Elder

Shepherds of the flock

‘Elder’ translates presbuteros (πρεσβύτερος), first an older man, and in Israel one of the leaders of the people, like the seventy "elders of Israel" (Numbers 11:16). The first churches took over the name. Paul and Barnabas "appointed elders for them in each church" (Acts 14:23), and Paul told Titus to "appoint elders in every town" (Titus 1:5). A church usually had not one elder but several.

The New Testament also calls elders overseers. Paul sent for "the elders of the church" at Ephesus (Acts 20:17) and told them:

Keep watch over yourselves and the entire flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood.

Acts 20:28

Titus, likewise, moves straight from appointing elders to say that "an overseer must be above reproach" (Titus 1:7). Matthew Henry reads the passage as describing "pastors, here called elders and bishops" Matthew Henry. Elders teach (1 Timothy 5:17), pray for the sick (James 5:14) and care for the flock. Peter calls himself "a fellow elder" (1 Peter 5:1) and urges elders to lead "not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock" (1 Peter 5:3).

How the church came to say it

By the early second century the letters of Ignatius of Antioch show one bishop in each church, with presbyters and deacons serving alongside him Ignatius, Letter to the Smyrnaeans 8. In time the presbyter became the minister of word and sacrament under the bishop; the English word ‘priest’ itself comes from ‘presbyter’.

At the Reformation Calvin's Ecclesiastical Ordinances (1541) set out four offices in the Genevan church, pastor, teacher, elder and deacon, with elders who watched over the people's lives together with the ministers Calvin, Ecclesiastical Ordinances. The Westminster Assembly's Form of Presbyterial Church-Government (1645) speaks of the offices of minister, elder and deacon The Form of Presbyterial Church-Government. Government by elders together gave Presbyterian churches their name.

Where the traditions differ

Presbyterian and Reformed churches read the verse that distinguishes "Elders who lead effectively" from "those who work hard at preaching and teaching" (1 Timothy 5:17) as pointing to ministers and ruling elders. Minister and elders form a session that governs the congregation together and exercises church discipline. Others read the verse to mean that all elders rule, and some of them labour more in teaching. In Korea not only Presbyterians but Methodist, Holiness and other churches choose elders from among their members.

In the Orthodox, Catholic and Anglican churches the presbyter is the priest who serves word and sacrament under the bishop; in American Methodism, too, an elder is an ordained minister. Baptist and Congregational churches treat elder and pastor as one office, so that a single pastor or a group of elders leads the church, while the congregation makes its weightiest decisions (congregational polity). Names and orders differ, but all agree that elders are servants entrusted with Christ's flock, who will give account "when the Chief Shepherd appears" (1 Peter 5:4). See the lessons Presbyterian church government and What the church is.