Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In the early church, one of the elder women in the order of widows, presiding among these, and having authority to teach.
- noun In the early church, and in the medieval church, a priest's wife, especially one living apart from her husband; a priest's widow; later, a priest's concubine.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A female presbyter.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A female
presbyter .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
presbyter + -ess
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Examples
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Syntyche, Tryphoena and Tryphosa and Persis, debating their status, and deciding what was the difference between a prophetess and presbyteress, what the standing of a deaconess in the pre-Nicene Church and what in the post-Nicene Church, the
Three Guineas 2003
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Not literally that a presbyter who rules well should get double the salary of one who does not rule well [Alford], or of a presbyteress widow, or of the deacons [Chrysostom].
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They had pledged "their first faith" to Christ as presbyteress widows; they now wish to transfer their faith to a husband (compare 1Co 7: 32, 34).
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