Bible word study

Diakonia (Strong’s G1248): Meaning in the Bible

Diakonia (διακονία) is the Greek word numbered G1248 in Strong’s concordance of the Bible. Strong’s defines it as attendance (as a servant, etc.); figuratively (eleemosynary) aid, (official) service (especially of the Christian teacher, or technically of the diaconate). In the King James Bible it is translated (ad-)minister(-ing, -tration, -try), office, relief.

• Original wordδιακονία
• Transliterationdiakonía
• Pronunciationdee-ak-on-ee'-ah
• Strong’s numberG1248
• LanguageGreek

The full Strong’s definition

Derivation. from G1249;

How the King James Bible translates it

Where Diakonia appears in the Bible

In the King James Bible’s text tagged with Strong’s numbers, Diakonia (G1248) stands behind 34 English renderings in 32 verses across 11 of the 66 books. It is most frequent in 2 Corinthians (12), Acts (8), Romans (4).

How the King James Bible renders Diakonia, by count

• ministry16 of 34 (47 percent)
• ministration6 of 34 (18 percent)
• ministering3 of 34 (9 percent)
• service3 of 34 (9 percent)
• administration1 of 34 (3 percent)
• administrations1 of 34 (3 percent)

Three places to read Diakonia

• Luke 10:40 But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.
• Romans 12:7 Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching;
• 2 Corinthians 9:1 For as touching the ministering to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you:

Counts are made at build time from the King James text tagged with Strong’s numbers (eBible.org, public domain). Verses are read from the stored King James text, never typed.

Why the word matters

Every word the biblical writers chose carries weight. Studying Diakonia in the original Greek lets you read the passages where it appears more carefully, closer to what the first hearers understood, so the meaning is drawn from the text itself rather than from the English alone.

The lexical data on this page comes from the public-domain Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890), a Hebrew and Greek dictionary keyed to the King James Bible. It is a reference tool, not a settled verdict: no single word decides a doctrine, and meaning is finally shaped by how a word is used in its sentences. Read the passages themselves, prayerfully, and in full.

Related words