Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898)
DEA'CONESS. Such was Phoebe, and in all probability Tryphena, Tryphosa, and Persis occupied the same office in the church in Rome. Rom 16:1, Jud 4:12. It is therefore probable that there was in the different churches an order of pious women employed in attending upon those of their own sex in some of the same offices and duties which the deacons performed for their brethren. Among these we reckon the care of the sick, of the poor and the widows, the education of orphans, attention to strangers, the practice of hospitality, comp. 1 Tim 5:10, and the assistance needed at the baptism of females.
The question whether the "widows" in 1 Tim 5:9-16 are proper deaconesses may be answered in the affirmative, because the word translated "to take into the number" or "to enroll" applies not to widows in general, but to the deaconesses, for the following reasons: If understood of any insertion merely in the list of those supported from the congregational fund, it implies an injustice to widows under 60 years old or to those twice married, who might easily be even more destitute. The opposite interpretation conflicts with the context, for Paul advises, in V.
2 Kgs 22:14, the younger widows to remarry; but this would be to cut them off from all help in case they were widows again. This interpretation leaves it inexplicable why a special vow was required of these widows, v. Jud 4:12. But by understanding the word to apply, not to widows in general, but to those who were specially elected and ordained to the particular office of deaconess, all these objections vanish.