λειτουργέω, ptep. λειτουργῶν; 1 aor. inf. λειτουργῆσαι; (fr. λειτουργός, q- V-) ; 1. in Attic, esp. the orators, to serve the state at one’s own cost; to assume an office which must be administered at one’s own expense; to dis charge a public office at one’s own cost; to render public service to the state, (cf. Melanchthon in Apol. Confes. August. p. 270 sq. [Corpus Reformat. ed. Bindseil (post Bretschn.) vol. xxvii. p. 623, and F. Francke, Conf. Luth., Pt. i. p. 271 note (Lips. 1846)]; Wolf, Dem. Lept. p. Ixxxv. sqq.; Béckh, Athen. Staatshaush. i. p. 480 sqq. ; Liibker, Reallex. des class. Alterth. [or Smith, Dict. of Grk. and Rom. Antiq.] 5. v. λειτουργία). 2. univ. to do a service, perform a work; Vulg. ministro, [A. V. to minister | ; a. of the priests and Levites who were busied with the sacred rites in the tabernacle or the temple (so Sept. often for NW; as Num. xviii. 2; Ex. XXviil. 31, 39; xxix. 30; Joeli. 9, ete.; several times for 32y, Num. iv. 37,39; xvi.9; xviii. 6 sq.; add, Sir. iv.14 [xlv. 15; 1. 14; Judith iv. 14]; 1 Mace. x. 42; [Philo, vit. Moys. iii. 18; ef. ὑμῖν λειτουργοῦσι x. αὐτοὶ τὴν λειτουργίαν τῶν προφητῶν x. διδασκάλων (of bishops and deacons), Teaching of the Twelve A post. c. 15 (ef. Clem. Rom. 1 Cor. 44, 2 ete.) ]): Heb. x. 11. of Christians serving Christ, whether by prayer, or by instructing others concerning the way of salvation, or in some other way: Acts xiii. 2; ef. De Wetteadloc. ο. of those who aid others with their resources, and relieve their poverty: τινὶ ἔν τινι, Ro. xv. 27, cf. Sir. x. 25.

λειτουργέω leitourgeō 3x

pr. to perform some public service at one’s own expense; in NT to officiate as a priest, Heb. 10:11; to minister in the Christian Church, Acts 13:2; to minister to, assist, succor, Rom. 15:27*

λειτουργέω, -ῶ

(< λειτουργός), [in LXX chiefly for שׁרת pi., also for עבד, צבא, etc.;]

in cl., at Athens, to supply public offices at one's own cost, render public service to the State, hence, generally,

to serve the State, do a service, serve (of service to the Gods, Diod., i, 21): of the official service of priests and Levites (Ex 29:30, Nu 16:9, Si 4:14, I Mac 10:42, al.; cf. Deiss., BS, 140 f.), He 10:11; of Christians: c. dat. pers. seq. ἐν, Ro 15:27 (cf. Si 10:25); τ. κυρίῳ, Ac 13:2.†

SYN.: λατρεύω (q.v.), prop., to serve for hire, LXX (as sometimes in cl.), always of service to the deity on the part of both priests and people (Ex 4:3, De 10:12, and similarly in NT). λειτουργέω "is the fulfilment of an office: it has a definite representative character, and corresponds with a function to be discharged". It is therefore used of serving in an office or ministry: in LXX always of priests and Levites, in NT, with its cognates (Ro 13:6 15:27, are not really exceptions), of services rendered either to God or man by apostles, prophets, teachers, and other officers of the church (cf. Tr., Syn., § xxxv; ICC on Ro 1:9; Westc., He., 232 ff.).

