Something to chew on..and yes it is copied...
E. From counting the names of women mentioned in Paul’s epistles, we see that a full 24% of Paul’s co-workers were women.
1. “Thus 13 women are known by name to have been leaders in Pauline churches. Paul, in his letters, names 54 men within the churches, presumably all of whom had some leadership role.” (Dr. David Scholer, Professor of New Testament, Fuller Theological Seminary, Theology News and Notes, Mar. ’95, p. 22.)
a. Women leaders with churches in their homes: Lydia (
Acts 16:14-15, 40); Chloe (
I Cor. 1:11); Nympha (
Col. 4:15); Apphia (and her husband Philemon, Philem. 2); Priscilla (and Aquilla,
Rom. 16:3-5).
b. Other women leaders: Nereus’s sister (
Rom. 16:15); Julia (
Rom. 16:15); the mother of Rufus (
Rom. 16:13); Mary (
Rom. 16:6); Tryphaena (
Rom. 16:12); Tryphosa (
Rom. 16:12); Persis (
Rom. 16:12); Euodia and Syntyche (Phil. 4:2- 3); Priscilla (
Rom. 16:3); Phoebe (
Rom. 16:1-2); Junia (
Rom. 16:7).
F. In
Romans 16, 10 of the 29 persons (35%) mentioned by Paul are women.
1. In
Rom. 16:1-2 Phoebe is commended by Paul as a diakonos, the masculine title meaning “deacon” or “minister” (BAGD [Bauer, Arndt, Gingrich, Danker, A Greek English Lexicon of the New Testament (University of Chicago Press, 1979)], p. 184, 2b.) in the early church, the office mentioned by Paul in
I Tim. 3:8-13.
I Tim. 3:11 specifically mentions women diakonos- ministers. (The fact that the word is masculine and not feminine shows that it denotes the title of the office of “deacon” and does not simply denote the common noun “servant.” Because if Phoebe were only being called a “servant” in the generic sense, the noun in apposition would have taken the feminine gender of Phoebe’s name as all adjectives and nouns do in Greek which are modifying feminine proper nouns, e.g. Phoebe is called “sister” with the feminine form adelphe in
Rom 16:1 and “patroness” with the feminine form prostatis in 16:2; in Philem. 1 Apphia is called “sister” with the feminine form adelphe, while Philemon is called “brother” with the masculine form adelphos. )

Biblical Foundations for Women Alongside Men in Ministry 15
a. That women were “diakonos”-ministers in the early church is confirmed by an early second century AD letter by Pliny the Younger, Roman governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor (110-112 AD), which mentions two female slaves tortured for their faith in Christ, who are described in Latin as ministra, “ministers,” the common Latin translation of the Greek diakonos. (BAGD, p. 184, 2b)
b. In the first four centuries of Church history, women were included with men in the office of “diakonos”-minister. The Greek masculine title diakonos referred to both men and women until a separate order of women deaconesses is first attested in the Syrian Church ca. 380 AD. (K. Beyer, in Kittel, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, vol. II, p. 93; Encyclop. Britannica, 1992, vol. I: 448.)
c. “Diakonos”-ministers, both men and women, served as prophets and teachers in the early church. A second century document called The Didache (“The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles”) mentions that both elders/bishops and deacons served as prophets and teachers. Didache 15:1 “Appoint for yourselves therefore bishops and deacons worthy of the Lord, . . . for unto you they also perform the service of the prophets and teachers.” (H. Bettenson, Documents of the Christian Church [Oxford University Press, 1963], p. 64).
d. Phoebe is also called by Paul prostatis, “patroness, guardian” (BAGD, p. 718). The Greek verb related to this term is proistemi “to manage, conduct” (BAGD, p. 707), which suggests that Phoebe exercised some level of leadership as a “diakonos”-minister. The same verb proistemi is used of leadership functions in
Rom. 12:8;
I Thes. 5:12;
I Tim. 3:4, 5, 12.
2. In
first, suggesting her leadership prominence in the early church.
Romans 16:3 Paul greets Priscilla and Aquilla. He, like Luke, names Priscilla
3. In
Romans 16:7 Paul mentions that Junia and Andronicus (most likely Junia’s husband) are among the apostles.
a. Junia was a common Latin female name in the Roman Empire. Some scholars have claimed that the name in the Greek text of
Rom. 16:7, Iounian (the accusative form), is a hypothetical Greek abbreviation, “Junias,” of the Latin male name “Junianus.” But there is absolutely no evidence at all that there ever

Biblical Foundations for Women Alongside Men in Ministry 16
was a masculine name “Junias” in the Roman Empire, according to Dr. Peter Lampe, Professor of New Testament, Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Virginia:
“Without exception the Church Fathers in late antiquity identified Andronicus’ partner in
Rom. 16:7 as a woman, as did minuscule 33 in the 9th century which records iounia with an acute accent. Only later medieval copyists of
Rom. 16:7 could not imagine a woman being an apostle and wrote the masculine name ‘Junias.’ This latter name did not exist in antiquity; its explanation as a Greek abbreviation of the Latin name “Junianus” is unlikely.” (P. Lampe, “Junias,” Anchor Bible Dictionary, vol. 3, p. 1127)
b. The Church Father, John Chrysostom (died 407 AD), who had a negative view of women in many cases, understood “Junia” in
Rom. 16:7 as a woman and marveled that she could be called an apostle: “Oh how great is the devotion of this woman,(2) that she should be even counted worthy of the appellation of apostle!” (St. John Chrysostom, Homily 31 on
Romans 16:5-16, The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, vol. 9, [“Chrysostom: Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistle to the Romans”], Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1971-1980). The first commentator to understand “Junia” as the hypothetical masculine name “Junias” was Aegidius of Rome in the 14th century AD. (D. Scholer, Theology News and Notes, Mar ’95, p. 22)
c. That Junia was recognized among the apostles in the early church is understandable, if the early church had Deborah in mind as the senior judge and a “mother in Israel,” Miriam as a prophetic leader under Moses, and Huldah as a prophetic leader under King Josiah.
G. Were women among the elders of the early church? If Deborah as a female judge was included with men under the masculine plural Hebrew title “judges” (Heb. masc. plural shofetim) in Ju. 2:16, and Phoebe and other women were included with men under the masculine Greek title diakonos in
Rom. 16:1 and
I Tim. 3:8 and 11, and Junia was included with Andronicus and other men under the plural Greek title “apostles” (Grk. masc. pl. dative apostolois) in
Rom 16:7, then it is not inconceivable that women were included with men under the masculine plural Greek title “elders” in the early church.
1. In
I Timothy 5:1-2 Paul mentions “female elders” (presbuterai) alongside “male elders” (presbuteroi). Translators often assume that the passage is only referring to “older men” and “older women,” but Paul uses the same word in the masculine form of the church office of “elder” later on in the same chapter—
I Tim. 5:17, 19. It is hard to imagine the same word being used in the same chapter with two unrelated meanings. The fact that the masculine form of the word denotes the office of “elder” in
I Tim. 5:17, 19 suggests that the same word in its masculine
 
! Oh, & I see that ABSOLUTELY NO ONE has been able to offer ANY sort of exegetical reason why Dr. Daniel Wallace's syntax of 
! My prediction? You'll continue to ignore the distinct contexts, careful grammar of the inspired texts, etc. & copy-paste more of the same passages that are ENTIRELY wrested to cram in your false doctrines. What else did I expect? This is AFF 
!
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