Topic
Yoke-fellow
7 passages cited, from 2 classic reference works.
These works date from 1897–1915 and are in the public domain. They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently. The verses are shown in the King James Version, the wording these works were written against.
The verses
The passages the works cite, those cited by more of them first.
- Philippians 4:3Easton · ISBE
And I intreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women which laboured with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellowlabourers, whose names are in the book of life.
- Acts 16:14ISBE
¶ And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.
- Acts 16:15ISBE
And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there. And she constrained us.
- Acts 16:40ISBE
And they went out of the prison, and entered into the house of Lydia: and when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them, and departed.
- 1 Corinthians 7:8ISBE
I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I.
- 1 Corinthians 9:5ISBE
Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?
- Philemon 1:11ISBE
Which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me:
In the reference works
Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897) · 1 references
(Phil. 4:3), one of the apostle’s fellow-labourers. Some have conjectured that Epaphroditus is meant. Wyckliffe renders the phrase “the german felowe”, i.e., “thee, germane [=genuine] comrade.”
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · 7 references
yok'-fel-o (sunzugos, "yoked together"): The word is used by Greek writers of those united by any bond, such as marriage, relationship, office, labor, study or business; hence, a yoke-fellow, consort, comrade, colleague or partner.
(1) In the New Testament it occurs once only (Php 4:3): "I beseech thee also, true yoke-fellow." Most interpreters hold that Paul here addresses some particular but unnamed person, who had formerly been associated with him in the work of the gospel in Philippi. Many guesses have been made in regard to the identity of the unnamed "yoke-fellow," and these names have been suggested: Luke, Lydia, Epaphroditus, each of whom had in one way or another some connection with Philippi.
(2) Renan has suggested that yoke-fellow means Lydia (Ac 16:14,15,40), and that she had been married to Paul. But the fact that the adjective gnesios, "true," qualifying "yoke-fellow" is masculine and not feminine shows that it is not a woman but a man who is referred to. Renan's suggestion is an unworthy one, and is quite devoid of proof. It is a mere fanciful and unsupported creation of the Frenchman's brain. Renan's idea is a modification of an opinion which is as old as Clement of Alexandria, that Paul here referred to his own wife. But this conjecture is contradicted by the statement of the apostle himself, that he had not a wife (1Co 7:8; 9:5).
(3) There is still another way of interpreting "yoke-fellow," and probably it is the right one. Some expositors take the word as a proper name. Among these Westcott and Hort print "Sunzuge," in the margin. In favor of this interpretation there is much to be said, especially the fact that the word is found in the very midst of the names of other persons. The names of Euodia and Syntyche are mentioned immediately before, and that of Clement follows immediately after the true yoke-fellow. The meaning therefore is probably, "I beseech thee also, true Synzygos," i.e. I beseech thee, who art a genuine Synzygos, a colleague rightly so called, a colleague in fact as well as in name. It is obvious to compare the way in which the apostle plays upon the name Onesimus, in Phm 1:11.
John Rutherfurd
Texts: Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897); International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915), from the CrossWire SWORD modules (public domain). Verse references were parsed from the works' own markup and checked against the KJV verse list.