In both these words the notion of service lies, but of service under certain special limitations in the second, as compared with the first. Aartpevew, allied to λάτρις, ‘a hired servant,’ Adtpov, ‘hire,’ and perhaps to λεία, Anis (so Curtius), is, properly, ‘ to serve for hire,’ and therefore not of compulsion, as does a slave, though the line of separation between λάτρις and δοῦλος is by no means always observed. Already in classical Greek both it and λατρεία are occasionally transferred from the service of men to the service of the higher powers; as by Plato, Apol. 23 c: ἡ τοῦ Θεοῦ λατρεία: cf. Phedr. 244 e; and Euripides, Troad. 450, where Cassandra is ἡ ᾿Απόλλωνος λάτρις : and a meaning, which in Scripture is the only one, is anticipated in part. In the Septuagint, λατρεύειν never expresses any other service but either that of the true God, or of the false gods of heathenism ; for Deut. xxviii. 48, a seeming exception, is not such in fact; and Augustine has perfect right when he says (De Cw. Dei, x. 1, 2): ‘ Λατρεία secundum consuetudinem qua locuti sunt qui nobis divina eloquia condiderunt, aut semper, aut tam frequenter ut pene semper, ea dicitur servitus que pertinet ad colendum Deum ;’ and again (con. Faust. xx. 21): ‘Cultus qui grece latria dicitur, latine uno verbo dici non potest, cum sit quedam proprie divinitati debita servitus.’ Λειτουργεῖν boasts a somewhat nobler beginning; from λεῖτος (Ξεδημόσιος), and ἔργον: and thus εἰς τὸ δημόσιον ἐργάζεσθαι, to serve the State in a public office or function. Like λατρεύειν, it was occasionally transferred to the highest ministry of all, the ministry to the gods (Diodorus Siculus, i. 21). When the Christian Church was forming its terminology, which it did partly by shaping new words, but partly by elevating old ones to higher than their previous uses, of the latter kind it more readily adopted those before employed in civil and political life, than such as had already played their part in religious matters; and this, even when §xxxv SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 119 it was seeking for the adequate expression of religious truth. The same motives were here at work which induced the Church more willingly to turn basilicas,—buildings, that is, which had been used in civil life.—than temples, into churches ; namely, because they were less haunted with the clinging associations of heathenism. Of the fact itself we have a notable example in the words λειτουργός, λειτουργία, λειτουργεῖν, and in the prominent place in ecclesiastical language which they assumed. At the same time the way for their adoption into a higher use had been prepared by the Septuagint, in which λειτουργεῖν (=n) is the constant word for the performing of priestly or ministerial functions (Exod. xxvill. 89; Ezek. xl. 46); and by Philo (De Prof. 17). Neither in the Septuagint, however, nor yet by the Christian writers who followed, were the words of this group so entirely alienated from their primary uses as λατρεία and λατρεύειν had been ; being still occasionally used for the ministry wnto men (2am. x, 15.5.1 Kin. x.6; 2 Kin, iy. 45; hom, xv. 21; Phil. ii. 25, 30). From the distinction already existing between the words, before the Church had anything to do with them, namely, that λατρεύειν was ‘to serve,’ λειτουργεῖν, ‘to serve in an office and ministry,’ are to be explained the different uses to which they are severally turned in the N. T., as previously in the Septuagint. To serve God is the duty of all men; λατρεύειν, therefore, and λατρεία, are demanded of the whole people (Exod. iv. 23; Deut. x. 12; Josh. xxiv. 31; Matt. iv. 10; Luke i. 74; Acts vii. 7; Rom. ix. 4; Heb. xii. 28); but to serve Him in special offices and ministries can be the duty and privilege only of some, who are specially set apart to the same; and thus in the O. T. the λειτουργεῖν and the λειτουργία are ascribed only to the priests and Levites who were separated to minister in holy things; they only are λειτουργοί (Num. iv. 24; 1 Sam. ii, 11; Nehem. x. 39; Ezek. xliv. 27); which language, mutatis mutandis, reappears in the New, where not merely is that old priesthood and ministry designated by this language (Luke i. 23; Heb. ix. 120 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT §xxxvi 21; x. 11), but that of apostles, prophets, and teachers in the Church (Acts xiii. 2; Rom. xv. 16; Phil. ii. 17), as well as that of the great High Priest of our profession, τῶν ἁγίων λειτουργός (Heb. viii. 2). In later ecclesiastical use it has been sometimes attempted to push the special application of λειτουργία still further, and to limit its use to those prayers and offices which stand in more immediate relation to the Holy Eucharist: but there is no warrant in the best ages of the Church for any such limitation; thus see Suicer, Thes. s. v.; Bingham, Christian Antiqq. xiii. 1. 8; Deyling, Obss. Sac. vol. i. p. 285 ; Augusti, Christ. Archiiol. vol. ii. p. 587 ; Scudamore, Notitia Eucharistica, p. 11. It may be urged against the distinction here drawn that λατρεύειν and λατρεία are sometimes applied to official ministries, as at Heb. ix. 1. 