... a character mentioned at the end of the second letter to Timothy as one who resisted Paul’s preaching – Alexander the Coppersmith – later converted to Christianity, changed sex, and left Ephesus for a new life in Rome. There he altered his name to Phoebe and ultimately became a leading deacon. The clue which led Baumsterk to this daring conclusion was, he says, the realization of the true significance of the name ‘Phoebe’. ‘Literally, in Greek it means shining one’, the Professor told a crowded press conference, ‘an allusion to Alexander’s former profession.’ But it was also a name for Diana, as goddess of the moon, and so carried a reference to Alexander/Phoebe’s native city. Phoebe, moreover, was the daughter of Uranus who, in mythology, was castrated by his son, Kronos, so alluding to the surgery at the hands of the evangelist and doctor, Luke, who performed the operation at Paul’s request on Alexander’s arrival in Rome.
Make of it what you will, but bare in mind it is written by Rachel Gladraggs,
"Our Ballroom Dancing Correspondent".
