21: WOMEN DEACONS WITH AUTHORITY? 169Belleville’s claim that women deacons were among the “clergy” is
another example of changing the meaning of Scripture by claiming
something that is unsupported by any facts and that in fact is contra-
dicted by the facts we have. Her claim will lead readers to think that
when they see the word “deacon” (or the Greek word diakonos, which
can mean either “servant” or “deacon”) applied to women in the New
Testament, that is equivalent to being a pastor or elder, a member of the
“clergy.” But that is not what diakonos means.^6 And thus Belleville takes
away from readers the actual meaning of those verses and replaces it
with something they do not mean.
In this way the claim that women deacons had governing authority
in the early church is another way of undermining the authority of
Scripture, and another step on the path to liberalism.
(^6) For a discussion of the meaning of “elder” and “deacon” in the New Testament, see Wayne
Grudem, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1994), chapter 47.