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“to serve” is mentioned: it is used (a) with a general significance, e.g., Matt. 4:11; 20:28;
Mark 1:13; 10:45; John 12:26 (“serve,” twice); Acts 19:22; Philem. 13; (b) of waiting at
table, “ministering” to the guests, Matt. 8:15; Luke 4:39; 8:3; 12:37; 17:8, “serve”; 22:26,
“serve,” v. 27, “serveth,” twice; the 2nd instance, concerning the Lord, may come under
(a); so of women preparing food, etc., Mark 1:31; Luke 10:40, “serve”; John 12:2,
“served”; (c) of relieving one’s necessities, supplying the necessaries of life, Matt. 25:44;
27:55; Mark 15:41; Acts 6:2, “serve”; Rom. 15:25; Heb. 6:10; more definitely in
connection with such service in a local church, 1 Tim. 3:10, 13 [there is nothing in the
original representing the word “office”;
RV
, “let them serve as deacons,” “they that have
served (well) as deacons”]; (d) of attending, in a more general way, to anything that may
serve another’s interests, as of the work of an amanuensis, 2 Cor. 3:3 (metaphorical): of
the conveyance of material gifts for assisting the needy, 2 Cor. 8:19, 20,
RV
, “is
ministered” (
KJV
, “is administered”); of a variety of forms of service, 2 Tim. 1:18; of the
testimony of the OT prophets, 1 Pet. 1:12; of the ministry of believers one to another in
various ways, 1 Pet. 4:10, 11 (not here of discharging ecclesiastical functions).¶
Note:
In Heb. 1:14,
KJV
(2nd part), the phrase
is translated “to
minister,”
RV
, “to do service,” lit., “for service”; for the noun “ministering” in the 1st
part, see
MINISTERING
, B.
2.
$
(
$ !
, 3008), (akin to A, No. 2), in classical Greek, signified at
Athens “to supply public offices at one’s own cost, to render public service to the State”;
hence, generally, “to do service,” said, e.g., of service to the gods. In the NT (see
Note
below) it is used (a) of the prophets and teachers in the church at Antioch, who
“ministered to the Lord,” Acts 13:2; (b) of the duty of churches of the Gentiles to
“minister” in “carnal things” to the poor Jewish saints at Jerusalem, in view of the fact
that the former had “been made partakers” of the “spiritual things” of the latter, Rom.
15:27; (c) of the official service of priests and Levites under the Law, Heb. 10:11 (in the
Sept., e.g., Exod. 29:30; Num. 16:9).¶
Note:
The synonymous verb
$
(properly, “to serve for hire”), which is used in
the Sept. of the service of both priests and people (e.g., Exod. 4:3; Deut. 10:12, and in the
NT, e.g., Heb. 8:5), and, in the NT, of Christians in general, e.g., Rev. 22:3, is to be
distinguished from
$
, which has to do with the fulfillment of an office, the
discharge of a function, something of a representative character (Eng., “liturgy”).
3.
$
(
% $ !
, 5256), “to do the service of a
$
” (see A, No. 3),
properly, “to serve as a rower on a ship,” is used (a) of David, as serving the counsel of
God in his own generation, Acts 13:36,
RV
, expressive of the lowly character of his
service for God; (b) of Paul’s toil in working with his hands, and his readiness to avoid
any pose of ecclesiastical superiority, Acts 20:34; (c) of the service permitted to Paul’s
friends to render to him, 24:23.¶
4.
$
(
, $ $ !
, 2418), “to minister in priestly service” (akin to
$
,
“a sacrificing priest,” a word not found in the Sept. or NT: from
, “sacred,” and
, “work”), is used by Paul metaphorically of his ministry of the Gospel, Rom.
15:16; the offering connected with his priestly ministry is “the offering up of the
Gentiles,” i.e., the presentation by gentile converts of themselves to God.¶ The apostle