Deacons: Why I Disagree with the Traditional Views, Part 3 (What Do Deacons Do?)

We need to dig a little deeper into the text regarding the work of a deacon.

Obviously, the work of the seven men in Jerusalem was very important. But it’s a peculiarly Western bias to imagine that important = management. I think the apostles would have laughed at the thought and said that important = serving those in need.

You see, the point of the text isn’t: This is how you must organize or else go to hell. Rather, it’s more like: This is how important caring for widows is — important enough that the Spirit will surely call members into that kind of service — and the leadership should recognize what the Spirit is doing among them and allow the Spirit-equipped to do the work they’re equipped to do.

Now, the position of elder has a long history in the Old Testament, and we know from the New Testament that the Jewish synagogues had elders as well. But there is no evidence of an office called “deacon” in the Jewish synagogue or in the Old Testament, leaving us to wonder where the use of diakonos (Greek for servant) as a job title comes from.

Fortunately, Stephen J. Sandifer has written a masterful work on deacons, Deacons: Male and Female?, in which he demonstrates that congregations of First Century mystery religions had officers called deacons who handled the benevolence funds of those religions.

Now, that fits the evidence. In Jerusalem, the use of diakonos for such an office would not ring true, as there were no mystery religions in that part of the world, but for congregations in the Gentile world, it would have made sense to borrow a term from local usage for the holders of the benevolence fund.

And if the deacons were charged with the benevolence work of the church, they had to handle money. And therefore, unlike the volunteer who cuts grass, would have to be individuals of impeccable credentials — which makes sense of the ethical standards of 1 Timothy 3.

Therefore, I think Acts 6 not only describes the first deacons in the Christian church, it gives the job description. After all, if the job isn’t described here, it’s not described anywhere and we have no right to invent one.

This interpretation also makes sense of 1 Timothy 5 —

(NRSV 1 Tim 5:9-16) Let a widow be put on the list if she is not less than sixty years old and has been married only once; 10 she must be well attested for her good works, as one who has brought up children, shown hospitality, washed the saints’ feet, helped the afflicted, and devoted herself to doing good in every way.

11 But refuse to put younger widows on the list; for when their sensual desires alienate them from Christ, they want to marry, 12 and so they incur condemnation for having violated their first pledge. 13 Besides that, they learn to be idle, gadding about from house to house; and they are not merely idle, but also gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not say. 14 So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, and manage their households, so as to give the adversary no occasion to revile us. 15 For some have already turned away to follow Satan.

16 If any believing woman has relatives who are really widows, let her assist them; let the church not be burdened, so that it can assist those who are real widows.

Odd, isn’t it, that we insist on having deacons, based on 1 Tim 3, to be “scripturally organized” and avoid damnation, and yet we have no concern at all to establish a list of widows per 1 Tim 5:9-16. Why isn’t this part of being scripturally organized?

But it makes perfect sense that Paul would address the care for widows in chapter 5 if the deacons mentioned in chapter 3 were expected to care for widows. And if that’s not right, what on earth is it that deacons are ordained to do?

You see, we base our definition of “scripturally organized” more on our traditions than on a serious study of the text.

Alexander Campbell concluded to the same effect —

The seven persons mentioned and appointed to the service of tables, Acts vi. though not so denominated, were nevertheless invested with and fully possessed of this office. The treasury was entrusted to them — the widows’ tables, and every table which required service was attended by them. The direction given the Corinthians respecting the treasury, and the instructions to Timothy and Titus concerning the choice of deacons, also concerning the support of widows and bishops, all concur in furnishing the above views of this office and work.

If we consider the literature of the uninspired Early Church Fathers, we find that there were both male and female deacons. They began by handling food distribution for widows, as we see in Acts 6.

The early church celebrated an agape or “love feast” — a weekly or even daily common meal. It’s not surprising that the early church referred to those in charge of this meal as “deacons.” The agape served the dual purpose of providing a common meal for the entire church and providing food for the poor members.

