I understand what statements the responses have made – it is as I have from my youth been taught. But is it right?
I can see, in the construct of the Old Testament and the gospels, that as the priests (in particular the Sanhedrin body that seemed generally made up of the elder group of priests) were considered the spiritual leaders that tradition flowed into the New Testament church. That is that a wise elderly preacher or preachers was/were the final authority in the spiritual and political realm of the church. I also think the balance of the New Testament can withstand that view.
This is incorrect. In the Old Testament, the Elders and Priests were two different groups. Israel had its priesthood scattered throughout the Commonwealth. However, each tribe--it seems--had its elders. Also, all of Israel (the nation as a whole) is said to have elders.
It may be that tradition flowed from Israel into the church, but not in the way you describe.
However, the actual meaning of elder in both old and New Testament is merely "old."
This also is incorrect.
There is more than one word for "elder." If you are talking about an "older brother" or an "older sister" you'd typically use the word
גדול (
gadol, meaning "great").
But, when we see the concept of elder as leader we see a different word
זקן (
zaqen, meaning, among other things, "old" or "aged"). Another commonly used meaning of
zaqen applies to one who is a leader in religious and social matters.
We see this usage in a number of places including Numbers 11:16:
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Gather for me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you. (ESV; emphasis mine)
Now, in this passage the Hebrew word used is
zaqen, the fully inflected form is:
זִקְנֵי Now, it is clear from this passage that God is not calling for the old guys. Rather, He is obviously calling for a representative group out of the elders who are already known to be "officers" of the nation.
What is more, when we look at the LXX (the Septuagint), we see that the word
zaqen is translated as πρεσβύτερος--the very word in the New Testament for "elder."
So, to interchange the two seems a bit problematic. A young preacher is certainly not qualified to be an elder for he is not old. Also, Paul refers to women who are elders (same exact word used for men) – meaning old and presumably wise. Besides, any good Sunday School teacher knows that they are many times more of a shepherd to especially the children than the formally paid pastor(s). Does not the actual meaning of the Hebrew and Greek indicate that the term elder is not a gender specific service, and inclusive of any who proclaim the gospel?
Your statements about a young preacher not being qualified to be an elder based on age are incorrect (see above).
Secondly, and much more emphatically, Paul never uses the word "elder" to refer to a woman. In the New Testament we never see the feminine form of the word in a context relating to the office of elder. Though we do see the feminine form in 1 Timothy 5:2 referring to older women--but, again, it is not referring to the office of elder and the context makes that quite clear. And, no, it is not the "same, exact word." The inflected form of the word accounts for gender and changes the spelling, etc.
Elder is, very much, a gender-specific service...because we never see the feminine form of the word used to refer to the office.
As a general statement, let me summarize: We see in the New Testament the words elder (presbuteros and episkopos) used interchangeably with pastor.
Now, did the Roman Catholic Church corrupt the understanding of these words? Sure. Were they, likely, seeking to control the local churches? Probably.
But, remember, in the New Testament we see a plurality of elders and we see congregation rule. 1 Corinthians shows this very clearly.
So, the biblical model is that there is a plurality of elders (male-only) to take spiritual care of the flock, there are deacons (both genders) to take physical care of the flock, and the congregation is the court of first and final appeal.
This idea, in a bizarre way, is still seen in most Baptist churches today--we have deacons (male-only) who act as elders. So the model, for the most part, is still there, it's just that the labeling and some of the proper understanding has been forgotten.
The Archangel
