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Women Deacons in 1 Timothy: A Linguistic and Literary look at ‘Women Likewise…’ (1 Tim 3.11)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Jennifer H. Stiefel
Jennifer H. Stiefel
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(1035 Lafayette Road, Portsmouth, NH 03801–5468, USA)
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Extract

Timothy 3.11 has long been recognized as an anomalous element in the discussion of deacons in 3.8–13, to which topic the author of the Pastorals has turned his attention as the second of the two offices described in the first half of chapter 3. Interpreters have struggled to identify the women addressed in this verse. Answers have scarcely been lacking, responses notable for their variety and for the unspoken assumptions delimiting the possibilities entertained. This paper, by scrutinizing the syntax of 3.11 and the structure of the passage on διάκονοι, ‘deacons’, discerns new evidence for the identification of these women as partners in ministry with the explicitly named men of the passage.

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Articles
Information
New Testament Studies , Volume 41 , Issue 3 , July 1995 , pp. 442 - 457
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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References

1 A text and translation of this passage are provided in Chart 1 on p. 448 in Section D.3; a text and translation of 3.11 are found in section C. The Greek text is taken from the UBSGNT 3rd ed., corrected; the English translation from the NRSV with some emendation on my part to make the grammatical structure evident.

2 Conzelmann, H., The Pastoral Epistles (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1972) 50.Google Scholar

3 Houlden, J. L., The Pastoral Epistles (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976) 77.Google Scholar

4 Conzelmann, Pastoral Epistles, 51.

5 Koester, H., History and Literature of Early Christianity (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1980) 2.302.Google Scholar

6 Conzelmann, Pastoral Epistles, 50–1.

7 Ibid., 158–60, cf. 51.

8 Koester, History, 2.302.

9 Bornkamm, G., ‘σεμνός σεμνότης’, TDNT 7 (1971) 195.Google Scholar

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15 Ibid. §1140, p. 290.

16 BDF (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1961) §252, p. 132Google Scholar; Winer, G. B., Grammatik des neutestamentlichen Sprachidioms (8th ed.; ed. Schmiedel, P.; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1894) 1.168Google Scholar, §19.7.

17 That is, reference back to what is known or assumed to be known, which usually requires the article.

18 E.g., the second member of the pair ἀνήρ/γυή appears (1) with the article alone: Eph 5.23, 25; Col 3.18–19; Matt 18.25,19.10; (2) with αύτός, ‘of oneself’, as in Eph 5.31; 1 Cor 7.39; Matt 22.24–5 (with τίς, ‘some man’); Matt 19.3; Mark 10.7 (with ονρωποςξ, ‘man’) and Matt 19.5; Mark 10.11 and parr, (with öς ὄν ‘whoever’); (3) with ïδιος, ‘one's own’: Eph 5.22; 1 Pet 3.1; 1 Cor 7.2. The nouns do appear anarthrously in several references to marriage or household relations: 1 Cor 7.1, 10–13; Mark 10.2; Mark 12.19, 23; Luke 20.28, 33 (with ἀδελφός, ‘brother’); Luke 18.29 (with ούδείς, ‘no one’) where the context makes the relationship clear. 1 Cor 7.1–16 shows the variety of usages permissible or acceptable, as it has examples of all the above possibilities. Acts 21.5 ‘all [of them] … with wives and children’ could as well be translated generically ‘with women and children’, that is, without presuming the marital status of the γυναϊκες.

19 I owe this suggestion to Prof. A. Enermalm-Ogawa.

20 Schwyzer, E., Griechische Grammatik (Munich: C. H. Beck, 1950) 2.614Google Scholar; cf. LSJ (9th ed.; Oxford: Clarendon, 1940)Google Scholar s.v. γυνή

21 Stählin, G., ‘χήρα’, TDNT 91 (1974) 464 n. 231Google Scholar; M. Hauke ‘Deaconesses in the Ancient Church: A Historical Sketch’, The Church and Women: A Compendium (ed.H., Möll; San Francisco: Ignatius, 1988) 126–7.Google Scholar

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23 Δεϊ with a string of adjectives in the accusative is also used in Lucian's description; Onosander's discussion uses a similar construction: φημίτ οίνυν αίρεϊσθαι ‘I believe, then, that we must choose’, followed likewise by adjectives in the accusative; Conzelmann, Pastoral Epistles, 158,160.

