Charles Ellicott Commentary Romans 16:1

"I commend unto you Phoebe our sister, who is a servant of the church that is at Cenchreae:" — Romans 16:1 (ASV)

Phoebe.—As the Roman Church is especially exhorted to receive Phoebe, it has been inferred that she was one of the party to whom St. Paul entrusted his Epistle, if not the actual bearer of it herself.

Our sister—that is, in a spiritual sense—a fellow-Christian.

Servant.—Rather, a deaconess, keeping the technical term. Deacons were originally appointed to attend to the needs of the poorer members of the Church. This is the first mention of women-deacons, for whom instructions are given to Timothy (1 Timothy 3:11). The necessity for an order of deaconesses would gradually become apparent where women were kept in stricter seclusion, as in Greece and some parts of the East.

Cenchrea.—The port of Corinth, at the head of the Eastern or Saronic Gulf, about nine miles from the city.