Next to the apostle comes the Prophet. He, too, sustained the Church, and shared with him (Eph 2-'" 3') the revelation of the mystery. He spoke ' in the Spirit' words of warning, of comfort, or it might be of prediction. His work was universal like the apostle's, but he was not like him an ej'e-witness of the resurrection, so that he needed not to have 'seen the Lord.' Nor did 'the care of all the Churches' rest on him. His office, so far as we know, was i)urely spiritual, and there is nowhere any hint that he tooK a share in the administration of the Churches. Women, too, might prophesy, like Pliilip's daughters (Ac 21") at Ciesarea, or the mystic Jezebel (Rev 2^') at Thj-atira. Yet even in the ajiostolic age we see the beginnings (1 Th 5'^) of discredit, and false prophets flourishing (2 P, Jude). After the prophet comes a group of preachers, followed in 1 Co 12'-^ by special ' gifts of healings, helps, governments, kinds of tongues.'
It will be seen that the lists have to do with a ministry of special gifts, and leave no place for an orilinary local ministry of office, unless it comes in under ' helps and governments,' or ' pastors and teachers.' Any such ministry must therefore have teen subordinate to the other : yet there is ample proof that one existed from a very early time. vVe have (1) the appointment of the Seven in Ac 6 : (2) elders at Jerusalem in 44, in 50, and again in 58 ; mentioned liy James and Peter ; appointed by Paul and Barnabas in every Church ttliout 48; "at Ephesus in 58: (3) bishops and deacons at Pliilippi in 63 ; Phtebe a deaconess at Cenchreoe in 58. Also (4) in the Pastoral Epistles, Timothy and Titus are in charge of four distinct orders of bishops (or elders), deacons, deaconesses (1 Ti 3" yvvaiKas, not tAj 7Ki'arKa5, cannot be the wives of deacons), and widows. This great de- velopment, which some think points to a much later date, seems fairly accounted for by the vigorous growth of Church life and the need of organization which must have been felt near the
end of the apostolic age. To complete our state- ment of the evidence, we may add (5) the viurrepoi who carried out Ananias (Ac 5^), though the tacit contrast with Trpiafiirnpoi is clearly one of age, not of office, for we note that ireavicKoi buried Sapphira ; (6) the prominent position of James at Jerus. in 44 (Ac 12"), in 50, and in 58 ; and (7) of Timothy and Titus at Ephesus and in Crete ; (8) the indefinite TrpoijTinevoL of 1 Th 5" and the equally indefinite rulers (:77oi;/xei'oi) of an unknown Ciiurch (He 13'" ") of Heb. Christians shortly before 70 ; and (9) the angels of the seven Churches in Asia.
Uur questions may be conveniently grouped round the later orders of bishops, eiders, and deacons — taken, however, in reverse order.
i. Deacon's. — The traditional view, that the choice of the Seven in Ac 6 is the formal institu- tion of a permanent order of deacons, does not seem unassailable. The opinion of Irenajus, Cyprian, and later writers is not decisive on a (luestion of this kind ; and the vague word SiaKOfia (used too in the context of the apostles themselves) is more than balanced by the avoidance of the word deacon in the Ac {e.g. 21* <Pi\iTnrov roS ivay- ytXicTToO Si/T-os ix tCiv iirri). If we add that the Seven seem to rank next in the Church to the apostles, we may be tempted to see in them (if they are a permanent office at all) the elders whom we find at Jerus. in precisely this position from 44 onward. In this case we are tliown back on the Philippian Church in 63 for the first mention of deacons. As, however, Phujbe (Ro 16') was deaconess at CenchreiB in 58, there were probably deacons before this at Corinth, though there is no trace of them in St. Paul's Epistles to that Church.
ii. Elders. — We first find elders at Jems. (Ac 11*") receiving the oHerings from Barnabas and Saul in 44. They are joined (15*^) with the apostles at the Conference in 50, and with James in 58 (21"*). As Paul and Barnabas appoint elders (14^) in every city on their first missionary journey, we may infer that Churches generally had elders, lliijugh there is no other express mention of them before 1 Peter and the Pastoral Epistles, unless we adopt an early date for Ja 5", where, however, it is not certain that the word is official.
The dili'erence of name between elders and bishojis may point to some dillerence of origin or function ; but in NT (and Clement) the terms are more or less equivalent. Thus the elders of Ephesus are reminded (Ac 20^) that they are bishoi)S. So, too, we find sundry bishops in the single Church of Pliilippi. In the Pastoral Epistles, Timothy appoints bishops and deacons, Titua elders and deacons, though (1 Ti 5") Timothy also has elders under him. The qualifications also of a bishop as laid down for Timothy are practi- cally tliose of the elder as described to Titus, and enually point to ministerial duties in contrast to what we call episcopal. Though the elder's propel duly is to 'rule' (1 Ti 5"), he does it subject to Timothy, much as a modem elder rules subject to his bishop.