3.17. St. Paul's Woman Converts — Saved to Serve

CHAPTER XVII St. Paul’s Woman Converts — Saved to Serve

ST. PAUL’S directions about the position of women in the church, which we meet with in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, taken by themselves, have led to an unfair estimate of the apostle’s treatment of woman. The history in the Acts of the Apostles, supplemented by allusions in the epistles, should make it beyond question that far from undervaluing woman St. Paul rejoiced to find some of his most enthusiastic converts and loyal supporters among the women of the cities he visited in his travels. “VVe have no means of ascertaining what proportion of the members of the early churches consisted of women. But we know that the proportion among the proselytes from heathenism to the Jewish faith was very considerable. As a rule in our own day the women worshippers in most congregations outnumber the men. Whether this was the case in the primitive church or not we cannot say. But at all events it is clear that women were prominent among the first converts. It is frequently asserted that woman is more religious than man. When we think of religion in its widest relations, comprehending the deepest thoughts of the heart and the most far-reaching energies of service and sacrifice, perhaps the statement cannot be easily proved. But when it comes to receiving direct religious impressions and uniting in the worship and fellowship of church life, most important parts of religion, though not the whole of it, as some seem to think, it does appear that the palm must be given to woman. At all events women are among the most important of St. Paul’s converts.

1. Lydia of Thyatira. — Lydia has the honour of being the first known Christian in Europe. We have no knowledge of the origin of the church at Rome. Philippi was the city where St. Paul first planted a church in Europe, and the first member of that church was Lydia the dyer.

She was not a European by birth. A native of the province in Asia Minor after which she was named, which from the days of Homer ^ was famous for its trade of dyeing, coming from the city of Thyatira, where, as we learn from inscriptions, there was a guild of dyers, she was probably connected with some business in that city and now represented it in the Roman colony at Philippi. There she had her own place of business, and its household of slaves and workwomen.

Lydia was a proselyte to Judaism. In her case as in others the law had been a schoolmaster to lead to Christ. Her zeal according to the light she had received prepared her for further light. Her heart was already sensitive to impulses from above before it was opened to receive the gospel. She was one of the “devout” from among whom so many of the early Christians were drawn, one of those who, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, received the benediction of which Jesus spoke in attaining at length to the new righteousness that He brought into the world.

It was at the place of prayer whither she had gone for worship that Lydia heard the good news. When the missionaries from Asia who had been mysteriously Summoned over to Macedonia landed at the port of N eapolis, they at once proceeded to the city of Philippi, where on the Sabbath, according to his custom, St. Paul with his companion travellers made his way to the Jewish place of worship.

There was no synagogue in this city, probably because the Jews were not numerous. In the absence of a synagogue it was customary to meet in some hall, or even in an enclosure open to the sky, which was called a Proseuche, or place of prayer. The apostle found one of these meetinghouses outside the gate of the city. Perhaps it was not allowed within the city walls, or the Jews may have chosen the site as suitable for their ablutions; for it was by the side of the river. ^ Here, according to the free and open customs of the Jews in their public worship, when St. Paul as a visitor signified his wish to speak, he was courteously permitted to address the little assembly. The use of the Greek imperfect in reference to Lydia — meaning in effect “ she was in the habit of hearing “ him, would lead us to suppose that the apostle repeated his visits on several Sabbaths. And all this time the pious woman was drinking in his words with an open mind. That is her remarkable characteristic — an open mind. She was one whose “ heart the Lord had opened.”“ ljet”us remember that in Scripture the “ heart “ does not stand for the affections as with us, but represents the whole inner life, m ental as well as mora l. So many of the Jews were quite inaccessible because their minds were closed and sealed with prejudices, an obstinate bigotry barring the gates against the advent of new ideas. This defect is not peculiar to the Jews of Philippi. It is the common failing of mankind. Most people are totally inaccessible to the advent of new thoughts in religion.

Some regard anything of the kind as dangerous heresy simply on the ground of its novelty, while others who do not go quite so far turn from it with unreasoning aversion.

Lydia was of another order of mind. She had shown this earlier by abandoning the paganism of her fathers — perhaps some dark superstition attributed to her city of Thyatira as of “the woman Jezebel” in the apocalypse- — and accepting the more elevated faith of Israel. Now she is prepared to go a step further. Thus in her openness of mind Lydia is able to be also progressive. This is the more noteworthy, because it is a common assertion that women are more conservative in their religious beliefs than men. It was not found to be so at Philippi.

