65 Gk. πϱοστάτɩς, the equivalent of Lat. patrona.
63The name is variously accented Nύμφαν, accusative of the feminine Nύμφα, or Nυμφᾶν, accusative of the masculine Nυμφᾶς (an abridged form of Nymphodorus or the like). Lightfoot’s argument (ad loc.) that the feminine is “in the highest degree improbable,” because it would be an instance of the (by this time) unusual Doric form, was answered by J. H. Moulton, who saw here an Attic feminine form with short alpha (alongside the normal Attic Nύμφη), not the Doric form with long alpha (“Nympha,” ExT 5 [1893-94], 66-67). The accents are not marked in the oldest codices, and would not have been marked in the original letter.
64Not only is the reading “her house” well attested; there would be every inclination to change it to “his house” or “their house” (no ancient scribe would have changed either of these readings to “her house,” thus gratuitously giving a woman prominence in the church). That the house was in Laodicea is a reasonable inference from its juxtaposition to Laodicea in the text.
65Gk. πϱοστάτɩς, the equivalent of Lat. patrona.
66Cf. A. Deissmann, Paul, p. 214; O. Cullmann, Early Christian Worship, E.T. (London, 1953), pp. 9-10.