Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 01:4 (Fall 1987)
Article: Early Evidence of Women Officers in the Church
Author: Anonymous

---

Early Evidence of Women Officers in the Church

People sometimes write us to ask where they can find evidence that actual women held offidal positions of church officership. Professor Greg Horsley of Macquarie University, Australia, has kindly supplied us with the following partial list of references to women in church leadership. Although we do not usually follow this practice, in this instance we are supplying the bibliographic citations so that our readers may check the material for themselves if they so desire.

Evidence for Women as Elders (presbutera or presbutis )

1. A mummy label from second or third century century Egypt: Artemidoras, daughter of Mikkalos, fell asleep in the Lord, her mother Paniskiaines being an elder (presbytera ). Cahiers de Recherches de L’Institut de Papyrologie et d’Egyptologie de Lille 5 (1974) 264 no. 1115.

2. Diogas the bishop [set this up] as a memorial for Ammio the elder (presbytera feminine). Found near Usak in modem Turkey (ancient Phrygia), before the time of Constantine. Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 16 (1975) 437-38.

3. St. Cyprian writes (in Epistle 75.10.5) of a female presbyter (elder) in Cappadocia (also part of modern Turkey) in the mid-230s.

4. From Thera, a Greek island, an epitaph for Epiktas the elder (presbutis, feminine). Third or fourth century. Bulletin de Correspondence Hellenique 101 (1977) 210, 212.

5. An epitaph for Kale, the elder (presbutis) from Centuripae in Sicily. Fourth or Fifth Century. L’Annee Epigraphique (1975) 454.

Evidence for a Woman as Official Teacher

A papyrus from Egypt from the fourth Century speaks twice of Kyria the teacher (didaskalos ). ZPE 18 [1975] 317-23.

Evidence for Women as Deacons or Deaconnesses

The word “deaconness” did not develop until after the period of the New Testament, and a number of women, including Phoebe (Romans 16: 1) are simply called “deacon,” the same title which is given to men.

1. Pliny (in Epistle 10.96.6) wrote of slave women who were called deacons or ministrae. The letter dates from about 108 A.D. and was written to the Emperor Trajan about the Christians of Cappadacia.

2. From the early Christian period in Patrai of Achaia: The deacon (diakonos ) Agrippiane, most beloved of God, provided the mosaic in fulfillment of a vow. Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 29, (1978), 425.

3. A tombstone from Melos, inscribed at the beginning of the fourth century, mentions a mother and her children. All the children held offices in the Church, and their titles are given in descending order of importance. Asldepis (perhaps a woman), Elpizon and Askle...

visitor : : uid: ()