deaconess Summary and Overview

Rom. 16:1, 3, 12; Phil. 4:2, 3; 1 Tim. 3:11; 5:9, 10; Titus 2:3, 4). In these passages it is evident that females were then engaged in various Christian ministrations. Pliny makes mention of them also in his letter to Trajan (A.D. 110).

The word diakonos is found in #Ro 16:1| (Authorized Version "servant") associated with a female name, and this has led to the conclusion that there existed in the apostolic age, as there undoubtedly did a little later, an order of women bearing that title, and exercising in relation to their own sex functions which were analogous to those of the deacons. On this hypothesis it has been inferred that the women mentioned in #Ro 16:6,12| belonged to such an order. The rules given as to the conduct of women in #1Ti 3:11, Tit 2:3| have in like manner been referred to them, and they have been identified even with the "widows" of #1Ti 5:3-10|

DEA'CONESS . Such was Phoebe, and in all probability Tryphena, Tryphosa, and Persis occupied the same office in the church in Rome. Rom 16:1, Jud 4:12. It is therefore probable that there was in the different churches an order of pious women employed in attending upon those of their own sex in some of the same offices and duties which the deacons performed for their brethren. Among these we reckon the care of the sick, of the poor and the widows, the education of orphans, attention to strangers, the practice of hospitality, comp. 1 Tim 5:10, and the assistance needed at the baptism of females. The question whether the "widows" in 1 Tim 5:9-16 are proper deaconesses may be answered in the affirmative, because the word translated "to take into the number" or "to enroll" applies not to widows in general, but to the deaconesses, for the following reasons: 1. If understood of any insertion merely in the list of those supported from the congregational fund, it implies an injustice to widows under 60 years old or to those twice married, who might easily be even more destitute. 2. The opposite interpretation conflicts with the context, for Paul advises, in V. 2 Kgs 22:14, the younger widows to remarry; but this would be to cut them off from all help in case they were widows again. 3. This interpretation leaves it inexplicable why a special vow was required of these widows, v. Jud 4:12. 4. But by understanding the word to apply, not to widows in general, but to those who were specially elected and ordained to the particular office of deaconess, all these objections vanish.

Romans 16:1; "Phoebe, servant" (Greek text: "deaconess") of the church at Cenchrea." 1 Timothy 3:11; "even so (marking a transition to another class from deacons) must the women (i.e. the deaconesses) be grave," etc. Domestic duties are omitted, though specified in the case of the deacons (1 Timothy 3:12). The same qualifications are required in deaconesses as in deacons, with such modifications as the difference of sex suggested. Pliny in his letter to Trajan calls them "female ministers." The earliest instance of such female ministers (though of course not then formally appointed) is in Luke 8:2-3; "Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Susanna, and many others which ministered unto Him of their substance." The social seclusion of women from men in many parts of the East would render necessary the services of women in teaching those of their own sex. frontWIDOWS; an ecclesiastical order of widowhood, a female presbytery, existed from those of at least 60 years old, standing in the same relation to the deaconesses of younger age (1 Timothy 5:9-11) that the male presbyters did to the deacons.