The Eucharist was typically celebrated as part of the love feast, and so we soon see the early church investing the deacons with responsibility for the Lord’s Supper.

Female deacons are attested in very early Christian writings. But it’s not until the Third Century that the term “deaconess” is coined. Before then, women deacons are called “deacon,” a masculine noun.

One purpose of the early female deacons was to assist in the baptism of women, because the early church tended to baptize converts naked! After all, it’s a new birth, and so you should wear your birthday suit (I suppose that was the logic).

As a result, as Bobby Valentine has demonstrated, the early Restoration Movement leaders uniformly approved female deacons.

And so it’s very odd that the Churches of Christ generally ask their deacons to be middle management, that is, program heads or even go-betweens, interfacing between the elders and the true ministry leaders.

I mean, if we truly wanted to follow the scriptures, we’d either not have deacons at all — because there is no scriptural job description and we can’t fill in the silence with our imaginations — or else we’d have deacons who provide benevolent care for the needy, especially widows, based on Acts 6 and early church history. Those are the only two choices that are remotely within the Restoration Movement’s principle of “Speak where the Bible speaks and be silent where the Bible is silent.”

About Jay F Guin

My name is Jay Guin, and I’m a retired elder. I wrote The Holy Spirit and Revolutionary Grace about 18 years ago. I’ve spoken at the Pepperdine, Lipscomb, ACU, Harding, and Tulsa lectureships and at ElderLink. My wife’s name is Denise, and I have four sons, Chris, Jonathan, Tyler, and Philip. I have two grandchildren. And I practice law.
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11 Responses to Deacons: Why I Disagree with the Traditional Views, Part 3 (What Do Deacons Do?)

  1. Grizz says:

    Speak where the Bible speaks and be silent where the Bible is silent.

    Jay,

    Why do we open ourselves up so to charges of hypocrisy??? We are ‘silent’ when the Bible is silent in terms of what? Only forbidding what we do not like!

    – Fellowship halls
    – Buildings of any kind
    – Multiple cups
    – Pews
    – Song leaders/choruses/choirs/praise teams
    – Solos
    – Public Address systems
    – Youth Ministers
    – Song Books
    – Pitch Pipes
    – Instrumental Musical accompaniment (psalming)
    – etcetera
    – ad nauseum

    We are so inconsistent and unpredictable to outsiders looking at our assemblies that we cannot honestly claim to be even a loosely associated fellowship with a straight face. So why even remind anyone of a motto we dare not practice???

    Grizz

  2. It’s been interesting to rethink deacons in light of the massive study of diakonos (and cognates) by Australian scholar John Collins (Diakonia: Re-Interpreting the Ancient Sources). It’s so influential it changed the definition of diakonos in the 3rd edition of BDAG. The implications for how we understand the meaning of the word, how it overlaps other word-groups in the NT, what functions it might point toward, and how it impacts our exegesis of certain passages (e.g., Acts 6:1ff) are huge.

  3. Price says:

    It’s a crying shame that we have so removed women from service in and to the church. And, as badly as the women may have been offended, the greater loss has been to the church which has missed out on their Spirit-filled and gifted abilities to serve.

  4. mark says:

    Price, some are putting women in the pulpit so hopefully removal of the women is ending.

  5. Jay Guin says:

    Mike,

    Thanks for the reference to Collins’ book. I’m unfamiliar with it but just ordered it off Amazon. (Evidently it’s a textbook. I could buy for $33 or rent for $29! And no Kindle version. The academic market is far removed from the free enterprise system.)

    According to the publisher’s notes, “He finds that in all such sources the word is used to mean ”messenger” or ”emissary,” and has no implications of humility or of helping the needy. This discovery undermines much of the theological discussion of ministry that has taken place over the past fifty years.”

