Women In Public Life In The Roman East: Iunia Theodora, Claudia Metrodora And Phoebe, Benefactress Of Paul -- By: Roy Kearsley

Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 50:2 (NA 1999)
Article: Women In Public Life In The Roman East: Iunia Theodora, Claudia Metrodora And Phoebe, Benefactress Of Paul
Author: Roy Kearsley


Women In Public Life In The Roman East:
Iunia Theodora, Claudia Metrodora And Phoebe, Benefactress Of Paul1

R.A. Kearsley

Summary

Iunia Theodora and Claudia Metrodora were female benefactors who possessed Roman citizenship and who lived in cities of the Roman East around the middle of the first century A.D. Both used their wealth and high social standing to assist their fellow citizens and to improve the circumstances of their lives. Claudia Metrodora displays the characteristics of a civic patron by the manner in which she financed festivals and buildings associated with her native city and with the religious league of the Ionian cities. Iunia Theodora lived at Corinth during the period of Paul’s activity in that region. Her activity is described as relating to political and, possibly, commercial patronage. She is described by a cognate of the word προστάτις, the term which is applied to Phoebe with respect to the church at Kenchreai and to Paul himself (Rom. 16:1-2). The inscriptions relating to these two female benefactors permit an exploration of the ways in which wealthy women might exercise patronage in a civic or wider spheres.

I. Introduction

Within the New Testament, in Acts and in the various epistles, momentary glimpses are given of local figures who were connected

with the growth of the early church in the towns and cities which Paul visited. Usually the reference to such figures is only in passing but it is clear that some at least of these were among the aristocratic leaders of their communities, who assisted by means of their social position, or in material ways. As examples one might mention the asiarchs of Ephesus who are called the friends of Paul in Acts 19:31,2 and also Dionysius the Areopagite in Athens, who is found in Acts 17:14. But such references are not limited to men as might have been expected. Among the women who appear is Phoebe, named as a deaconess of the church in Kenchreai, in Romans 16:1-2.3 She is of special interest because she is also described as the benefactress, or patroness (προστάτις), of the Christian community in the city.

Many translators of the passage where Phoebe is mentioned, however, have doubted the appropriateness of the word προστάτις...

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