‘overseer’ or ‘supervisor’; a presbuteroswas an ‘elder’; and a
diakonoswas a ‘server’ (from the Greek verb diakein, ‘to serve’).
All of these terms were used in antiquity in a variety of
contexts apart from the Christian one. In classical Athens, for
instance, the ekkle ̄siawas the political gathering of the adult male
citizens for deliberative purposes, while an episkopos could
denote, among other things, an overseer of a city in the Athenian
empire. That such terms came to be used by Christians to describe
their own organizational structures could have been influenced by
their continued use throughout antiquity as terms for civic insti-
tutions in the cities of the Greek east (Georgi 1995). It is equally
(or more) likely, however, that Jewish tradition exercised an
influence. Both episkopos(meaning God as a judge and men in
positions of authority) and ekkle ̄sia(meaning God’s people) were
used in the Hellenistic Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures
known as the Septuagint (Meeks 1983: 75–84). Whatever the
origins of their use by Christians, it is clear already by the time
of the Pauline letters that such words were being deployed in
specifically Christian contexts: thus ekkle ̄siadesignated not only
individual congregations of the faithful, but also their entire
community throughout the world (Meeks 1983: 108).
Another feature that is suggestive of how emerging Chris-
tianity was influenced by its surrounding culture was the swift
rise to prominence of a male-dominated leadership. Women do
appear in certain prominent positions in the New Testament.
Apart from Christ’s companion Mary Magdalene, we also hear of
women performing some kind of official (or semi-official) func-
tion in the churches of the age of Paul. Acts, for instance, recounts
the story of Paul raising from the dead a certain Tabitha at Joppa.
She is described as being responsible for ‘good works and acts
of charity’, particularly towards widows (9.36–42). Paul himself
refers to Phoebe, who was a ‘deacon’ (diakonos) of the Corinthian
church and, like Tabitha, a benefactor (Romans 16.1). Later
authors also refer to deaconesses and other influential women,
particularly widows and virgins (Witherington 1988: 113–17,
149–51, 199–205). In general, however, authority lay with men.
ORTHODOXY AND ORGANIZATION IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY1
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