* The Phrygian mother of the gods, known elsewhere as Rhea. Her worship in Phrygia was so general that there is scarcely a town on the coins of which she does not appear. She was known also as the great Mother, Cybebe, Agdistis, Berecyntia, Brimo, the Great Idaean Mother of the gods, and Dindy- mene. Her worship was orgiastic, celebrated with drums, cymbals, horns, and wild dances in the forests and on the mountains. The lion was sacred to her, and she was generally represented, either seated on a throne flanked by lions, or riding in a chariot drawn by lions. See on revellings, 1 Pet. iv. 3. See Dollinger, ‘‘ The Gentile and the Jew,” i., 102, 176, 374.
Vou. ITI.—383
514 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Cu. IV.
14, Luke—Demas. See on Philem. 24. The beloved physician. ~ See Introduction to Luke.
15. Nymphas. Probably contracted from Nymphodorus, as Artemas from Artemidorus (Tit. iii. 12); Zenas from Zeno- dorus (Tit. iii. 18); Olympas from Olympiodorus (Rom. xvi. 15).
The Church. Compare Philem. 2; Rom. xvi. 5; 1 Cor. xvi. 19; Acts xii. 12.
His house (airod). Others read adrav their (so Rev., Light- foot, Meyer). Others, as Westcott and Hort, adrijs her, regard- ing the name as female, Vympha. It is difficult, however, to know to whom the plural can refer. Some explain, Wym- phas and his family. Meyer refers it to the brethren at Lao- dicaea and Nymphas, and thinks that the allusion is to a foreign church in filial association with the church at Laodicaea, and holding its meetings in the same place.
16. The epistle from Laodicaea (tiv é« Aaodixetas). That is, the letter left at Laodicaea, and to be obtained by you from the church there. This letter cannot be positively identified. The composition known as the Epistle to the Laodicaeans is a late and clumsy forgery, existing only in Latin MSS., and made up chiefly of disconnected passages from Philippians, with a few from other epistles.*
18. With mine own hand. The letter was written by an amanuensis, Paul adding his autograph.
Grace be with you. On the benedictions, see on 2 Cor. xiii. 14. This short form occurs only here, 1 Tim. vi. 21; 2 Tim. iv. 22.
* Bishop Lightfoot discusses the subject, especially the evidence for the Epistle to the Laodicaeans, in an elaborate note. He gives a table containing over a dozen different attempts to identify the epistle referred to here. He thinks it was the epistle to the Ephesians.