Elyot (Governour, i. 13) says that ‘in the message to kynge Pharo, Aaron rather as a ministre than a companyon wente with Moses.’ Tindale’s tr. of Mt 5* is ‘ Agre with thyne adver- sary quicklye . . . lest . . . the judge delivre the to the minister.’ Wyclif, who has ‘ minister’ very often for ‘officer,’ as Jn 25:9 7% 1818, has ‘domesman’ here; the Geneva Bible has ‘sar- geant’; the ‘officer’ of AV is from the Rhem- ish. Cf. Udall, Erasmus’ Paraphrase, i. fol. c., ‘Finally entring in he satte emong the ministers warming him at the coles.’ See next article.
J. HASTINGS.
MINISTER, MINISTRY.—1. IN OLD ΤΈΒΤΑ- MENT. —These words are still employed by RV as the tr® almost exclusively of shéreth and its corre- lates, which again are translated in the LXX almost exclusively by λειτουργεῖν and its correlates. The exceptions in the are so rare as to be almost negligible; and yet the exclusiveness and some of the exceptions, when examined, are striking and suggestive. Shéréth is the word chosen to express ministration towards a higher being for the com- mon weal; hence it expresses the ministration of the priests and Levites as a high function, for the common weal, in relation to God (e.g. Ex 29”; and, ironically, the ministration to gods of wood and stone, Ezk 2033) ; it stands also for the minis- tration Godward of the elemental angels as the forces of nature (Ps 1037 1044); and likewise of one human being to another of higher rank, again most frequently for some public good, as of Joshua to Moses (Jos 1’).
To represent ministration looked at in this light —a high function for the common weal—the LXX most fitly chose λειτουργεῖν (-la, -nua, -ds, -ικός, τήσιμος), derived, as it was, from ἔργον and the Attic
*For the practice in the Scotch Reformed Church, cf. Calderwood, The True History of the Church of Scotland, 105—‘ Pastors, Bishops, or Ministers are they who are ap- pointed to particular congregations, which they rule by the word of God, and over the which they watch. In respect whereof, sometime they are called Pastors, because they feed their Congregation ; sometime Episcopi, or Bishops, because they watch over their Flock; sometimes Ministers, by reason of their service and office; and sometimes also Presbyters or Seniors, for the gravity in manners, which they ought to have
in taking care of the spiritual government, which ought to be most deare unto them.’
MINISTER, MINISTRY
λεῖτος (Ionic λήϊτος, Doric λάϊτος, ‘ pertaining to the λαός, the people), and carrying with it, as it did, the remembrance of public duty discharged for the state by richer citizens at their own pas That the idea of priestly ministration, though strange to the word in classical literature, was not strange to it in Alexandrian Greek, is proved by Egyptian papyri of the 2nd cent. B.C. (see Deiss- mann, Beitrage aus den Papyri, p. 137 f.) ; and it is found later on in the use of the word by Diodorus Siculus, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and Plutarch (see Deissmann, ibid., and Cremer, Lexicon, Eng. tr. p. 764). Λατρεύειν (only twice for shéreth, Nu 16°, Ezk 9033, and each time of the priestly function) is mostly in LXX the repre- sentative of ‘abhad, and difiers from λειτουργεῖν in being not so much priestly service as the religious service of the entire congregation (Ex 3") or of the individual worshipper (2 15°; cf. Ph 3%, Ro 1’). (It is true, on the other hand, that, almost in every case where the subst. λειτουργία Speers, the original is ‘abhodah ; but this may be because no abstract subst. had been formed from shéréth). When θεράπων stands for shéréth (ptep.), as it once does, Ex 33" ‘his minister (RV) ἀν the idea present is non-servile attendance, like that of a squire in the Middle Ages. (Cf. Hom. JZ. xvi. 244, the relation of Patroclus to Achilles; and Nu 12’, He 3°, the relation of Moses to God). Twice onl does λειτουργεῖν represent the rare Aramaic pélah, Ezr 7% (-os), 719 (-fa), and in both cases in regard to the service of the sanctuary. Here the idea in the Aram. appears to be that of labour, as though it were the labour of ploughing. Διακονεῖν (-la, -os) as the rendering of shéreth is entirely confined to Esther, and occurs but two or three times even there. The idea in this word will be dealt with below. Not one of the instances in Esther touches the ΠΟΘ function.
These remarks on the variations in the Heb. and LXX will suflice to show how shéréth and λειτουργεῖν have practically the monopoly of ex- pression when the subject is priestly ministration,
whether Rar widely interpreted.
2. IN NT.—While λειτουργεῖν is the word for ministration in the LXX, the word in NT is διακονεῖν. The exception in the OT is the rule in the NT. And this is a suggestive fact. The NT ministry is not one of the priest as distinct from the people: the exclusive class becomes a universal riesthood. λειτουργεῖν and its correlates occur (in t. Paul, St. Luke, and He, and nowhere else) only about fifteen times in all, and not in any single case can they be made to apply to a literal priestly function on the part of the Christian ministry. Sometimes there is a literal reference to the Jewish ritual (Lk 1%, He 9 10"). Once Christ is spoken of in the same region in the light of ful- filment as ‘minister, λειτουργός, of the sanctuary (in the heavens) and of the true tabernacle.’ Once the word is used of prophets and teachers at Antioch, Ac 133, with reference, perhaps, to the offering of prayer in the face of the congregation. Twice there is, in connexion with St. Paul, the thought of sacrifice; but in Ph 2" ‘the Philip-