6. This is, of course, true ; just as where two circles have the same centre, the greater will necessarily include the less. The notion of service is such a centre here ; in λειτουργεῖν this service finds a certain limitation, in that it is service in an office: it follows that every λειτουργία will of necessity be a λατρεία, but not the reverse, that every λατρεία will be a λειτουργία. No passage better brings out the distinction between these two words than Eeclus. iv. 14: of λατρεύοντες αὐτῇ [i.e. τῇ Σοφίᾳ] λειτουργήσουσιν “Αγίῳ. ‘They that serve her, shall minister to the Holy One.” δ᾽ ΧΧΧΥΪ. πένης, πτωχός. In both these words the sense of poverty, and of poverty in this world’s goods, is involved; and they continually occur together in the Septuagint, in the Psalms especially, with no rigid demarcation of their meanings (as at Ps. xxxix. 18; Ixxiii. 22; Ixxxi. 4; ef. Ezek. xviii. 12; xxii. 29); very much as ae “poor and needy; ” and whatever distinction may exist in the Hebrew between ἡ" 3 3ὲ and ‘2, the Alexandrian translators have either considered it not reproducible by the help of these words, or have not cared Sxxxvl SYVONVUMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 121 to reproduce it; for they have no fixed rule, translating the one and the other by πτωχός and πένης alike. Still there are passages which show that they were perfectly aware of a distinction between them, and would, where they thought good, maintain it; occasions upon which they employ πένης (as Deut. xxiv. 14, 15; 2 Sam. xii. 1, 3, 4), and where πτωχός. would have been manifestly unfit. Πένης occurs but once in the N. T., and on that one occasion in a quotation from the Old (2 Cor. ix. 9), while πτωχός between thirty and forty times. Derived from πένομαι, and connected with πόνος, πονέομαι, and the Latin ‘penuria,’ it properly signifies one so poor that he earns his daily bread by his labour; Hesychius calls him well αὐτοδιάκονος, one who by his own hands ministers to his own necessities. The word does not indicate extreme want, nor a condition verging upon it, any more than does the ‘pauper’ and ‘paupertas’ of the Latin; but only the ‘res angusta’ of one for whom πλούσιος would be an inappropriate epithet. What was the popular definition of a πένης we learn from Xenophon (Mem. iv. 2. 87): τοὺς μὲν οἶμαι μὴ ἱκανὰ ἔχοντας εἰς ἃ δεῖ τελεῖν, TEevyTas* τοὺς δὲ πλείω τῶν ἱκανῶν, πλουσίους. It was an epithet commonly applied to Socrates, and πενία he claims more than once for himself (Plato, Apol. 93.c; 81 c). What his πενία was we know (Xenophon, Cicon. ii. 8), namely, that all which he had, if sold, would not bring five Attic minz. So, too, the Πενέσται in Thessaly (if, indeed, the derivation of the name from πένεσθαι is to stand), were a subject population, but not reduced to abject want ; on the contrary, retaining secondary rights as serfs or cultivators of the soil. But while the πένης is ‘pauper,’ the πτωχός is ‘mendicus ;’ he is the ‘ beggar,’ and lives not by his own labour or industry, but on other men’s alms (Luke xvi. 20, 21); being one therefore whom Plato would not endure in his ideal State (Legg. xi. 986 c). If indeed we fall back on etymologies, προσαίτης (which ought to find place in the text at Jolin ix. 8), or ἐπαίτης, would be the more exactly 122 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT ὃ xxxvi ? equivalent to our ‘beggar ;’ while πτωχός is generally taken for one who in the sense of his abjectness and needs crouches (ἀπὸ τοῦ πτώσσειν) in the presence of his superiors ; though it may be safest to add here the words of Pott (Htym. Forsch. vol. iii. p. 933), ‘falls dieser wirklich nach scheum unterwirfigem Wesen benannt worden, und nicht als petax.’ The derivation of πτωχός, as though he were one who had fallen from a better estate (ἐκπεπτωκὼς ἐκ τῶν ὄντων : see Herodotus, 111. 14), is merely fanciful: see Didymus, im Ps. xii. 5, in Mai’s Nov. Pat. Bibl. vol. vii. part 11. p. 165. The words then are clearly distinct. A far deeper depth of destitution is implied in πτωχεία than in πενία, to keep which in mind will add vividness to the contrasts drawn by St Paul, 2 Cor. vi. 10; viii. 9. The πένης may be so poor that he earns his bread by daily labour; but the πτωχός 18 so poor that he only obtains his living by begging. There is an evident climax intended by Plato, when he speaks of tyrannies (Rep. x. 618 a), εἰς πενίας τε καὶ φυγὰς καὶ εἰς πτωχείας τελευτώσας. The πένης has nothing superfluous, the πτωχός nothing at all (see Doderlein, Lat. Synon. vol. 111. Ὁ. 117). Tertullian long ago noted the distinction (Adv. Mare. iv. 14), for, dealing with our Lord’s words, μακάριοι οἱ πτωχοί (Luke vi. 20), he changes the ‘ Beati pauperes,’ Which still retains its place in the Vulgate, into ‘ Beati mendicz,’ and justifies the change, ‘Sic enim exigit interpretatio vocabuli quod in Greco est;’ and in another place (De Idol. 12) he renders it by ‘egeni.’ The two, πενία (=‘ paupertas,’ cf. Martial, ii. 32: ‘Non est paupertas, Nestor, habere nihil’) and πτωχεία (=‘ egestas’), may be sisters, as one in Aristophanes will have them (Plut. 549) ; but if such, yet the latter far barer of the world’s good than the former ; and indeed Πενία in that passage seems inclined wholly to disallow any such near relationship at all. The words of Aristophanes, in which he discriminates between them, have been often quoted : πτωχοῦ μὲν yap βίος, ὃν σὺ λέγεις, ζῆν ἐστιν μηδὲν ἔχοντα * τοῦ δὲ πένητος, ζῆν φειδόμενον, καὶ τοῖς ἔργοις προσέχοντα, περιγίγνεσθαι δ᾽ αὐτῷ μηδὲν, μὴ μέντοι μηδ᾽ ἐπιλείπειν, §xxxvi SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 123 ὃ XXXvil. θυμός, ὀργή, παροργισμός.

