DIAKON-

Paul Toseland toseland at blueyonder.co.uk
Fri Sep 27 10:16:03 EDT 2002


George Somsel writes concerning the DIAKON- word group,

>L&N's references are all to service, even 'humble service' whether 
that is >waiting on tables or any other service.  BDAG is pretty 
close to BGAD. >The Middle Liddell also has DIAKONHMA which it lists
as "servant's >business, service."

The studies by J. N. Collins that I referred to in an earlier post are:

‘Diakonia:  Re-interpreting the Ancient Sources’, Oxford:  OUP, 1990;
'The Mediatorial Aspect of Paul's Role As DIAKONOS’, ABR 40 (1992):34-44.

Collins’ results are very significant, I believe, for Paul’s usage of
these terms, so I will summarise some of the evidence of his 1992 paper. 
I have changed his transliteration.

The DIAKON- word group is not common in the extant literature. Josephus
has 70 instances; then Plato with 33, Lucian 23, Aristides 17, Philo and
Plutarch 16 each. In many of these the instances are clustered and 
interrelated. Thucydides has 2, Herodotus 3. 

I will begin with an (to me) illuminating, even arresting usage, though
Collins places these texts last: 

Alexander of Aphrodisias, a commentator on Aristotle writing around 200 
B. C., explains the phenomenon of translucence in the following terms 
(I quote Collins’ summary, p 42):

‘Air and water are of themselves colourless, but each can take on the
colour of other things while yet letting the colour of other things pass
 through them. In sum, they are thus receptive (DEKTIKOS), and 
conductive. His word for conductive is DIAKONOS (de Mixtione 5:14). 
He then writes: “The translucent body will transmit (DIAKONHSOMENON) 
the colours of other things.” 

Writing on the Meteorologica of Aristotle, Alexander announces the
principle that any object that passes on an effect from a first body
without itself being affected is a “conductive” body; again his word
is DIAKONOS (In Mete. 18.25); thus the moon passes on the light of 
the sun without itself being on fire: the word for “passes on” is the
verb DIAKONEISQAI (19.6).’

Similar usage is found, for example, in the fourth century writer
Themistius (125.9), commenting on Aristoltle’s de Anima, and in the
fifth century Ammonius (in Cat. 15.9).

Collins comments, 

‘We could adduce more of such usage to show writers drawing out the
connotation of mediation. This connotation is never far away, however,
from any of the broader usage in less technical writing, and once we 
are aware of it we are often able to resolve apparent problems of
interpretation or to clarify or to enrich our perception of what an
ancient author was intending’ (p 43)

As to etymology, he says,

‘We can say that the words never entirely cut loose from their
etymological moorings in DIWKW, “to pursue, chase, urge on” … The
DIAKONOS-waiter, as much as the DIAKONOS-messenger, is a runner, an
in-between person or go-between.’ (p 42)

DIAKONOS is found with the sense, ‘messenger’ or ‘go-between’ in, 
for example, Josephus. Esther 4:15 LXX has, ‘Esther sent back to 
Mordecai the same one who had come to her’. This renders the MT, 
‘Esther told [him] to reply to Mordecai.’ And Josephus renders the 
same passage, ‘Esther sent the same DIAKONON’ (Antiquities 11:228; 
cf. 7:201, 224). In Ant. 12.187, Joseph is enamoured of a dancing 
girl, and begs Solymius to act as a go-between (DIAKONOS). Other
instances of DIAkON- words denoting the role of the go-between in 
love-affairs are found in the romances of Heliodorus and Xenophon 
of Ephesus, and in an anecdote of Aristaenetus (2:7), and it is 
reflected in Joseph and Asenath 15:7 and the Testament of Judah 
14:2. Collins also cites a prayer formula found in the papyrus 
P. Warren 21; the prayer is addressed to a magic lamp (p 38):

‘You acted as a go-between [DIAKONHSAS] for him when he was in love with
his sister … so now be a go-between [DIAKONHSON] for me, [gap – fill in
your name] in regard to [gap – fill in your beloved’ name].’

When he recalls his prophesy that Vespasian would become Emperor,
Josephus describes himself as the ‘DIAKONOS of the voice of God’ 
(Jewish Wars 3.354; 4.626).

The word group is also used to express agency. In Esther 6:10 the 
king says to Haman, ‘Do for Mordecai the Jew what you have said.’ 
But Josephus has, ISQI DIAKONOS hWN CRHSTOS SUMBOULOS EGENOU, ‘be 
thou then the minister of what thou hast advised me to’ 
(Ant. 11.255; tr. Whiston). Here the noun DIAKONOS denotes ‘an 
agent who is dispatched to complete a task’.

On Plato’s usage, Collins comments, 

‘The public link between heaven and earth was for the ancients, 
of course, the priesthood, and closely associated with that, 
divination. In analysing both functions in the Politicus, Plato
draws on DIAKON- words, just as he does in analysing the roles
of merchants and other intermediaries in the make-up of his 
Republic (R. 370e and elsewhere). Thus diviners are “interpreters
for gods to men”, and the priests “know how to give to the gods 
… gifts from us by means of sacrifices, and to win for us from 
them by means of petition the bestowal of good things” (Pol. 
290c-d). On this analysis of roles we see clearly that both 
diviners and priests are at the point of interchange between the 
two worlds, and to pinpoint that in language Plato defines their 
functions as part of what he calls a “diaconic” skill: EPISTHMH 
DIAKONOS (20c, d and see further 299d).’

Other evidence of particular relevance to Paul’s use of the 
DIAKON- word group to convey his role as a ‘purveyor of revelation’ 
inclue the following:

In the Testament of Abraham 9.24, Abraham asks Michael to be ‘the 
medium of [his] word  … unto the most High’. I don’t have the Greek 
text, but Collins reports that the original uses the verb DIAKONHSAI
(tr. G. H. Box).

In Lucian, Icaromenippus 3.137, ‘do me an errand to Zeus’, again the 
Greek text has DIAKONHSAI.

In Aeschylus, Prometheus 942, Hermes, the messenger of Zeus, is 
called DIAKONOS, as is Iris, another messenger, Iris, in Aristophanes, 
Av. 1253.

Epictetus 13.22.69 describes as follows the mission of the wandering
Cynic preacher:

‘not tied down by the private duties of men, nor involved in
relationships, but ‘wholly devoted to the commission (DIAKONIA) from
God … free to go about among men’ as ‘messenger (AGGELOS), scout,
and herald of the gods.’

In the novel by Achilles Tatius, Clitophon’s lover is dangerously ill.
He receives news of a remedy from a young man who is described as ‘a
saviour … sent by God’. Clitophon thanks him for his DIAKONIAN 
(4.15.6).

Life of Aesop G7 refers to a herald of Isis as her DIAKONOS.


Paul Toseland
Bristol



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