and SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST, and his APOSTLES, &c. 403 STEPHANUS, a CTEPHANUS was, one of the princi- pal Chriílians of Corinth, whom St. Paul baptized with all his family, as we find in the firtt chapter of the epifile to the Corinthians, probably about the fifty -fecond year ofCHRIST. Stephanus devoted himfelf to the fervice ofthe church ; and, in the yearof our Lord fifty-fix, he came to St. Paul at Ephefus, and, according to St. Chryfofiom, brought GENTILE CONVERT. him letters which the church of Corinth wrote to him, in order to confult him con- cerningmarriage, continency, and perhaps other fubjeéls, which St. Paul treats of in the faid firít epiftle to the Corinthians. This the apoltle wrote from Epfiefus in the fifty-fixth year; and it was fent by Stepha- nus, Fortunatus, and Achaicus, to the Co- rinthian church. PHEBE, PHEBE, for whom St. Paul had a particular elteem, was a deaconefs of the port of Corinth called Cenchrea: and Theodoret thinks, that the apoille lodged at the houfe of this holy woman for force time, while he continued in or near Corinth. In the fixteenth chapter of the Romans, St. Paul fays, I commend unto you Phebe our lifter, which is a fervent of the church which is at Cenchrea: thatye re- ceive her in the Lord, as becomethfaints; and that ye aft her in whatfoever bufi- nefs fhe hath need of you: for fhe hath a DEACONESS. been a fuccourerofmany, and ofmyfelfalfa. Some moderns have advanced a notion, that Phebe was wife to St. Paul ; but none of the ancients have faid any thing like it. It is thought that, in quality ofdeaconefs, fhe was employed by the church in Tome minifirations fuitable to her fex and con- dition ; fuch as vifiting and infiruaing the Chriflian women, attending them in their fickneffes, and diflributing alms to them. Phebe's feftival is fixed by the martyrolo- gifts on the third of September. SOS IPATER, WW E think, that it may be confidently afferted, that this Sofipater, who was at Rome in the fifty-eighth year of CHRIST, when St. Paul wrote his epiftle to the Romans, cannot be, as force affirm, the Sofipater of Berea; fnce he accom- paniedSt. Paul, in the fame year fifty-eight, in his journey to Jerufalem ; and who pro- bably went with him from Corinth, whence GENTILE CONVERT. the epiftle to the Romans was written to go by the way of Macedonia to Jerufalem ; as may be feen in the twentieth chapter of the alts of the apofiles. The Latins celebrate his feaft on the twenty-fifth of June, and call him a dif- ciple of St. Paul. The Greeks honour him upon the twenty-eighth or twenty. ninth ofApril. DEMAS,
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