WHO WERE THE ELDERS?
Church Leadership Before Tradition
Today Christians use several titles for church leaders.
Pastor. Elder. Bishop. Overseer. Reverend. Minister. Priest.
Depending upon the church, these may describe entirely different positions.
A pastor may lead a congregation.
Several elders may serve under or alongside the pastor.
A bishop may supervise several congregations and their pastors.
In some church organizations, an archbishop stands above bishops. Other offices may exist above them.
But that is today.
Our question is different:
What do we find in the New Testament?
Before asking what church leadership became, let's establish what it was.
ELDERS WERE APPOINTED IN THE EARLIEST CHURCHES
On Paul's first missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas preached in cities including Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe.
They made disciples.
Then they retraced much of their journey.
Luke tells us:
“And when they had ordained them elders in every church...”
— Acts 14:23
That tells us several things immediately.
There were elders.
There was more than one. Luke uses the plural.
And elders were being appointed surprisingly early in the lives of these churches.
But Acts 14 raises a question it doesn't answer:
What exactly was an elder?
For that we need other passages.
ELDER — PRESBYTEROS
The Greek word is presbyteros.
It basically means an older man or elder. The word was already used among the Jews for recognized community and religious leaders.
The word emphasizes the person — a mature man entrusted with responsibility.
Our English word presbyter comes directly from it.
But the New Testament gives these same men another name.
OVERSEER — EPISKOPOS
The Greek word episkopos means an overseer — someone charged with watching over something.
Older English Bibles commonly translate it:
BISHOP.
Our English word episcopal comes from this Greek word.
That is important because when modern readers hear “bishop,” we may picture an official who ranks above ordinary elders and perhaps supervises several churches.
We must not automatically carry that later meaning back into the New Testament.
We have to ask how the New Testament itself uses episkopos.
And Titus gives us an excellent place to look.
TITUS 1: ELDERS BECOME OVERSEERS WITHIN TWO VERSES
Paul left Titus in Crete and told him:
“...that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee.”
— Titus 1:5
Paul then begins giving their qualifications.
And notice what happens in verse 7:
“For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God...”
— Titus 1:7
Paul has not changed subjects.
Verse 5 says elder.
Verse 7 says bishop/overseer.
The natural reading is that Paul is describing the same leadership.
The man appointed as an elder is God's overseer.
That conclusion becomes even stronger when we turn to Acts.
ACTS 20 MAY BE OUR CLEAREST PASSAGE
Years after the first missionary journey, Paul is traveling toward Jerusalem.
He stops at Miletus.
Luke tells us:
“And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church.”
— Acts 20:17
Keep that identification in mind.
These men are the elders.
Paul gives them a long farewell address.
Then he tells these same men:
“Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God...”
— Acts 20:28
The elders of verse 17 are the overseers of verse 28.
Paul does not summon the elders and then tell them that a bishop has authority over them.
The elders themselves are the overseers.
But there is a third idea in the verse.
They are to care for God's flock.
The verb translated “feed” carries the idea of shepherding.
And that gives us our third word.
PASTOR — SHEPHERD
The English word pastor comes from a word meaning shepherd.
That is important because “pastor” has become an official title in many churches.
But when Paul speaks to the Ephesian elders, he describes their responsibility in shepherd language.
They are:
ELDERS — presbyteroi
They have been made:
OVERSEERS/BISHOPS — episkopoi
And they are to:
SHEPHERD/PASTOR — poimainein
the flock.
That is not three groups of men.
It is one group described in three ways.
PETER DOES THE SAME THING
Peter makes the connection especially clear.
He writes:
“The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder...”
— 1 Peter 5:1
Who is Peter addressing?
Elders.
What does he tell those elders to do?
“Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof...”
— 1 Peter 5:2
Again, all three ideas come together.
ELDERS
are to
SHEPHERD THE FLOCK
while
EXERCISING OVERSIGHT.
This is difficult to reconcile with the idea that Peter knew three separate offices called elder, pastor, and bishop.
Peter puts the three functions together in the same men.
WHAT DOES EACH WORD EMPHASIZE?
The words are not meaningless synonyms.
Each looks at the work from a different direction.
ELDER
Emphasizes the man's maturity and qualification.
OVERSEER — BISHOP
Emphasizes his responsibility to watch over the flock.
SHEPHERD — PASTOR
Emphasizes how he cares for the people.
Perhaps we could say it this way:
ELDER — who he is.
OVERSEER — his responsibility.
SHEPHERD — how he performs that responsibility.
We should not press those distinctions too far, but they help us understand why the New Testament can use several words for the same men.
WERE THERE SEVERAL ELDERS OR ONE?
This is another important question.
Acts 14:23 speaks of elders in the churches.
Acts 20:17 speaks of the elders of the church at Ephesus.
Paul writes to the Christians at Philippi:
“...to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons.”
— Philippians 1:1
Again:
bishops — plural.
There isn't one bishop addressed as the head of the Philippian church.
There are overseers and deacons.
That distinction is important.
The New Testament clearly distinguishes overseers from deacons.
What it does not clearly do is distinguish elders from overseers.
WHAT ABOUT ONE PASTOR OVER A CHURCH?
That common modern arrangement deserves a fair question.
Where do we find one man called “the pastor” governing a congregation while several elders serve under him?
We should not answer from what we have seen in churches.
We should answer from the text.
Acts 20 doesn't show it.
Titus 1 doesn't show it.
1 Peter 5 doesn't show it.
Philippians 1 doesn't show it.