We must not lose sight of St. Luke’s striking statement that it was “the Lord” who had opened Lydia’s heart Even for this woman who has already ventured on one great breach with the past, it needs the power of God to prepare the way for the reception of the new revelation.

It must ever be so. We are all blind till He teaches us to see. But we are not therefore to infer that the only difference between Lydia and those people who did not receive the gospel was that she was favoured by God in a way that was denied to them. We must still say that she was one who willingly yielded to the new ideas, only we must add that the strength and courage to yield came from that Divine aid which was given to her in her prayers. It is no accident that Lydia’s heart was opened in the house of prayer, no accident that this gift was hers when she was in the spirit of worship. A frivolous Athenian spirit may welcome new ideas for the sake of change without the aid of any Divine grace for receiving them; but it is to the devout that the right understanding of fresh truth may be expected to come. The dead orthodoxy of a prayerless church is the most fatal obstruction to the development of spiritual knowledge. Lydia’s prayers lead to Lydia’s open heart. Thus the gates of Europe lift up that the King of glory may come in. A century before the river flowing by the gate of Philippi had been reddened with the blood of Rome’s last patriots, when first Cassius and then Brutus lost the two battles that bear the name of this city. Now this same stream has its share in the establishing of a greater realm in Europe than the empire of Augustus. Here Lydia was baptized, St. Paul’s first convert in Europe, as he would say, “the firstfruits of Europe.” With her they also baptized her household — either her children, or the workers in her business, and perhaps her domestic servants. It was understood that the proselyte to Judaism took over his household with him. The same was sometimes done in the case of the earlier converts to Christianity. Thus the jailor of this same city of Philippi was baptized “ with his household.” In this way we have a beginning of that church which from his epistle written years later when a prisoner at Rome we leam was always one of the most loyal to St. Paul, perhaps of all his churches the one that was the most unfailing source of joy and comfort. Lydia took no unimportant place in this community. She was his first member, and her house became the home of the missionaries for the remainder of their stay in the city. This fact implies that she was a woman of means. It shows the completeness of her adhesion to the new religion. It indicates the generous practical character of her religion. The open heart I’eveals her receptivity; the open house her generosity.

2. The Pythoness. — The famous prophetess at Delphi was not without humble imitators in these times of the break - down of the old religions and the uprising of all sorts of wild superstitions. A. lunatic girl would then serve well for a band of strolling sorcerers who had bought her as a slave. The public would easily be deluded into the belief that her ravings were the effects of possession by a divinity. Passing through the streets of Philippi, St. Paul more than once met a poor girl in this condition with her keepers out for their performances. These men had circulated the belief that she was under the influence of no less a divinity than the great Apollo, the very god who was supposed to have inspired the oracle at Delphi. The Greeks would call him a daimon. But to Jews the greatest of these daimones was a veritable demon, an evil spirit. To them pagan inspiration was diabolical possession. The case was peculiar in its claim to be related to an oracle, and in the use the girl’s employers made of it. Still as regards her mental symptoms, St. Paul would recognise the well-known signs of the fearful “ possession “ that was so common in Palestine and apparently elsewhere also. The sight of the new missionaries strangely affected this girl. Like the demoniac in the Capernaum synagogue who recognised the higher nature of Jesus Christ, she called after the missionaries declaring them to be “ servants of the most high God,” who proclaimed “a way of salvation.” Possibly she had caught some fragments of the apostle’s message. To her dark, bewildered mind it promised a way of deliverance; and the perception of this fact touched the heart of Paul.

Accordingly, following the example that had come down from Jesus Christ, the apostle exorcised the evil spirit.

Again we are face to face with the question that met us in the case of Mary Magdalene. Whatever may be our idea as to the cause of the disorders of brain and nerves that the ancients ascribed to possession — whether we consider them to be purely pathological or allow room for mysterious spiritual influences — we must admit here, as in the previous case, that in the first century of the Christian era the only way of dealing with the facts was on the hypothesis of a real possession. Thus, assuming the presence of the evil spirit, St. Paul commands it to come out of the aflBicted girl.

