PURPOSE AND FUNCTIONS OF THE ELDERS IN THE CHURCH.
The office of deacon differed from the office of elder. While deacons and deaconesses were chosen based on strong personal characteristics, elders obtained their position more through family ties or appointment. The role was adapted from a definite Jewish pattern in the Old Testament related to the tribal system (see Numbers 11:16-17; Deuteronomy 29:10). An elder exercised leadership and judicial functions by virtue of his position in the family, clan, or tribe; or by reason of personality, prowess, stature, or influence; or through a process of appointment and ordination.
Elders had several functions. For example, 1 Timothy 5:17 speaks of elders as involved in preaching and teaching; James 5:14 sees them involved in a healing ministry; 1 Peter 5:2 exhorts them to tend the flock. Thus, the prophets and teachers who led the church at Antioch (according to Acts 13:1-3) may well have been the elders of this community. The roots of the development of the presbytery (group of elders) in the New Testament and early church originate in Judaism and the Old Testament. However, the figure of the elder could also be found in the secular world surrounding ancient Israel and in the Greco-Roman world of the New Testament period.
IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
As stated, the elder, or the institution of elders, is closely linked with the tribal system. Tribes were composed of clans, and clans of large, extended family units. By virtue of age and function in a patriarchal society, the father of a family ruled. Age, as well as the wisdom and maturity, was undoubtedly the origin of the authority that these "elders" exercised. The heads of families ruled within their own clans, soon forming a council of elders. In time of war, each clan furnished representatives, led by a single chief.
Before the time of kings in Israel's history, local administration and judicial action was largely in the hands of those elders. During the Exodus from Egypt, Moses instructed the elders of Israel (heads of families) concerning the first Passover meal (Exodus 12:21-22). It was these elders who, in Exodus 18:12, met with Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, and from whose ranks were chosen worthy representatives to assist Moses in the interpretation of the law of God and the administration of justice (Exodus 18:13-23). Similarly, according to Numbers 11:16-17, God instructed Moses to select seventy men from among the elders of Israel to assist him in leadership of the people. In this latter account, the elders were marked by a special endowment of God's Spirit. In the former account the elders-chosen as co-administrators with Moses-were those known to be trustworthy.
A central function of elders was the administration of justice. They were the judges who sat "in the gate," the traditional courtroom of ancient villages and towns. Here they settled disputes and trials. They also discussed community affairs and made decisions (Genesis 23:10, 18; Job 29:7; Proverbs 24:7; Proverbs 31:23). The preservation and application of the law was clearly in the hands of elders who sat at the gate of the town (Deuteronomy 19:12; Deuteronomy 21:19). Ruth 4:1-12 provides an excellent description of such a process.
During the period of kings, local administration and judicial authority continued to be invested in councils of elders. At the end of Saul's reign, David sent messages and gifts to the elders of the towns of Judah (1 Samuel 30:26), obviously recognizing that his efficient rule would depend on their goodwill and allegiance. In the time of Jehu (2 Kings 10:5), we hear of elders in Samaria, side by side with a governor and master of the palace. To facilitate her plot against Naboth, Jezebel wrote instructions to the elders and nobles of Jezreel (1 Kings 21:8-11). Again, Josiah convened the elders of Judah and Jerusalem to hear the reading of the law and to enter with him into a new covenant of obedience (2 Kings 23:1). It is clear that the elders of Israel were responsible for the application of the law within their jurisdictions. Besides administrative and judicial functions, elders also assumed religious roles (Exodus 24:1, 9; Leviticus 4:14-15).
The institution of the elders survived the collapse of the royal institutions. Elders were present during the exile to foreign lands (Ezekiel 8:1; Ezekiel 14:1; Ezekiel 20:1-3) as well as after the return, as seen in Ezra 10:16
IN JUDAISM OF THE NEW TESTAMENT PERIOD
The Christian office of elder stems from a very similar institution within Judaism. In the first three Gospels and in Acts there are numerous references to elders within the communal and religious life of Judaism. Generally they are mentioned together with one or more other groups (quoting the RSV): "elders and chief priests and scribes" (Matthew 16:21); "chief priests and elders of the people" (Matthew 21:23; Matthew 26:3, 47); "scribes and elders" (Matthew 26:41, 57); "chief priests and elders" (Matthew 27:1, 3, 12, 20); "rulers and elders and scribes" (Acts 4:5); "rulers of the people and elders" (Acts 4:8).
