1 Timothy 3:11

PARENTHETIC:—DEACONESSES

11. γυναῖκας ὡσαύτως κ.τ.λ. It is difficult to determine who the ‘women’ are, who are thus brought into the middle of the paragraph which deals with the qualifications of deacons. Excluding impossible interpretations, they must be either (a) the wives of the deacons or (b) the deaconesses of the Church. If the former we should have expected τὰς γυναῖκας αὐτῶν, if the latter, τὰς διακόνους; the Greek is quite as ambiguous as the R.V. ‘women.’ That there were deaconesses in the early Church, we know; the case of Phœbe (Romans 16:25) is familiar, and Pliny (Ep. x. 97) has mention of “duabus ancillis quae ministrae dicebantur.” A century later than Pliny we find elaborate rules as to the female diaconate laid down in the Apostolic Constitutions[526]. The ancient interpreters took this view of the passage, and it has been urged by many modern commentators that interpretation (a) is excluded by the absence of any corresponding regulation as to the wives of the ἐπίσκοποι, as well as by the silence of the writer concerning any domestic duties of the women in question. An argument e silentio is, no doubt, always precarious; and, further, it is to be remembered that a deacon’s wife would of necessity share his work which was largely occupied with the sick and needy, and it is thus intelligible that it would be necessary to have an eye to her character in the selection of her husband for the diaconate; whereas the wife of an ἐπίσκοπος is in no way partner of his responsibilities, and should not be permitted to meddle in the administration of the Church. The absence of any regulations for the bishops’ wives might be thus accounted for. But on the whole interpretation (b) seems to be more consonant with the usages of Christian antiquity, as well as with the general structure of the chapter before us, and with the fact that historically the deacons always chose their own wives without any reference to the judgement of the Church. We therefore translate (with Lightfoot[527]) γυναῖκας, deaconesses, and find here the earliest regulations as to the διακονίσσαι who in succeeding ages played an important part in the Church’s life[528].

[526] The first six books of the Apost. Const. embody an Apostolic Didascalia (now only extant in Syriac and Latin) which is probably of the third century. The regulations therein given for Deacons and Deaconesses are in some respects less elaborate and more primitive than those laid down in the corresponding (third) book of the Apost. Const., and are very similar to those given in the Pastoral Epistles.

[527] On a Fresh Revision of the New Testament, p. 114.

[528] See on the general question, Cecilia Robinson, The Ministry of Deaconesses.

σεμνάς. See above on 1 Timothy 2:2; this corresponds, of course, to σεμνούς of 1 Timothy 3:8.

μὴ διαβόλους. See note on 1 Timothy 3:6; the phrase corresponds to μὴ διλόγους of 1 Timothy 3:8.

νηφαλίους. See note on 1 Timothy 3:2; the word is here used in its primary sense of sober, and balances μὴ οἴνῳ πολλῷ προσέχοντας 1 Timothy 3:8.

πιστὰς ἐν πᾶσιν. Faithful in all things. A general statement, but perhaps laid down here with special reference to the virtue of trustworthiness, which, in matters of money, was peculiarly demanded of the διάκονος, whether man or woman. See note on μὴ αἰσχροκερδεῖς of 1 Timothy 3:8.