Deaconess (Gr. diakonos, literally “servant”). The term appears only once in the NT (Re. 16:1). Phoebe is mentioned as a diakonos of the church of Cenchrea. The word and its use in this text suggest that the office of deaconess was established in the church when Paul wrote Romans.
Source: Evangelical Bible Dictionary
Greek diakonos, Latin diaconissa, servant. In the primitive Church there were women who exercised the diaconate, as can be deduced from the text of Saint Paul, when he speaks of the qualities that those who dedicate themselves to the diaconate should have, and says that “Women should equally be worthy, not slanderers, sober , faithful in everything† , 1 Tm 3, 11. In the early Church only one d is known. with her own name, Phoebe, of the Church of Cencreas, whom the apostle Paul recommends to the Roman faithful, because she is the protector of many brothers, including the Apostle, Rom 16, 1.
Digital Bible Dictionary, Grupo C Service & Design Ltda., Colombia, 2003
Source: Digital Bible Dictionary
* Phoebe was diakonos of the church in Cenchrea (Ro. 16.1): title that some vss. trans. “servant” (°vm mg “servant”), but °vrv2most likely, “deaconess.”
The Greek Fathers regularly read in 1 Tim. 3.11 “in the same way women are honest”, etc. (So °vrv2 and vs. cast. in general) which implied that it was about the qualities of women with diaconal functions, rather than the wives of deacons. This offers a better sequence than av (having “his wives,” cf. °ba, °nc, °bc, respective marginal notes), and is perhaps more appropriate; Teodoro de Mopsuestia expressively interprets “not gossips” as “that they do not make public the confidences received in their ministry eds. Sweete, 2, pp. 128).
Around AD 111 Pliny, governor of Bithynia, reports that he had interrogated under torture two servants whom they called deaconesses (minister) on Christian rites (Epistle 10. 96). “Servant” may here denote her secular position, or her function in the Christian community; no doubt Pliny was looking for signs of cannibalism.
Subsequently there are apparently no clear literary references to deaconesses before the Didascalia of the ss. III. Consequently, some have doubted the existence of such an office in New Testament times. But since the early Christians meticulously observed everything they had been taught, many of the functions assigned to deaconesses in later literature (eg, visiting women in pagan homes) would also correspond to apostolic times. A priori, therefore, the appointment of deaconesses is probable. In addition Lc. 8.2s can be profoundly significant. Their duties would be precisely analogous to those of deacons; they were, as our two New Testament passages suggest, simply “female deacons.” (The later special term Diakonissa it surely arose when the distinctive functions of deacons became liturgical).
Bibliography. KH Schelkle, New Testament Theology, 1978, t
Essays by CH Turner and W. Collins in The Ministry of Women, 1919; JG Davies, JEH 14, 1962, p. 1ss.
AFW
Douglas, J. (2000). New Biblical Dictionary: First Edition. Miami: United Bible Societies.
Source: New Bible Dictionary