Letter to the Editor

It's 'Phebe' not 'Phoebe'

Thursday, August 15, 2019

Dear Editor,

You have always been good to me and have published many things I have written, however, when you published "The Experiences of Phebe Adams Hancock," you misspelled her name.

My cousin, Ivan Y. Haskell was born in Payson, Utah. His grandmother spelled her name Phoebe. She was Phebe Adams Hancock's granddaughter.

Phebe Adams Hancock is listed in the Payson City Minutes.

Ivan Haskell went to the Payson Cemetery recently to take a picture of Phebe;s headstone. Her name is spelled Phebe on it.

He has written and published a book about Phebe Adams Hancock. Phebe Adams Hancock was his and my great-great-grandmother. She dies the 4th of February in 1897.

On p.p. 38-39 of the August 2019 Ensign magazine, a story Women in the New Testament was published. Camille Frank Olsen, an emeritus professor of ancient scripture, wrote about Phebe, who was a Greek convert to Christianity. The Greek word for doing the work of a Christian minister for a woman was the Greek word for servant, diaconos. Phebe was referred to as a faithful servant.

Paul recommended Phebe to the Romans, because of her dedicated Christian service (See Ephesians 6:21 and Colossians 4:7.) He trusted her to deliver an important letter to them.

Pauls letters in the New Testament were not printed in the order that they were written. They were printed in the order of their length, with the shortest one coming first.

Concerning Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews, some Bible scholars have questioned whether Paul wrote it. However, because the ideas expressed in it are consistent with Paul's other teachings, it is generally accepted that he wrote it.

Our family's Phebe is named after Phebe in Ephesians.

Helen Ruth Arnold,

Trenton, Neb.

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