendation written at the end of chapter 16 suggests she wasn't merely a courier, but someone capable of explaining the letter's contents. The high point of New Testament theology, carried in a woman's own hands. Yet her name occupies only two verses in all of Scripture — a lifetime of responsibility for the most important things, carried out unseen.