It was something about deliverance, salvation, that this girl had discerned in the stray words she had caught in passing the apostle and his companions. Now the gift was hers. At the name of Christ the temble possession had left her, and she had become tame, and quiet, and natural. But to the populace this was the loss of her inspiration; and therefore to her masters it was the loss of their trade. In a fury of rage these men dragged the new teachers into the forum and charged them with causing a disturbance and teaching unlawful doctrines. Thus in a very unusual way the cure of this poor girl brought a persecution on the apostles. As a rule it was the Jews who instigated the persecution of the Christian teachers, while the pagan population was indifferent, and the government officials were more or less friendly, or at least ready to protect peaceable men from the fury of fanaticism. The imprisonment of Paul and Silas at Philippi, contrary to the usual course of things, was of Pagan origin.

Nothing further is narrated of the girl. Most likely her masters gave her up in disgust when they discovered that she was no longer of any use to them. We may imagine that she became one of the early members of that happy church at Philippi, which we seem to know so well from the epistle directed to it. In passing from this story it may be interesting to note that while the first of St. Paul’s converts in Europe was a pious business woman, the second instance of the fruit of his ministry on our continent was the deliverance of a slave girl employed by a strolling band of sorcerers. So wide is the field swept by the beneficence of the gospel, so varied the needs it is capable of meeting. The most respectable and comfortable citizens find their true welfare in its message of grace; the most miserable and oppressed slaves have here their charter of liberty.

3. Daviaris — We sometimes hear statements about the failure of St. Paul in Athens. This is a most unjust description of the results of the apostolic visit to that ancient seat of learning. Surely it was no small success to have gained over a member of the ancient court of the Areopagus, But there were other disciples, how many we are not informed. The only one who is named in addition to Dionysius is introduced as “a woman named Damaris.”

There is no ground for Chrysostom’s suggestion that this woman was the wife of Dionysius. On the contrary the way in which she is introduced excludes that idea. It has been suggested more recently that her name, probably a vulgarism for damalis, heifer, suggests a foreign woman, perhaps one of the class of educated Hetairai who would more probably be found in the audience than married women, since “ it was impossible in Athenian society for a woman of respectable position and family to have any opportunity of hearing Paul.”

There is something distinctive in the way in which Damaris and the other Athenian converts are introduced to our notice. It is said that they “clave unto” the apostle, “and believed.” This was just after the great speech in which St, Paul first complimented the Athenians on their religiousness, then eloquently described the unknown God in whom we live and move and have our being, and lastly proceeded to expound the specific Christian truth confirmed by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That word “resurrection” led to a rude interruption. Some laughed aloud at the idea. The rest seem to have had enough for the present, though they were willing to hear this strange Jew again another time. The assembly broke up in confusion amid mocking laughter and sharp critical remarks. But a few had been seriously affected, and a little group of earnest souls gathered round the apostle. This showed no small amount of independence on their part. At Athens they were in no danger of a violent outbreak of heathen fanaticism. In this centre of dilettante culture people were too frivolous to care to persecute.” But the atmosphere was saturated with ridicule; and it required some courage to stand by a preacher of what was regarded as an ignorant superstition. But the small group of adherents did more than attach themselves to the apostle; they believed his message, believed it in spite of the contempt of the learned and the idle mockery of the populace. This was indeed a triumph of the gospel — a seed of earnest faith taking root even in frivolous Athens! Amid the many altars and statues, the ancient temples of the gods of Hellas and the recently imported shrines of strange divinities, where people are ready to offer incense to every god, but unable to put their faith in any, this handful of men and women gathered about the Jew teacher has attained to what is indeed a rarity in Athens — a living faith, and among them Damaris has the honour of being the one woman whose faith and influence attract the attention of the historian. The Athenian converts do not seem to have been sufficiently numerous to have formed a church. But it is noteworthy that in his first epistle to the Corinthians St. Paul, addressing himself to the church in their city, adds “ with all that call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, their Lord and ours”;^ and in the second epistle he addresses the church of God which is at Corinth, with “all the saints which are in the whole of Achaia.”

Thus in both epistles the apostle has in mind certain disciples outside the membership of the Corinthian churchand in the second he names the province. Damaris would be one of these saints of Achaia included in the apostolic greeting. Early in the following century there was a church at Athens — how established we cannot tell, a church that in the reign of Hadrian furnished two famous apologists for the faith. These men of philosophic habit may have come in for a tradition left by Dionysius the Areopagite about whose name a mass of legendary fables has clustered. But Damaris is not to be forgotten. It is a curious fact — surely not without significance — that while the other converts are grouped together without any specification these two alone are named. The mention of Dionysius is accounted for by his previous position in the court of Areopagus; but as no such title belongs to Damaris, it must be for the sake of her subsequent influence that she is singled out.

