the Week of Proper 26 / Ordinary 31
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Bible Encyclopedias
Tryphaena
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or (Τρύφαινα , luxurious), a person mentioned in connection with Tryphosa (q.v.), the two being Christian women at Rome, who, among those that are enumerated in the conclusion of Paul's letter to that city, receive a special salutation, and on the special ground that they are engaged there in "laboring in the Lord" (Romans 16:12). A.D. 55. They may have been sisters, but it is-more likely that they were fellow-deaconesses, and among the predecessors of that large number of official women who ministered in the Church of Rome at a later period (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 6:43); for it is to be observed that they are spoken of as at that time occupied in Christian service (τὰς κοπιώσας ), while the salutation to Persis, in the same verse, is connected with past service (ἣτις ἐκοπίασεν ).
We know nothing more of these two sister-workers of the apostolic time; but the name of one of them occurs curiously, with other names familiar to us in Paul's epistles, in the Apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla. See THECLA LEGEND.
There Tryphsena appears as a rich Christian widow of Antioch, who gives Thecla a refuge in her house, and sends money to Paul for the relief of the poor (see Jones, On the Canon, 2, 371, 380). It is impossible to discern any trace of probability in this part of the legend.
It is an interesting fact that the columbaria of "Caesar's household" in the Vigna Qodini, near the Porta S. Sebastiano, at Rome, contain the name Tryphaena, as well as other names mentioned in this chapter, Philologus and Julia (Eccl. 6:15), and also Amplias (Ecclesiastes 6:8). See Wordsworth, Tour in Italy (1862), 2, 173.
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McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Tryphaena'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/t/tryphaena.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
