Men and Women as Deacons

At Faith Fellowship, we appoint men and women to be deacons at Faith Fellowship.

Interestingly, this question of whether a woman can serve as a deacon is addressed directly in only two verses of the Bible (Romans 16:1 and 1 Timothy 3:11). Various interpreters have disputed the meaning and translation of these two verses so we must beware of both dogmatism and an uncharitable spirit in addressing this issue. In other words, let’s be nice with clearly open-handed issues.

In Romans 16:1, the NIV reads, “I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae.” The CSB translates the same verse, “I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant of the church in Cenchreae.”

A similar difference is found in 1 Timothy 3:11, rendered in the NIV: “In the same way, the women are to be worthy of respect, not malicious talkers but temperate and trustworthy in everything.” The CSB translates it as, “Wives, too, must be worthy of respect, not slanderers, self-controlled, faithful in everything. In this instance, the NIV in using the word “women” suggests they were deacons, while the CSB inclines to “wives” of deacons.

Support for women in the office of deacon from 1 Timothy 3:11

• Argument from silence on elders wives.

The character of elders wives are not mentioned in 1 Timothy 3. If the reference is to the wives of deacons, why does Paul omit a reference to the wives of elders, particularly since elders exercise pastoral oversight and overall leadership in the church? It would seem the character of the wives of elders would be even more important than the wives of deacons. Therefore focusing on the wives of deacons, but not on the wives of elders, is odd. Yet if the reference is to female deacons, we have an elegant explanation for why the wives of elders aren’t mentioned. In other words, Paul isn’t referring to wives at all, but to female deacons.

• The absence of the pronoun in Greek.

Some translations render “their wives,” but the Greek lacks the word “their,” and its insertion reflects an interpretation by translators.

• The word used is gynaikas, which could be translated as either “wives” or “women.”

However, there is actually a hint that Paul refers to deacons rather than women because if he had used the pronoun “their,” we’d have no doubt that wives of deacons were intended. The bare use of the word “women” suggests that women deacons rather than wives are in view.

Support for women in the office of deacon from Romans 16:11

Different versions of Scripture translate the Greek word daikonos as “servant” or “deacon” as we have seen in the above examples. However, the addition of the words “the church in Cenchreae” suggests an official capacity.In addition, many commentators believe Phoebe actually carried the letter of Romans to the Roman church, which would fit with a deacon office.

Further support from the early church.

An early example of women serving as deacons is noted in the correspondence between Pliny the younger and the emperor Trajan (AD 98–117). Pliny asks Trajan for advice about what he should do as the ruler of his province in with Christians. Pliny refers to two Christian women, who were called “ministrae” in Latin. In English we can translate this word as “ministers,” and that is a good translation into Latin of the Greek word diakonos, which means “servant” or “minister.” We thus have an early example, in the second decade of the second century, of women serving as deacons. Of course, such an example doesn’t prove women should serve as deacons, but it suggests women functioned as deacons in the early church.