[Verginius Rufus]

I think any figure for the number of Christians in the Roman Empire at the time of Constantine's conversion is simply an educated guess.

I wasn't aware that any translation of the Bible included Pliny's letter to Trajan about the Christians. It's in Latin and doesn't have the word "deaconess." The Greek word is diakonos which can be either masculine or feminine. Its basic meaning is one who serves--the corresponding verb is used of Peter's mother when she is cured of a fever and waits on Jesus and his disciples (Mark 1.31).

Pliny uses the word ministrae of the women he had interrogated under torture (10.96.8).

[TurtleUp]

Good points. [and a good article on the early church]

[Mrs. Don-o]

Stark isn't saying Pliny's in the Bible.This looks like the inept editing of a spoken interview:

And we have Pliny's letter in which he says that among the people he's tortured were two "deaconesses." We're not helped by Bible translations that render "deaconess" as "deacon's wife."

Diakonissa is a Greek title of honor that is used to refer to a deacon's wife. It is derived from diakonos—the Greek word for deacon (literally, "server" or "waiter").I think Stark's merely lamentingt that the ecclesial slant of "deaconess"="deacon's wife" has wrongly skewed our translation (or our understandinging) of diakonissa/ministrae in other contexts.