MINISTER, one who acts as the less (from minus or minor) or inferior agent, in obedience or subservience to another, or who serves, officiates, etc., as distinguished from the master, magister (from mewls), or superior. The words so trans lated in the O. T. are nnein and r6n (Chald.), and in the N., occiKovos, and inrnOrns. i. mtvn, Moses and his minister Joshua' (Exod. )(adv. 13) ; Sept. rapeo-rnic6s airrc2 ; Aquila and Symm. d aecrazuyds ; comp. Exod. xxxiii. is (Sept. Bepcircov 'Incrocis) ; Num. xi. 28 ; Josh. i. (Sept. inrovrybs .11zozoM ; Alex. atroupy6s). This Hebrew word is clearly distinguished from imr, which is the more comprehensive term for servant (I Kings x. 5), e Solomon's servants and ministers,' where the Sept. reads rzawgz for the former, and Nezrovry@v for the latter. It is applied to Elisha as minister to Elijah, 2 Kings vi. 15 (Sept. Xecroup 76s); comp. 2 Kings iii. Is ; i Kings xix. 21. Persons thus designated sometimes succeeded to the office of their principal, as did Joshua and Elisha. The word is applied to the angels, Ps. ciii. 21 (aetroup-yol); comp. Ps. civ. 4 ; Heb. i. 7 ; and see Stuart's Comment. in loc. Both the He brew 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. I I ; 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' (Nerrowycri). It was applied by the Athenians to those who administered the public offices (Xeiroup rylac) at their own expense (Boeckh, Staatshaush. der Athener. i. 480; ii. 62 ; Potter's Gr. Ant. i.
85. 2. +rI (Chald.), Ezra. vit. 24, 'ministers' of religion, Xecrourryas (comp. )thn, ver. 19), though he uses the word wnivn in the same sense, ch. viii. r7. 3. The word Stdrcovos, 'minister,' is applied to Christian teachers, I Cor. iii. 5 ; 2 Cor. iii. 6 ; vi. 4 ; xi. 23 ; I 'Mess. iii. 2 ; to false teachers, 2 Cor. xi. 15 ; to Christ, Rom. xv. 8, 16 ; Gal. ii. 17 ; 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 Philip. i. 1 ; I Tim. iii. 8, 12. The term acci KOVOc denotes among the Greeks a higher class of servants than the SoiTh.ot (Athen. x. 192 ; B. comp. Xen. 1. a. Buttm. Lexic. i. 220 ; comp. Matt. xxii. 13, and Sept. for 'Tiro, Esth. i. so ; ii. 2 ; vi. 3). 4. 6arsrpeFns is applied to Christian ministers, Luke i. 2 ; Acts xxvi. 16 ; 2 Cor. iv. 1. Josephus calls Moses ray brrnpr7)v Oro0, Antiq. iii. I. 4. Kings are so called in Wisd. vi. 4. The word denotes, in Luke iv. 20, the attendant in a synagogue who handed the volume to the reader, and returned it to its place. 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 conse quently performed the severest duty, as distin guished from the Opavirns, the rower upon the upper bench of the three, and from the 01 vaOraz, sailors, or the iweiScircu, marines (Dem. 1209, II 14 ; comp. also 1208. 20 ; 1214. 23 ; 1216. 13 ; Pol. i. 25. 3) : hence in general a haM., agent, minister, attendant, etc.—J. F. D.