λειτουργέω. The connotation of public services rendered to the State, which this verb has in classical writers, gives place in the Kow7 to personal services, more particularly in connexion with religious functions, as e.g. with regard to the Twins in the Serapeum, P Par 26/2 (B.c. 163-2) Θανὴς καὶ Taods δίδυμαι, at λειτουργοῦσαι ἐν τῷ πρὸς Μέμφει μεγάλῳ Dapaπιείῳ κτλ.., 23. 275 (B.C. 160), e¢ saege: cf. Ac 132, Heb 10%, A€iTO upyia and see Deissmann BS p. 140f., Anz Suészdia, p. 346 f. In P Oxy IV. 7314 (A.D. 8-0) ἐφ᾽ ᾧ λιτουργήσω ὑμεῖν, “on condition that I give you my services,” the reference is to a contract with an artiste for the festivals of Isis and Hera. Somewhat similar is the hire of two dancing-girls for an approaching festival in P Grenf II. 67° (A.D. 237) (= Se/ections, p. 108) Δ]ει[τουρ]γήσιν ἡμῖν, and of a company of musicians in P Oxy X. 1275! (iii/A.D.) λειτουργήσοντας Tots ἀπὸ τῆς προκιμένης κώμης, “to perform for the inhabitants of the aforesaid village.” For more miscellaneous uses of the verb cf. P Hib 1. 7811 (B.c. 244-3) of the release of two persons from some public service—8.a. τὸ μὴ exrreg[et]v αὐτοῖς τὸ viv λειτουργῆσαι, ‘because it is not at present their turn to serve’ (Edd.), P Oxy VII. 1067 (iii/a.p.) εἰπὲ ἸΠετεχῶντι. . . ὅτι εἰ μέλλεις ἐλθεῖν ἐλθέ, Διόσκορος γὰρ λειτουργεῖ ὑπὲρ σοῦ, “‘say to Petechon, ‘Come if you are coming, for Dioscorus is labouring on your behalf’ ’’ (Edd.), and 26. I. 8644 (A.D. 338), a complaint that a certain Eustochius τῆς νυνὶ λιτουργούσης φυλῆς, “Sof the tribe which is at present responsible for this duty,” had failed to provide a sailor for a public boat. Exx. of the verb and subst. from Macedonian inscrr. are given by Ferguson Lega/ Terms, p. 62. : add also Teles (ed. Hense), p. 615 καὶ yap ὑπουργιῶν, ἃς αὐτὸς ἐλειτούργεις ζῶντι τῷ τέκνῳ καὶ τῷ φίλῳ καὶ κακοπαθῶν καὶ δαπανῶν, Epict. Hrag. Diss. 23 τῷ ὄντι θαυμαστόν ἐστι φιλεῖν πρᾶγμα, ᾧ τοσαῦτα λειτουργοῦμεν καθ᾽ ἑκάστην ἡμέραν, and Linde fic. p. 53 where ἀλειτούργητος, z#munis, is cited. On the form of the verb see Mayser Gy. p. 127, Robertson G7. p. 193, and Moulton G7. ii. p. 76 f., and on the whole subject of the liturgical system in Egypt see F. Oertel Dze Liturgze, Leipzig, 1917. MGr λειτουργῶ, “hold divine service,” ‘* serve.

λειτουργέω (leitourgeō) — to minister. λειτουργ-έω, earlier Attic dialect λητουργέω [Refs 4th c.BC+], etc. (λειτ- 22.665.11 (3rd c.BC)): perfect λελειτούργηκα [Refs 5th c.BC+]

I. at Athens, serve public offices at one's own cost, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; λ. ὑπέρ τινος serve these offices for another, [Refs 4th c.BC+]; τὰ λελειτουργημένα public services performed, [Refs 4th c.BC+]

II. generally, perform public duties, serve the state, τῇ πόλει [Refs 5th c.BC+]; λ. τῇ πόλει ταύτην τὴν λειτουργίαν[Refs 4th c.BC+]

III. generally, serve a master, with dative, οἱ ἑνὶ λειτουργοῦντες τὰ τοιαῦτα δοῦλοι [εἰσι] [Refs 4th c.BC+]; λ. τρισὶν ἀνδράσιν, of a prostitute, [Refs]

III.2. perform religious service, minister, ἐπὶ τῶν ἱερῶν [NT+1st c.BC+]