    BDAG gives as the primary definition: “one who serves as an intermediary in a transaction, agent, intermediary, courier.” But they gives as a secondary definition: “one who gets someth. done, at the behest of a superior, assistant to someone (the context determines whether the term, with or without the article o`, oi` is used inclusively of women or exclusively)” and offers as one usage in the extra-biblical Greek sources: “Of table attendants (X., Mem. 1, 5, 2; Polyb. 31, 4, 5; Lucian, Merc. Cond. 26; Athen. 7, 291a; 10, 420e; Jos., Ant. 6, 52).”

    As to Acts 6:2, the verb form of “deacon” is used in the phrase “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables.” BDAG say, regarding “serve” (I expand many of the abbreviations):

    Ac 6:2 poses a special problem: care for, take care of with dative of thing trape,zaij look after tables can be understood of serving food at tables (cp. bou,lomai … diakonh/sai toi/j ptwcoi/j sh,meron evn th/| sh/| trape,zh| TestJob 12:1), but it is improbable that some widows would be deprived of food at a communal meal. The term diakoni,a vs. 1 more probably refers to administrative responsibility (s. diakoni,a 5), one of whose aspects is concern for widows without specifying the kind of assistance that is allotted. Vs. 2 may contain wordplay involving the phrase to.n lo,gon tou/ qeou/, w. lo,goj designating a ledger entry, in which case tra,peza, which is also a banker’s term (s. L-S-J-M s.v. II), may here denote accounts (s. tra,peza 1c).

    (The gobbledygook will be kind of readable to Greek students.) If I follow correctly, the suggestion is that the 7 men were appointed to an administrative task of keeping accounts rather than serving tables.

    Not nearly enough to sort through the scriptures again — yet! — and so I await my copy with great anticipation.

    PS — MIKE COPE READS MY BLOG!!!!

  6. Mike Cope says:

    Hey, Jay. I think the publisher’s notes aren’t quite right. It’s true that his focus is mostly on messenger, emissary, ambassador, etc. (E.g., Hermes is described as a diakonos: one who brings the message of the gods to humans.) There’s a sane interaction with his work by NT scholar Paula Gooder. Just Google “John Collins Paula Gooder” and it will let you download her paper. (I personally think she gives some nice correctives to his work.) Thanks for this study!

  7. R.J. says:

    @Grixx-That phrase(speak where the bible speaks and remain silent where the bible is silent) merely was a reaction to the myriads of inferences used in various creeds and catechisms to create new laws(even salvific and fellowship terms) which did nothing but divide the Body of Christ at large.

    Thomas Campbell wanted to start afresh and bind nothing except what the scriptures enjoined! The second part of the phrase was never meant to convey that silence was prohibited.

    Speak Where The Scriptures Speak-What we teach must accord with the sacred writings.

    Be Silent Where Scripture Is Silent-Do not elevate assumption to fact and then teach it. Plus do not add to God’s laws Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32.

  8. Jay Guin says:

    Mike,

    Thank you very much for the suggestion, but the publisher wants $30 for a 21-page article. I can afford it, but it’s just wrong to charge that kind of money for a work of theology. I’m going to wait for Collins’ book to arrive from Amazon.

    If I were an adjunct professor or something, I could get it for free, but sadly I work in the business world, and academia seems intent on keeping their work product out of the hands of non-academics.

    (I’ve often wondered why theologians contribute to a publication system that outrageously overprices their work product to non-academicians, as though some good purpose is served by keeping their work secret from the rest of the world. I mean, I’m sure that no one at all pays these prices, meaning only those within the academic world ever get to read these works. How is that doing good theology? Maybe this is the subject for a future post …)

  9. mark says:

    Perhaps some do not want their theology read? I can get most anything published, the quality of the journal, notwithstanding. The credit in academia is for publishing, not doing something for the masses.

  10. alegler says:

    If we apply the phrase of speaking where the Bible speaks and we’re silent where the Bible is silent, then this saying is irrelevant since there is no where in the Bible where this phrase is mentioned:)

  11. mark says:

    And the “silent” issues are those which will get you sent to hell.

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