NELNISTER (mTn'is-tr), one who acts as a lesser (from minus or minor) or inferior agent, in obe dience or subservience to another, or who serves, officiates, etc., as distinguished from the master, magister (from magis), or superior.
1. The words so translated in the, Old Testa ment are rv:I.F;), mesh-aw-rayth', and fie/-akh', (Chald.), and in the New, Suitcovos, dee-ak'o-nos, servant, and inrnperns, hooft-ay-reface, under laborer. Moses and his ministerjoshua, are men tioned in Exod. xxiv:13.
2. it is applied to Elisha as minister to Elijah (2 Kings vi:15; Sept. lei-toor-gos', Xetroupy6s, public servant; comp. 2 Kings iii :it ; Kings xix :21). Persons thus designated sometimes suc ceeded to the office of their principal, as did Joshua and Elisha. The' word is applied to the angels (Ps. ciii :21, Public servants; comp. Ps. civ :4; Heb. :7; and see Stuart's Comment. in loc.). Both the Hebrew and Sept. words are applied to the Jews in their capacity as a sacred nation, 'Men shall call you the ministers of our God' (Is. lxi :6) ; to the priests (Jer. xxxiii :21; Ezek. xliv : 11 ; xlv :4 ; Joel i :9).
The Greek word is continued in the same sense in Luke i :23, and applied to Christian teachers (Acts xiii :2; Rom. xv :16; and to Christ, Heb. viii :2) ; to the collectors of the Roman tribute, in consequence of the divine authority of political government, 'they are God's ministers' (Xecrovp.yo(). It was applied by the Athenians to those who ad ministered the public offices (Xecrourytai) at their own expense (Bceckh).
3. (t) The word Subcovos, dee-ak'on-os, 'minis ter,' is applied to Christian teachers (t Cor. :5;
2 COr. ill :6 ; vi :4 ; xi :23 ; Thess. :2) ; (2) to false teachers (2 Cor. xi :15) ; to Christ (Rom. xv : 8, 16; Gal. ii :17 ; (3) to heathen magistrates (Rom. xiii :4) ; in all which passages it has the sense of a minister, assistant, or servant in general, as in Matt. xx :26; but it means a particular sort of minister, 'a deacon,' in Phil. i :1; I Tim. iii :8, 12). The term SiciKovoc, dee-ak-on-oi, ministers, denotes among the Greeks a higher class of serv ants than the dooVoi, So0Not, slaves (Ahen. x :192; B. comp. Xen. /. c. Buttni. Lexie. 1:220 ; comp. Matt. xxii :13, and Esth. i :3; ii :2; vi :3). (4) I'mnipkrns, hooft-ay-reface, helper, is applied to Christian ministers (Luke 1:2; Acts xxvi:16; 2 Cor. iv:t). Josephus calls Moses 1.6v iiirnpIrnv ()ea, God's he/Per, Kings are so called in Wisd. vi:4. (5) The word denotes, in Luke iv :2o, the attendant in a synagogue who handed the volume to the reader, and returned it to its place. (6) In Acts xiii :5 it is applied to 'John whose surname was Mark,' in his capacity as an attendant or assistant on Barnabas and Saul. It primarily signifies an under-rower on board a galley, of the class who used the longest oars, and consequently performed the severest duty, as distinguished from the thran-ce'tocc 9pavtrns, the rower upon the upper bench of the three, and from the hoi-naw'tay, vaiircte, sailors, or the efi-ee-bat'ay, irtficirac, marines (Dem. 12°9.