Women Praised As Prophets
Women In Ministry Christian History Magazine - Issue 17: Women in the Early Church Women Praised As Prophets Among Eusebius’s repeatedly praised heroines are the daughters of Philip. Luke tells us in Acts 21:8–9 that at Caesarea, Philip the evangelist lived with four unmarried “prophesying” daughters. Polycrates, the bishop of Ephesus, told Victor, the bishop of Rome, that these daughters were “great luminaries,” buried in Asia. Proclus also remembers these “prophetesses.” They became models for the church of genuine prophets. When Miltiades declared that two female followers of Montanus were heretics, he explained that their problem was not that they were women prophets, but rather that they were false prophets. He contrasts them with Philip’s daughters, who did not speak “in ecstasy” and who had successors (another sign of a genuine prophet) (III.31, 37; V.14, 18). Philip’s daughters were models for both women and men. Eusebius mentions one Quadratus, a man f...