Originally posted by Dr. Bob Griffin:
Titus was instructed to ordain elders in the new churches he was establishing in Crete.
Not new, untrained men (lay hands suddenly on no man) for the process takes time.
Thank you Dr. Griffin. I do not wish to derail Brother Robert's thread with a discussion of elders but I would like to explore this notion a bit further. I find in Titus 1:5 that Titus was charged with the task of appointing elders.
Much of the problem of interpreting Acts is to realize that vast time frame involved. It's just the next page or next chapter to us; it often is MANY YEARS of training, teaching and developing to the point of "eldership".
From what I can find, the church in Ephesus was established from Paul teaching in the already established synagogue. We find this account, as previously stated, in Acts 19 & 20. This was Paul's second missionary journey and I do not see how too many years could have passed between the first conversions and the account cited in Acts 20:13-38 {Paul's address to the elders of Ephesus). However, as this was an already established synagogue, would the elders herein mentioned have been the original Jewish elders of that assembly? It appears that by the time Paul gives this farewell address this a well established council. As a side note, we also find that this same church needed reprimand in Revelation 2:1-7.
The church in Crete,however, seems to have been established hastily on Paul's fourth missionary journey. We find the account of Paul visiting there in Acts 27:7. Paul was on his way to Rome at the time and seems to have been evangelizing enroute. Hence the Letter to Titus speaks of "unfinished business" in verse 1:5. There is no mention of an established Judaistic base. Therefore it is possible that a church polity was being built from the ground up under the direction of Titus as opposed to a theological policy change in Ephesus, and hence, a need to appoint a council of elders. This theory does support Robert's notion of the plurality of elders as a necessary element in the early church.
It appears that Paul wrote the Letter to Titus after his first imprisonment in Rome as referenced in 3:12 and Acts 28. The fact that Paul would "Winter in Nicopolis" indicates that he was free to roam and thus not imprisoned.
So this time frame of establishing a church in Crete and appointing (I have not found the word "ordaining" or a seperate laying of hands) elders, or at least the charge to Titus, was not necessarily that many years at all. Acts 28 indicates that Paul was imprisoned for a mere two years. He was imprisoned again a mer five years later. The entirity of Paul's second missionary journey (Acts 15:40 - 18:23) which spanned about 2000 (roughly estimated) miles was three years (49 - 52 AD). However, Paul returned to Ephesus on his third journey (53 -57 AD). It was then that he learned that the church had not received the Holy Spirit (Acts 19:6). Thus the time spent at Ephesus from receiving the Holy Spirit in Acts 19:6 to Paul's depature in Acts 20:38 was probably no more than the two years spoken of in Acts 19:10. Paul also on this journey visited Rhodes, Caesarea, Jerusalem, Tarsus, Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, Antioch, Troas, Neapolis, Phillipi, Amphipolis, Apollonia, Thessalonica and Barea, coming back to his starting point in Athens. That is a rather full agenda for a four year journey with two years devoted to one church.
I
think I got my facts straight!
Robert, my apologies for the derailing of your topic.