4, The Ephesian Women — The sixteenth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans contains far more personal matter than is to be found in any other of St. Paul’s epistles, and yet this epistle is addressed to a church that the apostle had never visited. Rome was the metropolis of the world, and Jews were great travellers — the corn trade from Alexandria was almost entirely in their hands. Therefore it is likely enough that a Jew would have kinsmen of his acquaintance in the imperial city. Moreover some of the names that occur in this chapter correspond with names that are to be found on tombs in Rome. Still when all allowance is made for these considerations, and any others that may be urged in the same direction, it remains a very remarkable thing that this chapter of exceptional personal reference should be found in an epistle to a church that the writer had never visited. If there were but one or two names they might be accounted for on the hypothesis that certain friends of the apostle had travelled to Rome. It is the number of salutations, with the exact characteristio descriptions of the persons concerned, that has raised doubts on the subject. Accordingly many have come to the conclusion that the sixteenth chapter of our present Epistle to the Romans is really a fragment of some other epistle originally directed to another church. The warning in verse 17 points to a church of which the apostle had direct knowledge, and it is not in harmony with the treatment of the Roman church in the body of the epistle.

If we are to look elsewhere for the destination of this fragment Ephesus seems to be the place. Prisca and Aquila who appear here were last met at Ephesus;^ and when we next meet with them they are also at Ephesus, as we shall see when we come to consider them more particularly. Then Epaenetus is called “ the firstfruits of Asia,” and Ephesus was the capital of the Roman province entitled “Asia.” It would seem that we have here a commendation of Phoebe to the Church of Ephesus. That lady came from Cenchrese, the port in the isthmus of Corinth from which ships set sail for Ephesus.

Among the salutations which St. Paul sends to those whom we will regard as his Ephesian friends several are directed to women. First we have Prisca, who must be reserved for fuller consideration in the next chapter. Then we meet with a Mary, pleasantly characterised by the addition of the phrase “who bestoweth much labour on you.”

These salutations are all varied with discriminating reminiscences, and Mary’s certificate is one of great honour. It was service that won the richest praise in the apostolic churches. Rank and station went for little; wealth was of no account except in so far as it was given to the common cause, and thus came in as an evidence of selfsacrifice. But service was most highly prized. These churches were alive and active. Each of them was a missionary centre, its members zealous in spreading the good news of the kingdom; and within its borders each was a family, the brothers and sisters bound to care for one another. The law of Christ they were called on to fulfil was to “ bear one another’s burdens.” Now women took their full share in this inspiriting scene of activity.

What particular labour Mary was able to bestow in the works of mutual helpfulness carried on at Ephesus is left to our imagination to picture — whether it were in tending the sick, supplying the wants of the poor, caring for the orphans, reclaiming the lapsed, training female disciples, winning new converts — in these and other ways there was abundant opportunity for woman’s work in the church of the apostles.

Next we have a salutation to Andronicus and Junias. But the second name could be read “Junia,” and the grouping of the two like that of Prisca and Aquila rather suggests that they were husband and wife. Concerning them St. Paul tells four things. First, they were his kinsmen, that is to say, Jews. Second, they had been fellowprisoners with him; he does not say when, and we have here an allusion to some imprisonment not recorded in tho Acts. Third, they were “of note among the apostles”; they were of that second order of the apostles, beyond the twelve, the travelling missionaries, and noteworthy in it. Fourth, St. Paul adds, “They who also have been in Christ before me.” Then these are not to be reckoned among his converts. The title “ Apostle “ makes it probable that the second of these names as well as the first must stand for a man. Chrysostom, however, assumes that it represents a woman when he exclaims, “And indeed to be apostles at all is a great thing. But to be even among these of note, just consider what a great encomium this is! But these were of note owing to their works, to their achievements. Oh! how great is the devotion of this woman, that she should be even counted worthy of the appellation of apostle!” A little further on we come on two women, Tryphsena and Tryphosa, apparently sisters. They too are commended for labouring in the Lord — labour again the special point commented on. But while these two sisters are simply said to have laboured in the Lord, a higher commendation is for one whose name immediately follows — “Persis the helovedfVfhich laboured much in the Lord.” A general favourite she must have been, and deservedly so for her superabounding activity in the church. But note the change of tense. The sisters “labour “; this woman “laboured.” Her work is of the past. Either she is aged, or hindered by illhealth, or in some other way compelled to desist. This fact may account for the apostle’s veiy tender way of referring to her. It is hard for those who would gladly work to be compelled to stand aside. Such people have a right to receive the utmost consideration from their brethren. But what a new world this is for Greek men and women! There is not a word about those natural charms that are celebrated in the choice of Paris. Human nature is the same all the world over. Beauty is a gift which cannot but win admiration. But here in the church it is not mere personal attractiveness but service that comes to the front; here it is the woman who has served much who is greatly beloved. This is no “ Dream of Fair Women.”

