That Paul had a female assistant
on his apostolic journeys was a common assumption of early Christian scholars
(Tertullian, Mon. 8; Clement, Stromg. 4:3; Jerome, Jov.
1.26; Augustine, Op. Mon. 4:5). Indeed, the identity of the person Paul
refers to his syzygos or syzygon in Philippians 4:3, asked to
help Euodia and Syntyche sort out their dispute, was suggested as being Paul’s “wife”
by Clement of Alexandria (Strom. 3:6:53:1-2) and Origen (Comm. Rom.
1:1:3; Eusebius, Hist. eccles. 3:30:1). The text reads, ναι ερωτω και σε, γνησιε συζυγε, συλλαμβανου αυταις: “Yes, I ask you too, genuine yoke-mate,
take hold of them.” John Chrysostom (Hom. Phil 13, however, rejected the
interpretation is not so, but some other woman, or the husband of one of them.”
Interestingly either gender was equally plausible in his reading. It does not
seem that the partner is male, given that the word συλλαμβανου is second-person singular
present imperative middle or passive n masculine or neuter form. However, it is
interesting that John Chrysostom did not use this argument from grammar, and
the word was no obstacle to Clement or Origen, who identified the συζυγον (neuter, so Clement)
or συζυγος as female. Theodore of Mopsuestia (Comm. Phil 4:3a) more
plausibly argued from grammar that γνησιε is masculine, which would mean one should
read συζυγος as masculine. This was not to diminish the women, as he also suggested
that this actually indicated a “genuine yokemate” who was a certain “man joined
to those women by affection and faith . . . showing that the women are worthy
of much careful attention,” since the women ministered to Paul by “teaching of
right religion” like Clement and his other coworkers (4:3b). Still, if this
does (or did) refer to a “wife” of Paul, then, it is apparent here that she is
not with him, since Paul writes from somewhere else, with Timothy, in prison.
Interestingly,
Theodore of Mopsuestia’s solution to the συζυγος of Philippians 4:3 creates a pair: of a
man “yoked” to at least one of the women, Euodia or Syntyche, as a partner.
These male-female syzygoi were well known in the early churches and may
be implied in various texts: Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 2:42:2 (=8:3)
refers to both Clement (of Rome) and Grapte as a king of pair, as authorities
in the church. A book will be given to each and “Clement will send it to the
cities abroad, because that is his job. But Grapte will instruct the widows and
orphans”: their jobs correlate with normatively gendered divisions of Wider
Graeco-Roman society. (Joan E. Taylor, “Paul’s Significant Other In the ‘We’ Passages,” in
Craig A. Evans and Aaron W. White, Who Created Christianity? Fresh
Approaches to the Relationship Between Paul and Jesus [Peabody, Mass.:
Hendrickson, 2020], 118-48, here, pp. 133-34)
Further Reading
Thomas A. Wayment and John Gee, Did Paul Address His
Wife in Philippi?