Acts 21:9

Context

Chapter 21 of Acts narrates Paul's journey up to Jerusalem at the close of his third missionary journey. This section is one of the passages in which the narrator speaks in the first person plural ("we"). Arriving at Caesarea, the party stays at the house of "Philip the evangelist, which was one of the seven" (Acts 21:8). This Philip was one of the seven men chosen in Acts 6 to oversee the distribution of relief to the poor. In Acts 8 he preaches the gospel in Samaria and to the Ethiopian eunuch. He is not the same person as Philip, one of the Twelve.

The verse offers only the brief note that Philip "had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy." It does not record what the daughters prophesied. Immediately afterward, the prophet Agabus, who has come down from Judea, binds his own hands and feet with Paul's girdle and prophesies that Paul will be bound in Jerusalem (Acts 21:10–11).

The word rendered "virgins" is the Greek parthenos, which denotes an unmarried woman. "Which did prophesy" translates a present participle, and many commentators therefore read it as describing women who regularly exercised a prophetic ministry rather than prophesying on a single occasion.

Interpretation

• As a fulfillment of the Pentecost promise: In his Pentecost sermon, Peter quoted the book of Joel, proclaiming that "your sons and your daughters shall prophesy" (Acts 2:17). Many commentators across denominational lines regard Philip's daughters as a concrete instance of the fulfillment of this promise.
• As a basis for women's ministry: This reading comes chiefly from supporters of women's ordination. It regards the verse as evidence that women in the early church exercised a prophetic gift recognized by the community, and it cites the verse together with 1 Corinthians 11:5, which presupposes women who pray and prophesy.
• As distinguishing prophecy from the teaching office: This reading comes from theological traditions that do not ordain women as pastors, such as conservative Presbyterianism. These traditions hold that the gift of prophecy is distinct from the office of teaching and governing the church (compare 1 Timothy 2:12). Some also note that the content of the daughters' prophecy is not recorded and that the warning to Paul came through Agabus.
• On the nature of the gift: Pentecostal and charismatic traditions read the verse as an example of the continuing gift of prophecy in the church. Cessationists (who hold that the miraculous gifts ceased after the apostolic age), by contrast, understand it as a revelatory gift given during the apostolic period, before the completion of Scripture.

Debates and Issues

The translation and manuscript text of the verse itself raise no significant issues. Debate arises mainly when the verse is used to support positions on other topics: chiefly the question of women's ordination and the debate over cessationism and continuationism. In either case, it is also commonly noted that because the verse is brief and does not specify the content or form of the prophecy, it is difficult to draw firm conclusions from this verse alone.

The term "virgins" is also interpreted in different ways. Some in the ancient church esteemed it as a mark of consecrated celibacy, whereas Protestant commentators generally take it simply to denote an unmarried state.

The Ecclesiastical History of the church historian Eusebius is known to preserve a tradition that Philip's daughters were held in honor in Asia Minor. It has been noted, however, that this tradition conflates Philip the evangelist with Philip the apostle. Accounts also record that in the second-century controversy over Montanism, these daughters were invoked as examples of a legitimate prophetic tradition.

Related Passages

• Acts 2:16–21
• Joel 2:28–29
• Acts 21:10–11
• 1 Corinthians 14:1–5
• Numbers 11:29