I commend to you our
sister Phoebe, a deacon (διακονος) of the church at Cenchreae, so that you may
welcome her in the Lord as is fitting for the saints, and help her in whatever
she may require from you, for she has been a benefactor of many and of myself
as well. (Rom 16:1-2 NRSV)
Commenting on the use of “deacon” (KJV: servant) of Phoebe, Aimé Georges
Martimort, an expert on the origin and development of the various Christian
Liturgies wrote on how this is not
to be understood in a priestly, hierarchical sense, but a more generic sense:
As is well known, there
are critical problems surrounding this passage from Romans 16. In it St. Paul
commends to the Romans “our sister Phoebe, a deaconess of the Church at
Cenchreae” (Φοίβην τὴν ἀδελφὴν ἡμῶν, οὖσαν διάκονον τῆς ἐκκλησίας τῆς ἐν
Κεγχρεαῖς). According to St. Paul, Phoebe deserved to be received and assisted “for
she has been a helper of many and myself as well” (καὶ γὰρ αὐτὴ προστάτις πολλῶν
ἐγενήθη καὶ ἐμοῦ αὐτοῦ). How must we understand the expression that appears
here: οὖσαν διάκονον τῆς ἐκκλησίας τῆς ἐν Κεγχρεαῖς (a deaconess of the church
at Cenchreae)? The adjective διακονος, which did not have a feminine ending,
appears frequently in the New Testament. There are at least two instances of
this where the word must be understood in a technical, hierarchical sense. The
first of these is found in the salvation of the Epistle to the Philippians
(1:1): “To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the bishops
and deacons” (πᾶσιν τοῖς ἁγίοις ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ τοῖς οὖσιν ἐν Φιλίπποις σὺν ἐπισκόποις
καὶ διακόνοις). The second instance is found in the First Epistle to Timothy
(3:8, 12). In both of these cases the technical, hierarchical sense of the term
is justified by the parallelism of its appearance with the word επισκοποι. Latin versions of these
passages, grasping the parallelism, preserve the Latinized Greek word diaconi, as they do also in the case of
the Latinized Greek word episcopi. In
other New Testament passages where the term diakonos
is encountered, it has often been translated as “minister” or an equivalent
word because it was not perceived in a technical, hierarchical sense. In fact,
the verb διακονειν, which
appears often in the Gospels, usually refers to the activity of a servant,
especially at table; it also signifies more generally an attitude of being
available to serve, and even a spiritual orientation (Jn 12:26). In apostolic times,
the word was employed to describe every type of service to the community. The
same was true of diakonos. St. Paul
employs the word often but qualifies it in various ways; he speaks of a diakonos, or servant, of God, of Christ,
of the gospel, of the new Covenant, of justice—but also of Satan, of sin and of
the circumcision. The Prince himself is a servant of God for the good. All of
these Pauline senses of the word certainly go beyond the simple profane notion
of “servant”; they suggest in each case some sort of mission, some sort of
effective action that transcends the person who is acting. None of these
correspond to the diaconate as such, however.
For Phoebe also the word diakonos is qualified: she is “διακονος of the church at Cenchreae”. One
is tempted to understand this usage in the same way as Colossians 1:25, where
Paul speaks of “the church . . . of which I became a minister” (της
εκκλησιας . . . ης εγενομην εγω διακνος). Nevertheless, there is a difference here
in spite of appearances, because Paul is not tied to any particular church; his
serve, like that of Apollos (1 Cor 3:15) is primarily a missionary service. In
the case of Phoebe,, the ancient Latin versions of the Scriptures, with the
exception of the version utilized by Ambrosiaster, unanimously translated this
passage as “quae est in ministerio.”
In the version employed by Ambrosiaster, however, we read ministra . . . More and more, scholars are emphasizing that there
is an anachronism involved in giving this word a precise meaning corresponding
to an ecclesiastical institution to which the first references . . . date from
much later—from some time after the year 200 A.D. Even more than that, it is
possible to argue that what follows in the text provides the best clue to the
nature of the service rendered by Phoebe. St. Paul specifies that for him, as
for many others, she has been a helper, or protectress (προστατις). The term suggests activities
pertaining to the established and accepted practices, recognized by all, of
providing hospitality and assistance. This interpretation is especially
plausible when we remember that Cenchreae was the port of Corinth facing east;
it was there that the Christian brethren from Syria or Asia Minor would
normally have debarked in Greece. (Aimé Georges Martimort, Deaconesses: An
Historical Study [trans. K. D. Whitehead; San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1986],
18-20)
John H.
Jenkins, a Latter-day Saint, offered the following note to the use of
"deacon" in Rom 16:1:
διάκονον diakonon,
which literally refers to a servant who waits on tables. Because it is also
used in the nt for those who hold the priesthood office of deacon (a word which derives from διάκονος diakonos; see Phil. 1:1, 1 Tim. 3:8-13), it is sometimes asserted
that this reference proves the existence of women holding the priesthood office
of deacon. However, the word is also used in the nt in a more generic sense
(e.g., 2 Cor. 11:23), so it is impossible to prove from this reference alone
whether that assertion is true. Nor is the fact that Paul is using a masculine
noun here to refer to a woman necessarily significant; the term can be used in
a gender-inclusive way. (Footnotes to the
New Testament for Latter-day Saints, Volume 2: Acts to 2 Thessalonians [ed.
Kevin L. Barney; 2007], 252 n. d)
As we can see,
revisionist attempts to use Paul’s use of διακονος of Phoebe is not meaningful evidence in support for
women being ordained to the New Covenant priesthood.
