Deaconess
Summary
A female minister in the early church who served women in capacities analogous to those of male deacons, particularly in baptism preparation, visitation, and care for the sick.
☩New Testament Evidence
Phoebe is described as a 'servant' (Greek diakonos, same word used for deacons) of the church at Cenchrea, leading many scholars to conclude she held an official ministerial position. Some interpret Paul's instructions about women in his letters to Timothy as referring to this order of female ministers. The women who 'labored' with Paul and the devoted widows of 1 Timothy 5 may also have functioned in this capacity.
☩Role and Duties
Deaconesses served essential functions in a society where the social seclusion of women from men made female ministers necessary for reaching their own sex. Their duties included caring for the sick and poor, ministering to martyrs and confessors in prison, instructing female catechumens, assisting at women's baptisms, and exercising general oversight of female church members. The earliest example of such ministry appears in the women who supported Jesus from their own resources.
☩Qualifications and History
Early church regulations required deaconesses to be widows who had been married only once and had borne children, believing only mothers possessed the sympathizing affections needed for the role. The Apostolic Constitutions prescribed their ordination by the bishop with prayer for the Holy Spirit. Pliny's letter to Trajan (c. 104 A.D.) references 'two maids who were called ministers,' confirming the office existed in the early second century. The office gradually disappeared in the West after the Council of Orange (441 A.D.) but continued in the Eastern church until the twelfth century.
Related Verses1 mention
Romans· 1 verse
References
- 1.John McClintock and James Strong, "Deaconess," in Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, vol. II (Harper & Brothers, 1867–1887).
- 2.Andrew Robert Fausset, "Deaconess," in The Englishman's Critical and Expository Bible Cyclopædia (Hodder & Stoughton, 1878).