Dict: smith - MINISTER

smith:

MINISTER - M>@ - This term is used in the Authorized Version to describe various officials of a religious and civil character. Its meaning, as distinguished from servant, is a voluntary attendant on another. In the Old Testament it is applied

(1) to an attendance upon a person of high rank, kjv@Exodus:24:13; kjv@Joshua:1:1; kjv@2Kings:4:43)

(2) to the attaches of a royal court, (Kings:10:5; kjv@2Chronicles:22:8) comp. Psal 104:4

(3) To the priests and Levites. kjv@Ezra:8:17; kjv@Nehemiah:10:36; kjv@Isaiah:61:6; kjv@Ezekiel:44:11; kjv@Joel:1:9 kjv@Joel:1:13) One term in the New Testament betokens a subordinate public administrator, kjv@Romans:13:6 kjv@Romans:15:16; kjv@Hebrews:8:2) one who performs certain gratuitous public services. A second term contains the idea of actual and personal attendance upon a superior, as in kjv@Luke:4:20) The minister’s duty was to open and close the building, to produce and replace the books employed in the service, and generally to wait on the officiating priest or teacher. A third term, diakonos (from which comes our word deacon), is the one usually employed in relation to the ministry of the gospel: its application is twofold,
in a general sense to indicate ministers of any order, whether superior or inferior, and in a special sense to indicate an order of inferiors ministers. DEACON