Women in the Ministrae in Bithynia
Ad Fontes Friday on Women in Christian Ministry in Ancient Asia Minor
Sometime around 111-13 AD, Pliny, the governor of Bithynia (north shore of modern-day Turkey) wrote a letter to the emperor Trajan about what to do with people denounced as “Christians.” Along the way, Pliny makes a fascinating statement about women church officers at one point.
They asserted, however, that the sum and substance of their fault or error had been that they were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by oath, not to some crime, but not to commit fraud, theft, or adultery, not falsify their trust, nor to refuse to return a trust when called upon to do so. When this was over, it was their custom to depart and to assemble again to partake of food--but ordinary and innocent food. Even this, they affirmed, they had ceased to do after my edict by which, in accordance with your instructions, I had forbidden political associations. Accordingly, I judged it all the more necessary to find out what the truth was by torturing two female slaves who were called ministrae. But I discovered nothing else but depraved, excessive superstition.
Now it is interesting that most translations of Pliny’s letters render ministrae as “deaconesses” in this context. But, at this point in time, ministrae was not a technical term for “deacon.” In fact, it is a rather ambiguous word as to what it could entail in terms of either the activity or authority that it implied in the churches of Bithynia. These female slaves might have been deacons, but they might also have been more!
As John Granger Cook writes:
Although Pliny may not have perceived the ministrae to be “priestesses” of the Christian group, there is ample evidence in the literary and inscriptional material surveyed above to believe that Pliny would have associated various cultic and priestly duties with the term ministra. The thesis that a ministra was clearly an individual with “a menial position in the church” (or one who exercised “menial cultic functions”) cannot be sustained. … Frequently in literary and inscriptional usage, various ministrae are mentioned in conjunction with priestly duties, altars, sacrificial tables, restoration of statues, erection of temples, sacred rites (sacri) and various other activities such as banking and even healing … The rich usage of ministra indicates that in Pliny’s perspective the women could have done everything from carrying incense boxes (if such were used in the liturgies of the community) to assisting the Christian priests in their liturgical duties—or even performing priestly functions.
We shouldn’t automatically suppose that these women were “deacons” and regard “deacon” as a lowly role! Read the story of Stephen-the-Deacon in Acts 7 and my article on In Praise of Deacons. I am all for Deacons! But, if these women were “ministers” in some broader sense, then that opens up the possibility that they performed Christian services and held Christian offices in some elevated sense.
Let’s explore that now!
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There are a few inferences I think we can draw out.
To begin with, a word of caution, we must take into account that Pliny most likely does not understand nor care what precise role these women had in the churches. He probably learned about their role as ministrae (or some Greek or local language equivalent) from them or by a second-hand report. Pliny is not thinking about what offices should be appropriate for women in primitive Christianity. He’s just trying to make sense of some eastern quasi-Jewish religion that’s popped up in his territory and he’s asking the emperor what to do about it. In other words, there is the danger we are expecting too much of Pliny for what we want to know about women in ministry in Bithynia.
Be that as it may, I think we can infer a few things …
First, the only church leaders mentioned in Pliny’s letter to Trajan are these female slaves who are called ministrae. Now, if I were a governor of Bithynia, trying to either investigate this pernicious sect of Christiani, or else, I was intending to crack down on them. The persons I would have arrested, interrogated, and executed would be the local church leaders. While many persons were interviewed by Pliny, the only ones mentioned in connection to church offices/functions are these two women. There is no mention of presbyters, priests, or overseers, only these ministrae. Which makes me suspect that these women were leaders of some standing in the Bithynian churches.
Second, Pliny notes that Christianity had infected, like a virus, “many persons of every age, every rank, and also of both sexes.” In other words, we have municipal elites, well-to-do merchants, artisans, shop-keepers, freedman, and slaves, or some mixture of that variety. A surprising social stratification which shows that Christianity transcended social, economic, and gender differences. One might think that church leaders would ordinarily be drawn from the upper classes, and this certainly happened during the post-Constantinian age. However, it is possible to envisage slaves and ex-slaves as leaders of churches in Asia Minor. In fact, according to tradition, the slave Onesimus, mentioned in Paul’s letter to Philemon, became bishop of Ephesus.
In sum, the office of these two slave women in Bithynia is unclear. Yes, they could simply be deacons. But it is not that straightforward because of the ambiguity surrounding the word ministrae. They could have been overseers, presbyters, or simply exercised some liturgical task or delegated leadership function in the Bithynian churches. At minimum, they were deacons, but at maximum, they were potentially more!
I’d love to hear your comments below on who you think these two slave-women were!
Further Reading
John Granger Cook, “Pliny’s Tortured Ministrae: Female Deacons in the Ancient Church?” Deacons and Diakonia in Early Christianity: The First Two Centuries, ed. Bart J. Koet, Edwina Murphy and Esko Ryökäs (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2018).
Lynn Cohick, Women in the World of the Earliest Christians (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2009).
Edwina Murphy, “Second Century Christian Women,” in Baylor Handbook on Second Century Christianity, eds. Michael F. Bird and Scott Harrower (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, forthcoming).
Marg Mowczko, “Phoebe: Deacon of the Church of Cenchrea.” https://margmowczko.com/was-phoebe-a-deacon-of-the-church-at-cenchrea-part-2/
The more I learn about the role of women in the NT church and the first few generations, the more I wonder, WHAT HAPPENED?! It seems to me (not a biblical scholar, but a “concerned citizen”) that by approximately 200 CE the patriarchy had re-ascended and most churches have maintained some degree of patriarchy since. Is this merely original sin? Sort of, “What did you expect?” Or has there been any sort of historical thread for us to follow?
Also, glad to know if there are significant errors in my time line; mine doesn’t allow for blaming it all on Constantine!
Excellent article thank you
.On the topic of women in the NT, I have read recently 'Phoebe' by Paula Gooder and to my surprise liked it! It is a fictionalised account from Phoebe's view and attempts (successfully) to introduce Phoebe as human person with a backstory. I originally thought of the admonition to neither add nor detract from scripture, but she packs into the dialogue and narrative structure a lot of fundamental theology. Its almost painless! Another more 'academic tome' Phoebe in the series Pauls social network' Joan Campbell (possibly dated, 2009) is a good foil against over fictionalising. marg mowczko is a staunch academic resource whom I follow steadfastly, good to have her out there as a name to be noted.