Scriptural Mormonism: Notes on "diversities" (διαιρεσις) and "administrations" (διακονια) in 1 Corinthians 12

Saturday, January 11, 2025

Notes on "diversities" (διαιρεσις) and "administrations" (διακονια) in 1 Corinthians 12

The term translated as “diversities” in 1 Cor 12:4, 6, 28 (translated as “differences” in v. 5) is διαιρεσις. TDNT offers the following definition:

διαίρεσις has three important meanings in secular Greek: “separation or dissolution”; “division” either generally or logically; and “distribution,” as the apportionment of property or an estate in the pap. In the LXX it means “distribution” in Jdt. 9:4; Sir. 14:5; or “what is distributed”: a. a part in ψ 135:13 (parts of the sea), or Jos. 19:51 == 19:8f. (an inheritance); or b. a “division,” as in Ju. 5:16; εἰς διαιρέσεις Ῥουβήν == 5:15: εἱς τὰς μερίδας Ῥουβήν == clan; 1 Ch. 24:1; 2 Ch. 8:14; 35:5, 10, 12; 2 Esr. 6:18: courses of priests; 1 Ch. 26:19: διαιρέσεις τῶν πυλωρῶν, 1 Ch. 27:1–15: divisions of the army.

So far as concerns 1 C. 12:4 f.), this can be decided only from the context. The plur. διαιρέσεις, the opposition to τὸ δὲ αὐτὸ πνεῦμα, and the parallelism with the basic concept of ἡ φανέρωσις τοῦ πνεύματος (v. 7) all favour “distribution” rather than “distinction.” The one Spirit is manifested in apportionments of gifts of the Spirit, so that in the community the one χάρις of God is experienced by charismatics in these distributions (of χαρίσματα). The one concept διαίρεσις here includes both distribution and what is distributed.

In early patristic writing we find the peculiar use of διαίρεσις to denote the distinction in the intertrinitarian relationship. Cf. Athenag. Suppl., 10:3: τὴν ἐν τῇ ἑνώσει δύναμιν καὶ τὴν ἐν τῇ τάξει διαίρεσιν of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Cf. 12, 2; Tatian, 5, 1 f.; Origin. Joh., II, 10, 74.(Heinrich Schlier, “Αἱρέομαι, Αἵρεσις, Αἱρετικός, Αἱρετίζω, Διαιρέω, Διαίρεσις,” in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, ed. Gerhard Kittel, Geoffrey W. Bromiley, and Gerhard Friedrich, 10 vols. [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1964–], 1:184–185)

The term translated as “administrations” is διακονια. BDAG, in its entry for this term, offers the following definition in references to 1 Cor 12:5:

3. functioning in the interest of a larger public, service, office of the prophets and apostles 1 Ti 1:12; κλῆρος τῆς δ. Ac 1:17; τόπος τῆς δ. vs. 25. Of the service of the Levites 1 Cl 40:5; the office of an ecclesiastical overseer IPhld 1:1; 10:2; ISm 12:1; Hs 9, 27, 2; δ. λαμβάνειν receive a ministry Ac 20:24. διαιρέσεις διακονιῶν 1 Cor 12:5; δ. τοῦ θανάτου ministry of death: of the OT law 2 Cor 3:7. Also δ. τῆς κατακρίσεως min. of condemnation vs. 9. Opp. δ. τῆς δικαιοσύνης min. of righteousness ibid.; δ. τοῦ πνεύματος min. of the Spirit vs. 8 of service in behalf of the Gospel; cp. Ac 21:19; Ro 11:13; 2 Cor 4:1; 6:3; Col 4:17; 2 Ti 4:5; δ. τῆς καταλλαγῆς ministry of reconciliation 2 Cor 5:18; τὴν δ. τελέσαι carry out this assignment Hm 2:6; concerning obedience and exhortation 12, 3, 3; s 1:9; 2:7. τελειῶσαι … τὴν δ᾽ discharge … my responsibility Ac 20:34.—Eph 4:12 belongs here if, with KJV, RV, RSV¹et al. and contrary to N. and other edd., a comma is placed before εἰς (s. Collins [at 5, end, below] 233f).

The following entry from TDNT is apropos, too:

This gives us at once the meaning of διακονεῖν in the community. According to 1 Pt. 4:10, every charisma is a gift entrusted to man with the condition that the man who has been blessed by it should serve as a good steward of the manifold gifts of God. As there is at the beginning of this train of thought (1 Pt. 4:7) an exhortation to prayer and brotherly love, so grateful regard for God and concern for one’s neighbour together make the divine gift which each is to receive into a gift which is owed to the neighbour. In 1 Pt. 4:11, as in Ac. 6, the charismata are divided into ministry of Word and ministry of act, the latter being specifically described as διακονεῖν. This ministry is to be discharged in the power which God gives and to His glory alone. In true Christian service there can be no thought of the righteousness of works or of religious pride. It takes place both from God and to God.

The Christian has many opportunities of service. Timothy and Erastus are assistants (διακονοῦντες) of Paul in the preaching of the Gospel (Ac. 19:22). Paul would have liked to keep Onesimus with him for similar personal and material service in prison (Phlm. 13). What Onesiphorus did in Ephesus (2 Tm. 1:18) was a free service of love and not the exercise of an official diaconate, in contrast to the normal usage of the Past. The searching and foretelling of the prophets was an advance service to the community (1 Pt. 1:10–12). The apostolic office is a similar service, as we see from Paul’s description of the Corinthian church as ἐπιστολὴ Χριστοῦ διακονηθεῖσα ὑφʼ ἡμῶν (2 C. 3:3). (Hermann Wolfgang Beyer, “Διακονέω, Διακονία, Διάκονος,” in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, ed. Gerhard Kittel, Geoffrey W. Bromiley, and Gerhard Friedrich, 10 vols. [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1964–], 2:86)