Hyperetes was an ancient Greek title. It is derived from eresso, and therefore originally signifies a rower, but in later times the word was, with the exception of the soldiers or marines, applied to the whole body of persons who performed any service in a vessel. In a still wider sense it was applied to any person who acted as the assistant of another, and performed manual labour for him, whether in sacred or profane things, whence the word is sometimes used as synonymous with slave. Hence also the name was sometimes given to those men by whom the hoplite

Hoplite

A hoplite was a citizen-soldier of the Ancient Greek city-states. Hoplites were primarily armed as spearmen and fought in a phalanx formation. The word "hoplite" derives from "hoplon" , the type of the shield used by the soldiers, although, as a word, "hopla" could also denote weapons held or even...

s were accompanied when they took the field, and who carried the luggage, the provisions, and the shield of the hoplites. The more common name for this servant of the hoplites was skeuophoros

Skeuophoros

A skeuophoros was a slave or servant who carried baggage in Ancient Greece. Herodotus records that every hoplite was followed on campaign by a servant as a skeuophoros. In Aristophanes' play The Frogs, Xanthias, the slave of Dionysus, acts as his skeuophoros:...

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At Athens it seems to have been applied to a whole class of officers. Aristotle (Polit. vi. 5) divides all public offices into three classes, archai or magistracies, epimeleiai or administrations, and hyperesiai or services.

Cities and administrations had their own hyperetae in the Hellenistic world. In Jewish Greek texts

Hellenistic Judaism

Hellenistic Judaism was a movement which existed in the Jewish diaspora that sought to establish a Hebraic-Jewish religious tradition within the culture and language of Hellenism...

 the term hyperetes has the meaning of religious servant (deacon

Deacon

Deacon is a ministry in the Christian Church that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions...

). Luke the Evangelist

Luke the Evangelist

Luke the Evangelist was an Early Christian writer whom Church Fathers such as Jerome and Eusebius said was the author of the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles...

 (Acts 13.5) described John Mark

John Mark

John Mark is a character in the New Testament. According to William Lane, an "unbroken tradition" identifies him with Mark the Evangelist. John Mark is mentioned several times in the Acts of the Apostles...

 as a hyperetes of Paul and Barnabas in a synagogue, which may be equivalent to Jewish hazzan

Hazzan

A hazzan or chazzan is a Jewish cantor, a musician trained in the vocal arts who helps lead the congregation in songful prayer.There are many rules relating to how a cantor should lead services, but the idea of a cantor as a paid professional does not exist in classical rabbinic sources...

. Those who compiled and collected the words of Jesus are called hyperetae tou logou in Luke 1.2, "servants of Logos."