1. Origin of the Office. — No specific account of the origin of the eldersliip in the Christian Church is given in the N. T. " The demand for it arose, no doubt, very earl}'; as, notwithstanding the wider diffusion of gifts not restricted to office, provision was to be made plainly for the regular and fixed instruction and conduct of the rai)idly multiph'ing cluirches. The historical pattarn for it was presented in the Jewish synagogue, namely, in the college or bench of elders (jrptajiuTiooi, Luke vii, 3 ; up\i(7vi'nyi))yoi, Mark v, 22 ; Acts xiii, 15), who conducted the functions of public worship, prayer, reading, and exposition of the Scriptures. We meet Christian presbj'ters for the first time (Acts xi, 30) at Jerusalem, on the occasion of the collection sent from the Christians of Antioch for tlie relief of tlieir brethren in Juda>a. From thence the institution passed over not only to all the Jewish- Christian churches, but to those also which were plant- ed among the Gentiles. From the example of the household of Stephanas at Corinth (1 Cor. xvi, 15) we sea that tlie first converts (the cnra^ixai) ordinarily were chosen to this office, a fact expressly confirmed also by Clemens Romanus" (1 Cor. c. xiii). Schaff, in Meth.' Quart. Rer. Oct. 1851; Apostolic Church, § 182. " The creation of the office of elder is nowhere record- ed in the N. T., as in the case of deacons and apostles, because the latter offices were created to meet new and special emergencies, while the fo:mer was transmitted from the earliest times. In other words, the office of elder was the onlg permanent essential office of the Church under either dispensntion" (^Princeton Heriew, xix, Gl). The Jewish eldership, according to this view, was tacitly transferred from the Old Dispensation to the New, without express or formal institution, except in Gentile churches, where no such office had a previous existence (comp. Acts xi,'30; xiv, 23).
2. Functions of the Elders. — The "elders" of the N. T. Church were plainly the "pastors" (Kph. iv, 11), "bishops, or overseers" (Acts xx, 28, etc.); "lead- ers" and rulers" (Ilel). xiii, 7 ; 1 Thess. v, 12, etc.) of the flock. But they were not only leaders and rulers, but also the "regular teacheis of the congregation, to whom pertained officially the exposition of the Scrip- tures, the ])reaching of the Gospel, and the administra- tion of the sacraments. That this function was closely connected witli the other is apparent, even from tlie conjunction of 'pastors and teachers,' Eph. iv, 11, where the terms, as we have already seen, denote the same persons. The same association of ruling and teaching occurs Heb. xiii, 7 : ' Remember them which have the rule over you (I'lyovnevoi), who have spoken unto 3'ou the word of God (oVni'fc tXciXrifTav vfui' rov \6yov Tuv Hf(ir^, whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation' (comp. ver. 17). F'speciall}' decisive, however, are the instructions of the pastoral epistles, where Paul, among the requirements for the presbyterato, in addition to a blameless character and a talent for business and government, expressly men- tions also (ihility to teach (1 Tim. iii, 2) : 'A bishop must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober,
ELDER
117
ELDER
of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to /each" {ciCaKTiictn'), etc. ; so also Tit. i, 9, where it is required of a bishop that he sliall ' hold fast the faithful word as he hatii been taught (cli^rfXo/KfJ'oi^ rov kcito. ti)v ewaxw T^ttTTou Xu-j/ov), that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsay- ers' " (SchafF, /. c). It is not improbable (indeed, sev- eral passages in the New Test, seem clearly to favor the notion) that many persons were ordained elders in the apostolical age wlio were not, and could not be, separated from their temporal occupations. "At first, tliose who held office in the Church continued, in all probability, to exercise their former trades for a live- lihood. Tiie churches would scarcely be able (as they were mostly poor) to provide .stipends at fii'st for their pastors" (Neander). Nevertheless, men speciallj' call- ed and fitted for the work, and devoted to it, were ejiti- tled by tlie Christian law, as set forth by the apostles, to be supported by the peo])le ; but there was no dis- tinction of rank, honor, or authority between those elders who had stipends and tliosc who had noaie, xm- Icss, indeed, the latter, who, following Paul's example, '"worked with their own hands" that they might not be chargealde to the churches, were held in greater honor for the time. The principle that full ministerial title may stand apart from stipend is fully recognised in modern times in the sj'Stcm of local lire achers (q. v.) in the Methodist Episcopal Church (see Steward, On Church Gorernment, Lond. 1853, p. 128).
"After tlie pattern of the synagogues, as well as of the political administration of cities, which from of old was vested in the liands of a senate or college ofdecurio- nes, ever}' church had a numher of presbyters. V\'(i meet them everywhere in the plural and as a corporation : at Jerusalem, Acts xi, 30; xv. 4, G, 23; xxi, 18 ; at Eph- esus, XX, 17, 28 ; at Philippi, Phil, i, 1 ; at the ordina- tion of Timothy. 1 Tim. iv, 14, where mention is made of the laying on of the hands oi X\w. prcshjtenj ; and in the churches to wliich James wrote, James v. 14 : 'Is any sick among you? let him call for the presbi/ters of the conf/rer/aiion, and let them pray over him,' etc. This is implied also bj^ the notice (Acts xiv, 23) that Paul and Barnabas ordained elders for eveiy churcli, several of them of course ; and still more clearly by the direction given to Titus (Tit. i, 5) to ordain eld- ers, that is, a presbytery of such officers, in every city of Crete. Some learned men, indeed, have imagined that the arrangement in tlie larger cities included sev- eral congregations, while, however, each of these had but one elder or bishop ; that the principle of congre- gational polity thus fi-om the bsginning was neither democratic nor aristocratic, but monarchical. But this view is contradicted by the passages just quoted, in which the presbyters appear as a college, as well as b}' the associative tendency which entered into the verj' life of Christians from the beginning. The house- hold coiu/reffations QKKXijirioi Kctr o'iKov), which are often mentioned and greeted (Rom. xvi, 4, 5, 14, 15; 1 Cor. xvi, 19; Col. iv, 15; Philem. 2), indicate mere- ly the fact that where the Christians had become very numerous tliey were accustomed to meet for edifica- tion at difl"erent places, and by no means exclude the idea of their organized union as a whole, or of their being governed by a common body of presbyters. Hence, accordingly, the apostolical epistles also are never addressed to a separate part, an ecclesiola in ec- clesia, a conventicle, but always to the whole body of Christians at Rome, at Corinth, at Eidiesus, at Philip- pi, at Thossalonica, etc., treating them in such case as a moral unity (comp. 1 Thess, i, 1 ; 2 Thess. i, 1 ; 1 Cor. i, 2 ; V, i sq. ; 2 Cor. i, 1, 23; ii, 1 sq. ; Col. iv, 16 ; Phil, i, 1, etc.). Whether a full parity reigned among these collegiate presbyters, or whether one, say the eldest, constantly presided over the rest, or whether, finally, one followed another in such presi- dency ns primtis inter parcsf by some certain rotation, cannot be decisively determined from the N. T The