Verse 12. Tryphena and Tryphosa. These names, with the participle rendered "who labour," are in the feminine gender, and these were probably two holy women, who performed the office of deaconesses, or who ministered to the sick, and who with Persis, thus by example, and perhaps by instruction, laboured to promote the spread of Christianity. Pious females then, as now, were able to do much in their proper sphere to extend the truths and blessings of the gospel.