Women Patrons and Mothers in Associations and the New Testament

Using examples of ancient women in Greco-Roman community leadership roles, Susan E. Benton develops models for imagining how the women in early Christian groups functioned. She considers how Phoebe resembled patrons of civic organizations and how Prisca and other leading women acted like "mothers" in groups.

Drawing on current research in Classics and Roman history, Susan E. Benton analyzes inscriptional evidence about women in the leadership of Greco-Roman associations in Latin West and Greek East. She then uses the resulting profile of civically engaged women to compare to women of early Christ-groups in the Pauline corpus. Women patrons of associations provide a valuable source for envisioning Phoebe, the only New Testament person called a prostatis . Mothers of associations suggest a pattern of involvement for women of the Christ groups, often called "house church leaders." From the mothers of associations, the author extrapolates about how Prisca likely functioned in the community of faith that she served. Altogether, a more developed picture emerges of the concrete contributions possible for women in early Christianity who shared their resources and shaped the lives of their communities.