the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Euodia
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or (Εὐοδία)
The Authorized Version reads Euodias. The word in the Greek text occurs in the accusative case, Εὐοδίαν, and the translators mistakenly regarded this as the accusative of ft masculine form Εὐοδίας, and supposed the bearer of the name to be a man. But the word is the name of a woman corresponding to the male form Εὐόδιος, which is also found in Greek literature, several early Christian bishops being so called.
Euodia was a woman, prominent in the Church of Philippi, who had a difference of opinion with Syntyche (q.v. [Note: quod vide, which see.] ). The Apostle exhorts them to be ‘of the same mind in the Lord’ (Philippians 4:2). We have no means of ascertaining the nature of the controversy between the two women, who may have been deaconesses, but were more probably prominent female members of the Church, of the type of Lydia of Acts 16:14-15. In fact, it has been suggested that one of the two may have been Lydia (q.v. [Note: quod vide, which see.] ) herself, as the term ‘Lydia’ may not be a personal name at all, but may mean simply ‘the Lydian,’ or the native of the province of Lydia in which Thyatira, the home of the woman, was situated. This, however, cannot possibly be verified. The difference between the two was more probably of the nature of a religious controversy than of a personal quarrel. The Apostle in the following verse refers to their previous services on behalf of the gospel as a reason why they should be given every assistance to come to a better state of mind. The Synzygus (Authorized Version ‘true yoke-fellow,’ but probably a proper name), whom the Apostle exhorts to help the women towards reconciliation and who is reminded of their previous assistance to the Apostle, may have been the husband of one or other of the women (see Synzygus). The theory of Baur and the Tübingen school that Euodia and Syntyche are symbolical names for the Jewish and Gentile tendencies in the early Church is untenable, and has fallen into disrepute. It is inconsistent with the simple tenor of the Epistle as a whole, and such a mysterious reference would certainly not have been understood by the first readers.
W. E. Boyd.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Euodia'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/e/euodia.html. 1906-1918.