It is the honour roll of self-sacrificing women. A very touching reference follows next. “ Salute Rufus the chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.’“ Simon of Gyrene, who was compelled to carry the cross of Jesus, is described by St. Mark as “the father of Alexander and Rufus “ — the reverse of the usual Biblical method which identifies a man by a reference to his father. Alexander and Rufus were better known than Simon, probably because they were Ghristians of the later generation living when the gospel was written. If it is the same Rufus to whom St. Paul here sends a salutation, the mother so touchingly described would be the wife, perhaps now the widow, of the man who carried Christ’s cross to Calvary. She must have heard a wonderful story from the lips of her husband! And now her faith in the Crucified has had the effect of enriching and widening her motherliness. She must be an elderly woman for the apostle to regard her as his mother. She is the only woman whom he thus honours. The phrase throws a flood of light back on those months when the apostle was busy tent-making for part of the day while the rest of his time was occupied with discussions in the hall he was thus enabled to hire from one Tyrannus. A motherly heart was devoted to his welfare; motherly hands cared for his wants; motherly tenderness came to his aid in those frequent infirmities to which he was subject. If the apostle had at times so hard a life at Ephesus that on reflection he could call it a “ fight with wild beasts,” he had also the incomparable blessing of a woman’s care bestowed on him as freely as on her own son. The last two women mentioned in this long list of salutations are Julia — the name is common among slaves — and the sister of Nereus, about whom nothing more distinctive is said. But it is distinction enough to be named at all in such a roll of honour as this. These two belong to a group that seems to have been a little community in itself, residing perhaps in one quarter of the city and very much thrown together; possibly they held small meetings of their own, for the apostle adds “ and all the saints that are with them,” The more we consider this list the more we must be struck with the combination of intense sympathy with keen discrimination in the great apostle. We see the utmost kindness, the warmest appreciation, yet expressed in terms of careful differentiation. This is not the language of flattery. If they had not the true Christian spirit of humility the women who received the more moderate salutations might be inclined to take offence. Tryphsena and Tryphosa, who merely “ labour in the Lord,” might be jealous of Persis, who is called “ the beloved” and described as having “laboured much in the Lord,” while Julia might be still more aggrieved at hearing no reference to her merits, and the many women who were not even named consider themselves unwarrantably slighted. It was a daring thing for the apostle thus to discriminate among his women friends. But he would assume the presence of a magnanimity and a warmth of mutual love in the church that would rise above the miserable selfishness that harbours any such ideas. It cannot be denied that there have been churches that would have been shattered to fragments by the receipt of such a missive as this from an idolised minister. It is to be observed that St. Paul did not send any discriminating salutations to the divided church at Corinth.

5. The Women at Philippi. — In the Epistle to the Philippians St. Paul does not refer either to Lydia or to the slave girl whom he had rescued during his first visit to the city. But in one passage he has a message for two other women — Euodia and Syntyche, apparently having fallen out, tho apostle beseeches them “to be of the same mind in the Lord.” ^ An erroneous legend represents these two names as standing for a husband and his wife, and even takes the husband for the converted jailor, thereby implying a painful sequel to the scene in the prison after the earthquake. But both names are feminine. Then it has been suggested that a separate assembly may have been held in the house of each of these women, and that the object of the apostle was to preserve harmony between the two congregations — on what grounds it is hard to guess. The simpler explanation is that they were two members of the same community.

If these women were pained at the apostle’s reference to their mutual diflferences it must have been pleasant for them to hear what followed. St. Paul proceeds to request somebody here named Synzygus — possibly meaning Epaphroditus — who he says is true to the meaning of his name as “yoke fellow” — to help these women. He adds that they had laboured with him in the gospel. This is their commendation. It is sometimes to be observed that the most active and useful people are not the easiest to work with. Energy does not necessarily find itself associated with sweetness. It is well to be furnished with the apostle’s discriminating sympathy that could correct the faults of temper and at the same time encourage the exercise of energy.