That doesn't mean one man could never be the principal preacher or teacher. Timothy and Titus obviously had important teaching responsibilities.
But preacher, evangelist, and elder are not automatically the same thing.
Paul tells Timothy:
“Do the work of an evangelist.”
— 2 Timothy 4:5
We should therefore be careful about taking the modern position called “the pastor” and assuming it is identical to the New Testament office.
NOW WE COME TO A HARDER QUESTION
The first Christians often met in houses.
Paul speaks of:
“the church that is in their house”
— Romans 16:5
Similar language occurs in 1 Corinthians 16:19, Colossians 4:15, and Philemon 2.
So suppose a city had several house gatherings.
Did each house congregation have its own separate group of elders?
Or did the Christians throughout that city have elders who collectively shepherded the believers of that locality?
This question matters if we are trying to understand house churches today.
And the evidence is interesting.
“ELDERS IN EVERY CITY”
Paul tells Titus:
“ordain elders in every city”
— Titus 1:5
Notice that he does not say:
one elder in every house.
Nor does he say:
one bishop over every city.
He says:
elders — plural — in every city.
Acts 20 gives us another example.
Paul calls for:
“the elders of the church”
at Ephesus.
Ephesus was an important city, and Paul's ministry there had been extensive.
Yet Luke speaks of the church and its elders.
That at least raises the possibility that Christians could meet in several places while still being regarded collectively as the church of that locality.
JERUSALEM MAKES THE QUESTION EVEN MORE INTERESTING
The Jerusalem church became very large.
Acts describes thousands responding to the gospel.
Yet later Acts repeatedly refers to the elders at Jerusalem.
When the circumcision controversy arose, Paul and Barnabas went to Jerusalem:
“unto the apostles and elders”
— Acts 15:2
We are not told about a separate eldership for every Jerusalem household.
Again, that does not prove there wasn't one.
But we should distinguish between:
what the text actually says
and
what our modern congregational arrangements may cause us to assume.
SO DID EVERY HOUSE CHURCH HAVE ELDERS?
At this point, the safest answer is:
The New Testament does not tell us.
It certainly shows Christians meeting in houses.
It certainly shows plural elders.
And it associates elders with churches and, in Titus, with cities.
But we do not have a passage saying:
“Every household gathering shall have its own independent eldership.”
Nor do we have one saying:
“One city-wide eldership shall govern every household gathering in the city.”
We shouldn't manufacture a rule where Scripture hasn't given one.
But the city language deserves serious attention.
THE ELDERS DID HAVE AUTHORITY
Now we need an important balance.
Saying that elders were shepherds does not mean they had no authority.
Paul tells the Thessalonians to recognize those who are “over you in the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 5:12).
Hebrews tells Christians:
“Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls...”
— Hebrews 13:17
Leadership was real.
Oversight was real.
But Jesus placed strict limits upon what kind of leadership it could be.
And Peter applies that directly to elders.
“NOT AS LORDS”
Peter tells the elders:
“Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock.”
— 1 Peter 5:3
That may be one of the most important statements in the entire New Testament concerning church leadership.
An elder is an overseer.
But he is not a lord.
He leads.
But he does not dominate.
He watches over the sheep.
But the sheep do not belong to him.
They belong to God.
And Peter tells us how an elder leads:
by example.
This is shepherd authority rather than the authority of a ruler who commands subjects.
JESUS HAD ALREADY DRAWN THAT LINE
Jesus told His disciples that Gentile rulers:
“exercise dominion”
and
“exercise authority”
over people.
Then He said:
“But it shall not be so among you.”
— Matthew 20:25–26
Jesus did not abolish leadership.
He completely changed its character.
The greatest becomes the servant.
The Son of Man Himself:
“came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.”
— Matthew 20:28
Christian leadership therefore cannot simply copy political or corporate leadership.
The elder is not the congregation's CEO.
He is a shepherd.
WHO OWNS THE SHEEP?
Acts 20 answers that beautifully.
Paul tells the elders to shepherd:
“the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.”
— Acts 20:28
Why should an elder care deeply for those people?
Because Christ paid for them with His blood.
They don't belong to the elder.
They don't belong to the preacher.
They don't belong to the bishop.
They belong to Christ.
The elder has been entrusted with someone else's sheep.
That makes his responsibility enormous.
But it also places a boundary around his authority.
THE NEW TESTAMENT PICTURE
Before we go any further, let's put together what we have found.
The New Testament shows:
A plurality of elders.
Those elders are also called overseers — bishops.
Their work is described as shepherding — pastoring.
Deacons are distinguished from overseers.
The elders have genuine responsibility for the flock.
But they are specifically forbidden to lord it over those entrusted to them.
Their model is not the ruler.
Their model is the shepherd.
And ultimately:
Christ owns the sheep.
THEN A VERY IMPORTANT QUESTION ARISES
If elder, overseer/bishop, and shepherd/pastor belong together in the New Testament...
When did they become separate offices?
When did one bishop begin standing above the elders?
When did bishops begin exercising authority over several congregations?
When did authority that Peter described as shepherding begin developing into an ecclesiastical hierarchy?
And perhaps most importantly:
Did the apostles themselves warn that something like this could happen?
We don't have to guess.
We have documents written by Christians immediately after the New Testament period.
So our next study will put the New Testament pattern beside the earliest evidence we have after the apostles.
And we will ask a very simple question:
WHAT CHANGED?
TEXT B4 TRADITION
Read First. Conclude Later.