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The aim of this essay is to offer some marginal exegetical notes on Mark 10:42– 45, concerning the precise relationship of service and authority that the text entails. Particular attention will also be given to the question of who is a διάκονος to whom in this text. The essay is focused on furthering the discussion about diakonia as it has been fueled by the exegetical insights of Collins and Hentschel in particular, which the author thinks to be convincing at large; interaction with secondary literature will, therefore, concentrate on that part of the discourse. Its main characteristics will be outlined first, next a number of narrative and contextual observations will be offered that prepare and lead to a discussion of the question “who is a διάκονος to whom” in this pericope.

While in the early Church of the first centuries there are several texts where a two-fold ministry seems to be the case, it is the martyr Ignatius of Antioch who is adduced as providing the first instance of the three-fold structure of ministry. In this article it is argued that the epistles of Ignatius witness to the two-fold model—also found in the New Testament, Hermas, 1 Clement and the Didache—rather than to the three-fold ministry of later tradition. Some attention is also paid to the Pauline background of Ignatius’ speaking about ministry and to the specific tasks of deacons.

The aim of this essay is to offer some marginal exegetical notes on Mark 10:42–45, concerning the precise relationship of service and authority that the textentails. Particular attention will also be given to the question of who is a διάκονοςto whom in this text. The essay is focused on furthering the discussion aboutdiakonia as it has been fueled by the exegetical insights of Collins and Hentschelin particular, which the author thinks to be convincing at large; interaction withsecondary literature will, therefore, concentrate on that part of the discourse.Its main characteristics will be outlined first, next a number of narrative andcontextual observations will be offered that prepare and lead to a discussion ofthe question “who is a διάκονος to whom” in this pericope.