Nympha

Overview

• Testament: New
• Role: Woman in the Colossian region (possibly Laodicea) in whose house a church met
• Family: No family details given; possibly from Laodicea
• Key Books: Colossians

Biography

Nympha is mentioned only once in the New Testament, in Colossians 4:15: “Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house.” This brief greeting places her in the circle of house church leaders in the Lycus Valley region — the area of Colossae, Laodicea, and Hierapolis mentioned earlier in the same chapter.

The identification of Nympha’s gender has been a textual debate in manuscript history. Early manuscripts vary between “her house” (autēs — feminine), “his house” (autou — masculine), and “their house” (autōn — plural). The variant “his house” would make Nympha a male name (Nymphas), while “her house” reads Nympha as female. Most modern critical editions (including the NA28/UBS5) prefer the feminine reading, supported by several important manuscripts. This textual variation is a reminder that later scribes sometimes found it difficult to accept a woman as the head of a house church and may have adjusted the pronoun.

If Nympha is female — as the majority of modern scholars accept — she joins a pattern of women who hosted churches in their homes in the apostolic period: Lydia in Philippi (Acts 16:40), Priscilla and Aquila in Ephesus and Rome (Romans 16:3–5; 1 Corinthians 16:19), and Mary (Mother of Jesus)‘s circle in Jerusalem. Hosting a house church required social standing (sufficient house size), financial resources, and recognized authority within the community, since the church that met in your house was typically pastored or led by the host.

Her church appears to be connected with Laodicea — the city to which Paul also sends a separate letter (Colossians 4:16, “the letter from Laodicea”). Whether she was in Laodicea itself or in the vicinity is not entirely clear from the text.

Key Events

• Hosts a church meeting in her house (Colossians 4:15)
• Receives greetings from Paul transmitted through the Colossian letter (Colossians 4:15)

Relationships

• Paul - the apostle who sent her greetings
• The Laodicean church / church in her house - her congregation
• Epaphras - who labored in prayer for the whole Lycus Valley region including Laodicea (Colossians 4:12–13)

Important Verses

• Colossians 4:15

Cross-References

• Colossians 4 - Only mention in Scripture

Notes

• The textual variant between “her house,” “his house,” and “their house” is one of the clearest examples in the New Testament where gender-related manuscript changes can be identified and analyzed
• If the feminine reading is correct, Nympha joins a small but significant group of women explicitly credited with hosting churches in the apostolic period
• Her connection with Laodicea places her in the region addressed by the separate letter mentioned in Colossians 4:16 — a letter that is no longer extant, leaving Nympha and her house church as one of the few surviving details of that congregation