Diankonos is a lot like the word baptizo. In its original language it is very clear. But translators got hung up over the way the idea evolved in the church, and in both cases had to invent a word. Baptize means nothing. It’s a contrived word created to solve a theological problem. You can have it mean “immerse”, or “sprinkle”, or whatever you want. Not so baptizo in the Greek. The word clearly means to dip or plunge or immerse.

So with diakonos . Deacon means to us an official church servant, elected by the assembly in accordance with church rules and regs. Some churches even use Biblical standards for their choices.

But there are two other words in Scripture that started out as the lowly diakonos: One is minister, the other simply servant. This latter usage is the closest to what the Greek is trying to convey.

That brings us to Phoebe. Phoebe was a diakonos, no question. But because of the playing that translators have done with this one word, we are left to try to discern whether she was an “official” servant, or just a servant servant.

Does it really matter? Unfortunately, yes. Phoebe is being held up by the women’s liberation movement of the church as an example of the fact that women as well as men were elected to church office and even leadership.

She is mentioned only in Romans 16:1-2, by the apostle Paul. Now right away we have a problem. No other apostle discusses the whole male/female issue in terms of leadership, and in the cases where he makes comments, they are always in favor of men-only outcomes. Women should not teach men, nor lead men in the assembly, and obviously not at home, says Paul. And I think he had the Spirit of God…

So it is unlikely that Paul is commending Phoebe to elevate her to leadership. Even a quick examination of the text points away from this.

Phoebe served the Cenchrean church. Cenchrea is and was a seaport near Corinth, in Greece. It is believed that she was asked to carry the letter of Paul to the Romans from her hometown. She was a trusted disciple, and served well her people in Cenchrea. Paul asks the Romans to receive her and bless her with whatever she needs to fulfill this ministry to her church and to him.

And that is it. That is all. She was a true diakonos , one who serves God and other people. Whatever her ministry was, there is no indication that it was limited to the local church, or that in that church she had authority or wanted it. She was simply a sister who wanted to help, and God wanted her to be used in this way. There is no need to give her a title or a position. True servants do not desire this anyway.

There are other reasons Phoebe could not be “official.” An official representative of the local church was required to have a holy wife. It was assumed that a man would have this office. These men were to be rulers of their own homes first, another office not given to women. The rule of the house was to be the pattern for rule in the church. The entire course of nature, in Paul’s thinking, is upset when a woman rules the home or the church. Such was the teaching handed down from that first century and observed with few exceptions until this last one.

For the record, several other persons are called diakonos in the New Testament, none of whom were appointed deacons of the local church: Jesus, Tychicus, Epaphras, Paul, and Timothy are the ones I found. Servants all, but “deacons” none.