the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Syntyche
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or (Συντύχη)
Syntyche was a Christian lady of Philippi who seems to have held a prominent place in the Church, and who, at the date of the Apostle’s letter to the Philippians, had a difference of opinion with another lady called Euodia (q.v. [Note: .v. quod vide, which see.] ). St. Paul exhorts them ‘to be of the same mind in the Lord’ (Philippians 4:2). It is impossible to form any certain conclusions regarding the nature of the controversy between the two women, who may have been deaconesses, but who were more likely prominent female members of the Church, of the type of Lydia of Acts 16:14-15. In fact, the conjecture has been put forward that one of them may have been Lydia herself, as ‘Lydia’ may not be a personal but a racial or geographical designation signifying ‘the Lydian’ or the native of the province of Lydia, where the city of Thyatira, to which she belonged, was situated. This cannot of course be verified. Nor can we say whether the difference between the two partook of the nature of a religious controversy or of a personal quarrel. Before this date both had rendered signal service to the cause of the gospel in Philippi, and the Apostle adduces this as a reason why they should be helped towards a reconciliation. St. Paul expects that they will get help in their differences from one whom he describes as ‘Synzygus’ (Authorized Version ‘true yokefellow,’ but probably a proper name; cf. article Synzygus), probably a prominent official of the church of Philippi. The names of both Euodia and Syntyche are found frequently, and there is no reason for supposing them to be allegorical names for Jewish and Gentile Christianity, as is done so arbitrarily by the Tübingen school.
W. F. Boyd.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Syntyche'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/s/syntyche.html. 1906-1918.
