Marg Mowczko

I am not convinced of the traditional understanding of the “office of deacon”. I believe that this office was a later church development. The men in Acts 6 were never referred to as “deacons” (diakonoi) in the Bible. Also, the understanding of the role of “deacon” varies between denominations. Because of these factors, I avoid using the English word “deacon” in my writings. I also avoid translating diakonos as “servant” when commenting on Paul, because Paul clearly only used diakonos in the context of ministers.

The New Testament tells us that episkopoi (bishops/overseers) and presbuteroi (elders) were people who had oversight responsibilities over a congregation – they were senior ministers. Paul and Timothy obviously had leadership and oversight over congregations, however they were also referred to as diakonoi. Paul frequently described himself as both an apostolos and a diakonos. Diakonos is really just a generic term for minister. This means that bishops/overseers, elders, and even apostles, were also diakonoi, that is, ministers.

Many diakonoi-ministers did not have oversight ministries. However, the Didache 15:1 tells us that both episkopoi and diakonoi functioned as prophets and teachers in early church times.

I can see no reason to assume that Phoebe’s ministry was any less significant than the ministries of Epaphras or Tychicus. Certainly the ministry of Paul, and in particular the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, were exceptional!

Mark, I am surprised by your suggestion that I may be comparing Phoebe with Paul or Jesus. I simply provided an impartial list of scriptures that used the word diakonos or diakonoi. I did not leave anything out; I did not include anything I shouldn’t have. You have made your own observations (perhaps based on your own views of the word “deacon”.)

The fact that Paul mentions Phoebe, and other women, personally, by name in his letters, indicates that these women had significant “real” ministries. Paul is hardly going to bother with mentioning the names of men and women in his letters who were involved in minor ministries, or who were not well known to the church.

Mark, you say, “Now in regards to Phoebe I can grant that she was a servant of the church . . . “ “Minister” and “servant” is the same word – diakonos! And we can see by Paul’s use of the word in the list (comment 69), that when he specifically names a person as being a diakonos, he always and only uses it in the context of a person with a real, significant ministry. Why should Phoebe be the only exception?

*Moreover, Phoebe simply cannot have been both a servant, in the common sense of the word, and a leader-patron-benefactor (prostatis) (Rom 16:1-2)!*

Phoebe is undisputedly a diakonos. It was Paul’s choice of word to describe her. Paul also called her a prostatis which literally means “stand before”. This indicates that Phoebe was a leader (cf Young’s Literal Translation and the CEV). At the very least, prostatis can mean that Phoebe was “a patron-benefactor of many, including me [Paul]” (Rom 16:2.)

As I’ve said, I see no reason at all to assume that Phoebe’s ministry was in any way less significant than the ministries of Tychicus or Epaphras. For anyone to single out Phoebe from the list of ministers (in comment 69), and suggest that her ministry was somehow not on par with some of the other ministers, seems to me to show unaccountable prejudice.