THE FULL ARTICLE — from the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915), general editor James Orr — public domain, printed whole.

af'-i-a, ap'-fi-a (Apphia, dative case of Apphia; in Phm 1:2, though Apphia, Amphia, and Appia, also occur): A Christian of Colosse, probably the wife of Philemon; certainly a member of his household, greeted as "the sister" the Revised Version, margin. In the Greek church, November 22 is sacred to her memory. It has been supposed, since this epistle concerns one household exclusively, that Apphia was Philemon's wife and the mother or sister of Archippus (which see). She was stoned to death with Philemon, Onesimus, and Archippus in the reign of Nero. (See Lightfoot, Col., 372.)