DAYSMAN

the 'seven days' journey' of the former (Gn 31")— from Haran to Gilead, drca 350 miles in 7 days. From 20 to 30 miles is probably a fair estimate of an average day's journey with baggage animals. A. R. S. Kennedy.

DAYSMAN. — A daysman is an arbiter. The com-pound arose from the use of the word ' day ' in a technical sense, to signify a day for dispensing justice. The same use is found in Gr.; thus 1 Co 4^ 'man's judgment' is literally 'man's day.' The word occurs in Job 9^3 ' Neither is there any daysman betwixt us' (AV and RV margin 'umpire'). Tindale translates Ex 21^', 'he shall paye as the dayesmen appoynte him ' (AV ' as the judges determine').

DAYSFRING. — An old English expression denoting the dawn ('the day sprynge or dawnynge of the daye gyveth a certeyne lyght before the rysinge of the sonne,' Eden, Decades, 1555, p. 264). It occurs in Job38'2 'Hast thou . . . caused the dayspring to know his place?'; Wis 162» 'at the dayspring pray unto thee' (RV 'at the dawning of the day'). Virtually the same expression occurs in Jg 19^ and 1 S 92^; cf. also Gn 32^ and Ps 65' (east and west called ' the outgoings of the morning and evening'). In Lk 1" the expression 'dayspring from on high' probably goes back to a ■ Heb. original which was a. well-understood personal designation of the Messiah (combining the ideas of 'Ught' and 'sprout'); it would then be a poetical equivalent for 'Messiah from heaven.'

G. H. Box.

DAY STAR.— See Lucifeb.

DEACON. — The Gr. word diakonos, as well as the corresponding verb and abstract noun, is of very frequent occurrence in the text of the NT, but in EV is always translated 'servant' or 'minister' except in Ph 1^, 1 Ti 3'-", where it is rendered ' deacon,' these being the only two passages where it is evidently used in a technical sense.

In the Gospels the word has the general meaning of ■servant' (cf. Mt 20»|| 23", Jn 25- »). St. Paul employs it constantly of one who is engaged in Christian service, the service of God or Christ or the Church (e.g. 2 Co 6< 1 1", Col l's-26), but without any trace as yet of an ofBcial signification. Once in Romans we find him distinguish-ing diakonia ('ministry') from prophecy and teaching and exhortation (12«-8); but it seems evident that he is speaking here of differences in function, not in office, so that the passage does not do more than foreshadow the coming of the diaconate as a regular order.

In Acts the word diakonos is never once employed, but 6'-*, where we read of the appointment of the Seven, sheds a ray of light on its history, and probably serves to explain how from the general sense of one who renders Christian service it came to be applied to a special officer of the Church. The Seven are nowhere called deacons, nor is there any real justification in the NT for the traditional description of them by that title. The qualifications demanded of them (v.*, cf. v.') are higher than those laid down in 1 Timothy for the office of the deacon; and Stephen and Philip, the only two of their number of whom we know anytliing, exercise functions far above those of the later diaconate (6"ff- S^-". 2m.). But the fact that the special duty to which they were appointed is called a diakonia or ministration (v.') and that this ministration was a definite part of the work of the Church in Jerusalem, so that 'the diakonia' came to be used as a specific term in this reference (cf. Ac. 1P» 12i», Ro 152S- ", 2 Co 8< 9i- «■ "), makes it natural to find in their appointment the germ of the institution of the diaconate as it meets us at PhiUppi and Ephesus, in two Epp. that belong to the closing years of St. Paul's life.

It is in these Greek cities, then, that we first find the deacon as a regular official, called to office after pro-bation (1 Ti 3'°), and standing alongside the bishop

DEAD SEA

in the ministry of the Church (Ph 1', 1 Ti 3'-"). As to his functions nothing is said precisely. We can only infer that the diakonia of the deacons in Philippi and Ephesus, like the diakonia of the Seven in Jerusalem, was in the first place a ministry to the poor. The forms of this ministry would of course be different in the two cases, as the social conditions were (see art. Communion), but in the Gentile as in the Jewish world it would naturally be a service of a responsible, delicate, and often private kind — an inference that is borne out by what is said in 1 Tim. as to the deacon's qualifications.

Comparing these qualifications with those of the bishop, we observe that the difference is just what would be suggested by the names bishop or ' overseer' and deacon or 'servant' respectively. Bishops were to rule and take charge of the Church (1 Ti 3'); deacons were to 'serve well' (v."). Bishops must be 'apt to teach' (v.2) ; deacons were only called to ' hold the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience' (v.'). That the work of the deacon and his fellow-servant the deaconess (wh. see) was of a house-to-house kind is suggested by the warnings given against talebearing (v.') and backbiting (v."). That it had to do with the distribution of Church moneys, and so brought temptations to pilfering, is further suggested by the demand that the deacon should not be greedy of filthy lucre (v.») and that his female counter-part should be 'faithful (i.e. trustworthy) in all things' (v."). J. C. Lambert.

DEACONESS.— The word does not occur in EV except as a RVm reading in Ro 16'. In this verse Phoebe is described as ' a diakonos of the church that is at Cen-chreffi.' AV and RV render 'servant,' RVm 'deaconess.' Against the latter must be noted: (1) There is no evidence of the deacon (wh. see) in the NT till we come to the Ep. to the Philippians, and it is most unlikely that when Romans was written there would be an official deaconess. (2) Cenchrese was one of the ports of Corinth; and in St. Paul's letters to the Corinthian Church there is a notable absence of any signs of a definite ecclesiastical organiza-tion in that city. The conclusion is that the diakonia of Phoebe in Cenchreae, like the diakonia ('ministry') of Stephanas and his household in Corinth (1 Co 16"), was a gracious but unofficial ministry to the saints (cf. Ro 162i>).

In 1 Ti 3", however, although the word 'deaconess' is not used, it is almost certain that female deacons are referred to. AV misleads us by making it appear that the wives of deacons are spoken of; RV corrects this by rendering ' Women in like manner must be grave, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things.' And when the whole passage (vv.s-is) ig read, it seems evident that the women referred to in v." are diakonoi ' in like manner' as the men described both before and after. We know from Pliny, writing early in the 2nd cent., that by that time there were deaconesses in the Christian Churches of Bithynia (Ep. x. 96). And in the ancient world the need must have been early felt for a class of women who could perform some at least of the duties of the diaconate for their own sex in particular.

J. C. Lambert.

DEAD.— See Death.

DEAD SEA. — An inland lake 47 miles long and from 2i to 9 miles in breadth, which receives the waters of the Jordan. Its level is 1293 ft. below that of the Mediterranean, being the lowest body of water on the surface of the earth. It has no outlet, and the water received by it is all carried oft by evaporation. In consequence, the waters of the Lake are impregnated with mineral substances to a remarkable degree; they yield 25 per cent, of salt, whereas the ocean yields but 4 to 6 per cent.

The modern name is of late origin (first used apparently by Pausanias) and refers to the total absence of life in its waters. It has no Scripture warrant; Hebrew writers speak of it as the 'Salt Sea' (Gn 14', Nu 34',

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