24 Roloff, J., Der Erste Brief an Timotheus (EKK 15; Zürich: Benziger/Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener, 1988) 150.Google Scholar

25 Ibid. 149–50,165.

26 Davies, J. G., ‘Deacons, Deaconesses, and the Minor Orders in the Patristic Period’, JEH 14(1963)2.Google Scholar

27 C. Spicq, Les Épîtres Pastorales, 456, cf. 549, 575.

28 Kelly, Pastoral Epistles, 83; Gryson, R., The Ministry of Women in the Early Church (Collegeville: Liturgical, 1976) 8Google Scholar; Frohnhofen, H., ‘Women Deacons in the Early Church’, TD 34 (1987) 150.Google Scholar

29 Hanson, Pastoral Epistles, 43.

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31 Houlden, Pastoral Epistles, 80; Guthrie, D., The Pastoral Epistles (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990) 97Google Scholar; Hanson, Pastoral Epistles, 43.

32 Fee, 1 Timothy, 88; Lewis, ‘“Women”’, 168; Karris, R. J., The Pastoral Epistles (Wilmington: Glazier, 1979) 76.Google Scholar

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34 Beyer, H., ‘διακονέω διακονία διάκονος’, TDNT 2 (1964) 93Google Scholar; Conzelmann, Pastoral Epistles, 58; Hiebert, D. E., ‘Behind the Word “Deacon”: A New Testament Study’, BSac 140 (1983)154.Google Scholar

35 Brown, R. E., ‘Episkopě and Episkopos: The New Testament Evidence’, TS 41 (1980) 334Google Scholar, n. 28; Oden, T. C., First and Second Timothy, and Titus (Louisville: John Knox, 1989) 149.Google Scholar

36 Spicq, Les Épîtres Pastorales, 1.76, 456, 460–1; Beyer, , ‘διακονέω κτλ’, TDNT 2 (1964) 93Google Scholar; Lohfink, G., ‘Weibliche Diakone im Neuen Testament’, Die Frau im Urchristentum (ed. Dautzenberg, G.; Freiburg: Herder, 1983) 332–3Google Scholar; Fee, 1 Timothy, 88; Hiebert, ‘The Word “Deacon”’, 151; Karris, Pastoral Epistles, 76. Guthrie (Pastoral Epistles, 97) uses both ‘deaconess’ and ‘woman deacon’, hence apparently intending the former to designate a separate non-ordained status, and the latter a joint ordained one; cf. Kelly, Pastoral Epistles, 83. Schweizer opts for ‘perhaps … deaconesses’ (Schweizer, E., ‘Ministry in the Early Church’, ABD [ed. Freedman, D. N.; New York: Doubleday, 1992] 4.839).Google Scholar

37 Gryson, Ministry, 8; Rand, L., ‘Ordination of Women to the Diaconate’, Communio 8 (1981)371.Google Scholar

38 Denzer, G. A., ‘The Pastoral Letters’, JBC (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1968)Google Scholar §57.21; Kelly, Pastoral Epistles, 83; Schweizer, E., Church Order in the New Testament (SBT 32; London: SCM, 1961) 86Google Scholar, n. 334.

39 Fee, 1 Timothy, 88, 90.

40 Guthrie, Pastoral Epistles, 97; Fee, 1 Timothy, 88; Kelly, Pastoral Epistles, 83; Lewis, ‘“Women’”, 168; Karris, Pastoral Epistles, 75, Cerling, ‘Women Ministers’, 211.

41 Lewis, ‘“Women”’, 171–5, but his suggestion that the women are unmarried assistants to the διάκονοι seems improbable, given the author's evident unease about the activity of young widows (5.11–13); Brown, ‘Episkopě’, 334; Rand, ‘Ordination’, 371; Lohfink, ‘Weibliche Diakone’ 332–3; Hennessey, L. R., ‘Diakonia and Diakonoi in the Pre-Nicene Church’, Diakonia (ed. Kalton, T. and Williman, J.; Washington DC: Catholic University, 1986) 73Google Scholar; Frohnhofen, ‘Women Deacons’, 150; Oden, Timothy and Titus, 149; Roloff, Timotheus, 164–6; Wild, R. A., ‘The Pastoral Epistles’, NJBC (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1990) §56.34, p. 897Google Scholar; J. D. Quinn, ‘Epistles to Timothy and Titus’, ABD, 6.561.

42 I would speculate that the author can come to no reason to ban the woman deacons, but cannot forbear addressing them, yet will not entitle them forthrightly as deacons. Thus androcentric language is layered over the generic reality of diaconal service by both women and men.

43 MacDonald, D. R. (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1983) 54–77Google Scholar; Verner, D. (SBLDS 71; Chico CA: Scholars, 1983) 176–86Google Scholar; both MacDonald and Verner take 3.11 to refer to wives of the deacons, MacDonald, Legend, 71; Verner, Household, 100 n. 21; 133 n. 17.