From these New Testament passages we cannot determine what exactly their functions were, or how they differed from rulers or scribes. However, the duties of Jewish elders are clearly described in the writings of Sanhedrin in the Mishnah (oral law), as well as in the community rulebooks of the Qumran Jewish religious community, discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Each Jewish community had its council of elders, who had general administrative oversight and represented the community in relations with Roman authorities. Their primary duty was judicial. They were custodians of the law and its traditional interpretations (see Matthew 15:2), and they were charged with both its enforcement and the punishment of offenders. The most important of these councils of elders was the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem, a group of seventy-one men who acted as the final court for the entire nation.
IN THE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY
Since the primitive church eventually regarded itself as the new Israel (Matthew 21:43; Galatians 6:16), it is easy to see why it should gradually adopt the institution of elders. However, it is difficult to make out the order that prevailed in the first Christian communities because it varied according to place and time in both form and extent. Regardless, the presence and functioning of elders was part of the reality of early church life.
In Luke's account of the origin and spread of Christianity, the elders are already present in the church at Jerusalem. In Acts we see Christians at Antioch sending famine relief "to the elders [of the Judean churches] by Barnabas and Saul" (Acts 11:30). On their first missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas "appointed elders in every church" (Acts 14:23). Later, Paul and Barnabas were sent from Antioch to Jerusalem "to the apostles and elders" about the question of circumcision of Gentile Christians (Acts 15:2), and were "welcomed by the church, and the apostles, and the elders" (Acts 15:4), who gathered to hear the case and resolve the issue (Acts 15:6-23).
Who these elders were, and how they were chosen, we are not told. It seems possible to argue, on the basis of Jewish precedent, that age and prominence gave them the privilege of rendering special service within the community. Jews respected age, and the name "presbyter" (elder) was derived from Jewish usage. It is also possible that, like the appointment of "the seven" for special service by the laying on of hands (Acts 6:1-6), the apostles appointed the first elders in the Jerusalem church. Apparently they functioned in the Christian community in ways comparable to the elders in the Jewish communities and the Sanhedrin (Acts 11:30; Acts 15:2-6, 22-23; Acts 16:4; Acts 21:18).
Paul apparently continued the practice among the Gentile churches, though elders are not mentioned in the earliest Pauline writings. They are mentioned only in the Pastoral Letters (1 Timothy 5:17, 19; Titus 1:5). On his last journey to Jerusalem, Paul summoned the elders of the church at Ephesus to Miletus (Acts 20:17) to bid them farewell and to instruct them to be faithful in their task of overseeing and caring for the the church of God (Acts 20:28).
Although elders are not explicitly mentioned in Paul's early letters, they may have been among the leaders who presided over the congregations (Romans 12:8; 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13). Philippians 1:1 certainly reveals a definite stratification of leadership ("overseers and deacons") within a young Pauline congregation. And 1 Timothy 5:17, reflecting what is often considered a later phase in the development of church government attributes the functions of preaching and teaching to the ruling elders. Further, that Christian elders exercised pastoral functions may be inferred from 1 Peter 5:1-5 and James 5:14.
There is one passage where we find a possible identification of an apostle (Peter) as being an elder: "I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ" (1 Peter 5:1, RSV). This text may indicate that elders were appointed and functioned as extensions of apostolic servanthood. Paul's practice of appointing elders in the churches before his departure may support such a suggestion. The fact that in the tradition of the later church the "elder" of 2 and 3 John was identified as the apostle John points in a similar direction.
Church government in the New Testament period was still relatively fluid, but the seeds for the later structures were surely planted. Whereas in the later church bishops and elders were clearly distinguished, the New Testament reflects an early period when these offices were virtually synonymous. In Paul's farewell speech at Miletus (Acts 20), addressed specifically to the Ephesian church elders (Acts 20:17), he tells them that the Holy Spirit has made them "overseers, to care for the church of God" (Acts 20:28). Whether "overseer" is used here in the later technical sense of bishop or the more general sense of guardian is not clear. However, in Titus 1:5-7, the elders of verse 5 are clearly the same persons as the bishops of verse 7. Again, the bishops of Philippians 1:1 are perhaps best understood as the elders appointed by Paul upon his leaving this mission station.
Based on Jewish precedent, the elders were probably central in the church. The overseers or bishops probably emerged out of the elders, one elder being appointed as overseer by the entire council of elders.
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