Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 39:3 (Sep 1996)
Article: Partnership In The Gospel: The Role Of Women In The Church At Philippi
Author: A. Boyd Luter

JETS 39:3 (September 1996) p. 411

Partnership In The Gospel:
The Role Of Women In The Church At Philippi

A. Boyd Luter*

In recent years a number of valuable specialized studies on the women in the Philippian church have appeared. 1 Each of them has concluded in one way or another that the female believers spotlighted in Philippians and in Acts 16, where the church at Philippi is born, played quite prominent roles in the development of that congregation that the apostle Paul uniquely commended for “your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now” (Phil 1:5, NIV). 2

By no means, however, have all the ways in which that importance is highlighted (or strongly implied) in the Biblical text been adequately understood or in some cases even noticed. And since Philippi is perhaps the classic NT case study on the roles of women in the founding and developing of a local congregation, Philippians must be seen as an important but underdeveloped resource in the ongoing intramural debate among evangelicals on the ministry of women in the Church.

Though this paper will not address the burning issues in this dialogue directly, it will seek to further explore the relevant question of the nature of women’s “partnership in the gospel” by probing fresh angles provided by (1) structural and literary observation of Philippians (within the wider corpus of books that evangelicals generally agree Paul contributed to the NT) and (2) the flow of the narrative style of Acts 16:12–40, the specific passage on the founding of the Philippian church (within the overall flow of Acts).

* Boyd Luter is adjunct professor of Bible exposition at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, Strawberry Point, Mill Valley, CA 94941–3197.

JETS 39:3 (September 1996) p. 412

I. Evidence Of The Women Disciples’ Importance
In Philippians

There are at least eight lines of evidence in the Philippian letter that demonstrate the prominent roles of certain women in that congregation. Each individual point is significant in its own right. But taken together the eight following factors create a very strong pattern.

1. Philippians is the only letter Paul wrote in which two women in the church being addressed are emphasized in the body 3 of the epistle. As can be quickly seen in chart 1, Phoebe and Prisc(ill)a are both discussed briefly in Romans 16, as are Eunice and L...