The Curious Case of Apphia, our Sister

Abstract

Far from being formulaic, the Pauline letter opening serves as a  dynamic rhetorical strategy that intertwines characters and themes to suit the objectives  of each letter. In Philemon² the person of Apphia appears in the opening, occupying the unique intersection between identity and rhetoric,  where she is inscribed into a social group privileged with proximity to Paul. As the sole female to be included in a Pauline address, questions regarding  the inclusion of her name, the seemingly vague appellation of sister (ἀδελφή), and Paul’s silence regarding her relationship to the other parties in the  greeting, have led to an ongoing debate regarding this mysterious character. This paper traces and critically engages various renderings of Apphia in the Wirkungsgeschichte of Philemon. It explores the potential rhetorical effect of her inclusion in the Pauline corpus and what it means for Bible interpreters  engaging her narrative from the Global South. It is, therefore, a central claim of this paper that tracing the many versions of Apphia retrieves history for  contemporary audiences to appropriate meaning from Paul’s salutation to our sister.