Tryphena and Tryphosa, who were mentioned by Paul in his list of faithful Roman Saints in Romans 16, helps illuminate what we know about early Christian women’s participation in the church.
In Romans 16 Paul lists the names of ten women, specifying that each of them was involved in working for the service of the Lord. Of Tryphena and Tryphosa, Paul wrote they did. “labour in the Lord” (Romans 16:12), which in Greek means they were “hard workers” in the service of the Lord.
Paul doesn’t give us any details on what type of work these women were doing for the church, but the only “hard work” we see going on in the New Testament is the preaching of Jesus’s Christ’s gospel by his disciples, who spread His message throughout the world by teaching and ministering in His name.
Interestingly, the word “missionary” is not found anywhere in the Bible. Allan Webb wrote,
The word comes from a Latin word which means “to send” which in turn comes from a Greek word which also means “to send” in the sense of sending an envoy with a special commission. The Greek word implies that there is an authority beyond the sent one – a sender. The messenger himself is not the authority. The messenger simply represents an authority. By simplest definition then, a missionary is a sent one. A missionary is a messenger or an envoy who is sent out on a special mission.
Jesus often used this word in reference to His own ministry…Jesus was the “sent one”, the special envoy or messenger sent from the Father above. Just as Jesus Himself was sent out by the Father, so too the twelve were sent out by the Son. They were sent out as messengers and envoys with all the power and the authority of the Son to back them… A missionary, then, is one who is sent out by Christ, to work together with Christ, in all the power and authority of Christ.”
While the exact work women like Tryphena and Tryphosa did for the church is unclear, what is clear is that early Christian women were active and involved in the missionary work of the church. Paul viewed their help as central to the spreading of the gospel and we see that they worked along side men to help build Christ’s church.
We also know that in the ancient church missionaries, those “who were sent”, did not go out individually, but that they traveled in pairs like our modern missionaries do today. When Jesus sent his apostles out to preach the gospel he, ” began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power” (Mark 6:7). The seventy also were sent by Jesus “two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come” (Luke 10:1), and in 2 Corinthians 13:1 Paul taught, ” In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.”
We see two (possibly) three different types of pairs of missionaries were sent out in the early church:
- Male-Male missionaries, like Paul and Barnaba and Peter and James
- Husband-Wife Missionaries, like Priscilla and Aquila and Junia and Andronicus (though, they could possibly have also been a brother-sister pair)
- Female-Female missionaries, like (perhaps) Tryphena and Tryphosa.
Though Paul doesn’t give us any definitive evidence that Tryphena and Tryphosa were working together as missionaries in the church, he did link their names together indicating that in his mind they were a pair who were “working hard” in the service of the Lord.
It is easy for me to imagine these two women as being “mission companions”, working together to share and preach the gospel to the people within their influence. They had been converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ and the natural result of that conversion would be a desire to share the gospel with others. It seems very possible to me that Tryphena and Tryphosa would have embraced Jesus Christ’s mandate to, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15), even if “all the world” for them meant staying in Rome and working within in their own families and community.
Tryphena and Tryphosa remind me of the women who serve as missionaries for Christ around the world today. The thousands of women who willingly set aside their own worldly desires and aspirations to bring souls into the Kingdom of God, whether in their own home or across the ocean. It is powerful to know that women today are involved in the exact same work that was started, thousand of years ago, by the early disciples of Christ!
Tryphea and Tryphosa would be proud.
For Further Reading:
I Could Have Gone into Every House: Elizabeth McCune Helped Pave the Way for Sister Missionaires by Matthew S. McBride
“A Great Missionary Power”: Women Shared the Gospel Long Before Receiving Mission Calls, by Elizabeth Maki
The First Sister Missionaries by Diane L. Mangum
The Exile by Pearl S. Buck (A biography of Pearl Buck’s mother who was a Christian missionary in China in the mid-1800’s, such a good read! She also wrote one about her father’s missionary work called The Fighting Angel).
In Roman times, women were treated like possessions or pets; rich women especially so. Tryphea and Tryphosa probably gave up the protection of their father(s) and the ability to marry into wealth, if at all. They probably gave up all of their friends, most of their family, and everything that was familiar and comfortable.
The gospel of Jesus Christ brings a gender equality that just doesn't exist elsewhere. I would imagine that many women were drawn to the Church because of this.
Heather
I just wanted to say "Than you" for your missionary work. I know you didn't go on a "formal mission" but you seem to have been "set apart" to shed "light" on the women in the scriptures, whose names may have been just an after thought for many, but because of your love for Heavenly Father and his daughters, you are "a hard worker too".I have learned so much from reading your blog these few years. I feel that I was guided to your space.
Thank you and keep up "the hard work"
Ramona,
Thank you so very very much for this comment. I can't tell you what that means to me. I think sometimes I get to comparing myself too much to others that I forget that the Lord has a different path and work for me to do. Thank you for the kind words and the reminder. It has been wonderful to get to know you better too!
This is a fascinating post! I can imagine that they gave up a lot in order to follow Jesus Christ. For a Noble Roman woman to do so would have meant giving up wealth, comfort, their families, the fact that they did is a testament in itself. I had never heard of these Sisters before thanks for sharing this. I am going to read more about them. Foe them to worship amongst slaves and other classes is also a testament to the gospel and to equality really. Wow, thanks again for sharing this!