SYNZYGUS (lit. ‘yoke-fellow’). This is taken by some as a proper name in Philippians 4:3 (‘Synzygus truly so called’), but it is nowhere else found as such. It is more probably a way of describing the chief minister of the church at Philippi. Lightfoot ( Com ., in loc .) suggests Epaphroditus; Ramsay ( St. Paul , p. 358), Luke; others, Barnabas or Silas or Timothy. An old tradition of the 2nd cent. (Lightfoot, ib. ) makes the ‘ yoke-fellow ’ to be the Apostle’s wife; Renan supposes that Lydia is meant, and that she had become his wife; but see 1 Corinthians 7:8 .
A. J. Maclean.