In many of Paul’s letters he addresses ministry partners, several of whom appear to be women. He uses a number of different terms to identify them including deacon, fellow worker or coworker, and apostle. Do these terms identify other offices that women may hold in the local church? And if so, does it change anything we have said about women’s roles in the church?
Deaconess?
“I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea; that you receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and that you help her in whatever matter she may have need of you; for she herself has also been a helper of many, and of myself as well.”
Romans 16:1-2 NASB1995
“Women must likewise be dignified, not malicious gossips, but temperate, faithful in all things.”
1 Timothy 3:11 NASB1995
Paul speaks very highly to the Roman church about Phoebe, a women whom he calls a deaconess or servant of the church. The word “servant” in this verse is a feminine form of diakonos, which is often translated “deacon,” so many believe that Phoebe held this office in the church at Cenchrea. But is it likely that Paul would recognize a woman in that office, since he clearly prohibited women from exercising authority over men in the church in 1 Timothy 2:12?
That’s where 1 Timothy 3 comes into play. Paul lays out the qualifications for elders in v.1-8, including that he must be “the husband of one wife” according to v.2. We said previously that this phrase necessarily limits the role of elder to men, without requiring that an elder be married or have children. But what about the deacons whom Paul discusses in v.9-13?
He does say that “Deacons must be husbands of only one wife, and good managers of their children and their own households” (1 Tim. 3:12). The grammar here is almost identical to that of v.2, with the only difference being that “husbands” is in the plural, since he is talking about deacons as a class of men instead of the elder as an individual. We would have to say, then, that deacons must also be men, since a woman cannot be “a one-woman man.”
But the previous verse clearly refers to women and follows the same grammatical construction as the opening phrase of v.8, though many versions do not translate these the same.
| v.8 Deacons likewise must be dignified |
| v.11 Women likewise must be dignified |
There is some controversy here over whether the word should be translated “women” or “wives.” If the former, then he is describing a female officeholder, i.e. a deaconess; if the latter, he is giving qualifications for the deacons’ wives. Whichever view one holds, it is acknowledged by all that Paul used the more general term for women in this verse instead of the precise term for wives. What conclusion should we draw from this?
While it is not possible to be dogmatic here, the stronger case seems to be in favor of both men and women serving as deacons to the church. Andreas Köstenberger, hardly an egalitarian, says, “The way v.11 is placed between vv.8-10 and vv.12-13 suggests one larger category, the office of deacon, with qualifications for male and female officeholders and a closing general statement pertaining to both.”1
If we remember that the word deacon literally means “servant,” we can see why this would not violate Paul’s prohibition of women exercising authority over men in the church. While many churches today have expanded the role of deacons to include a kind of advisory role, this does not seem to be the way the office is viewed in the NT.2
Coworker?
On two occasions Paul identifies women as his fellow workers, a term which he also applies to a number of men. What does he mean by it? Just that these were believers who worked alongside the apostle in preaching the gospel and establishing churches among the Gentiles. A more recent term we could use in its place is “missionary.” While it is noteworthy that women served in this capacity, it is not a title for any office in the church, nor does it imply any measure of leadership or authority.
One name that gets quite a bit of attention here is Priscilla (or Prisca). She is named along with her husband, Aquila, as a fellow worker of Paul’s, and much ado has been made of the fact that four of the six times this couple is named in the NT the wife’s name comes first. Some assume that this means she was more prominent, more theologically astute, more qualified, and exercised more authority in the church than her husband. This is pure speculation, and we should avoid building an argument for women’s roles in the church on such a flimsy foundation.
True, Acts 18:26 says that Priscilla and Aquila took Apollos aside privately “and explained the way of God to him more perfectly.” But this does not mean that Priscilla held a teaching position over men in the church, and it certainly does not mean, as one writer contends, that “For all practical purposes, Priscilla and Aquila acted as a seminary faculty for a promising male pastoral student.”3 Talk about reading our present situation back into the text of Scripture!
We still have not discussed the term apostle, which on at least one occasion seems to have been used of a woman. That is next on the agenda. But we conclude today that though women may serve as deacons or as missionary coworkers, this should not threaten or overthrow the principle of male leadership in the church.
1Andreas Köstenberger, Commentary on 1-2 Timothy and Titus, Biblical Theology for Christian Proclamation (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing, 2017), 131.
2If Acts 6:1-6 records the institution of the office of deacon, then the primary role seems to be “serving tables,” that is, serving the material needs of the body, allowing the elders to give themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word.
3Gilbert Bilezikian, Beyond Sex Roles: What the Bible Really Says About a Woman’s Place in Church and Family, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1985), 201-202. Bilezikian says the church struggled to accept such a role for women and even accuses the KJV translators of “commit[ting] violence on the text of Scripture rather than fac[ing] the fact that God calls qualified women to be teachers.”