Joppa was the main seaport of ancient Israel, the place from which Jonah fled the Lord when he refused to preach to Nineveh. It is now called Jaffa. A disciple named Dorcas lived there. Notice, she is called a "disciple," not a "woman." Perhaps Luke is stressing the truth of Gal 3:28: There is now neither Jew nor Greek…slave nor free…male nor female for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And to cement the notion, notice later in the text that two men went after Peter when she died. Two men thought this woman was important enough to try to persuade that great apostle to come to their aid. I am not sure that would have happened in the Old Testament or anywhere else in the Greek or Roman world.
We know very little about her. Some assume she was a widow since no husband is mentioned. We do know that it is the widows who showed Peter all the clothes Dorcas had made for them. Since our social lives tend to revolve around those with like circumstances, widows and other singles are often left out of the couples group and must resort to gathering with their own kind, but none of this is definitive.
The real point is this woman's service to others. Luke tells us she was "full of good works" making her the epitome of verses like, …women should adorn themselves…with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works, 1 Tim 2:9,10. Do we really have any doubt at all that she was a godly woman?
Many might wonder why Peter would bother to raise from the dead someone so ordinary, a disciple to be sure, but one who was not famous, who did not travel around preaching, who did not, it seems, even keep preachers in her home. After all, Stephen, the deacon and great speaker had been killed not many years before. Not long after this, James, Jesus' own cousin and one of the Twelve, even one of that special cohort of three who often accompanied the Lord, would be killed. But who was raised from the dead? A woman who was "full of good works." A woman who simply helped the poor. If you are familiar with the prophets, with God's special concern over the injustice among his people perpetuated by the rich against the poor, this should not be such a surprise. Maybe we need to go back and read those books again before we dare to make judgments about exactly who is and is not the most important disciple among us.
God thought the church needed Dorcas, so He sent her back at Peter's call. Would anyone think the same about me?
The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people (Titus 3:8).
Dene Ward