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PRESBYTER (Gr. apactObTepos, elder, t...

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 283 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PRESBYTER (Gr. apactObTepos, See also:elder, the See also:comparative of IrOo-Oas, an old See also:man) , the See also:title See also:borne from very See also:early times by certain See also:officers or ministers of the See also:Christian See also:Church intermediate between " bishops " and " deacons." The specialized use of the word as implying not only See also:age, but consequently See also:wisdom and authority, is analogous to that of " See also:senate " (from See also:senior), of " See also:gerousia " (from 'y pwv), and of " elder." It is the See also:original See also:form of See also:priest (q.v.). The word is not found in pre-Christian writings except in the See also:Septuagint, though as Deissmann has shown it is found on the Papyri as an See also:official title for the See also:village magistrates of See also:Egypt and the members of the yepouaia, or senate, of many towns in See also:Asia See also:Minor. The See also:office is, however, closely analogous to, and perhaps founded on, a similar office in the Jewish See also:synagogue organization among the officials of which were the zekenim, or elders, sometimes identified with the archisynagogues. In the New Testament the See also:Greek word is used both for the See also:ancient Jewish official and for the Christian elder. On Jewish tombstones of the Hellenistic See also:period the title is frequently found, sometimes applied to See also:women. The See also:head official of the See also:English See also:Jews See also:prior to their See also:expulsion See also:bore the title of Presbyter judaeorum; opinions differ as to whether this officer was ecclesiastical or had merely the See also:secular See also:duty of supervising the See also:exchequer of the Jews (see further The Jewish Encyclopedia, 1905i X. 190, 191). The See also:history of presbyteral See also:government as opposed to See also:episcopacy and pure See also:congregationalism is not known in detail. After the See also:Reformation, however, it was adopted by See also:Calvin and his followers, who created that See also:system which has ever since been known as See also:Presbyterianism (q.v.). There are many theories as to the origin of the office of presbyter in the Christian Church. (1) Some connect it with the See also:appointment of the seven recorded in Acts vi. This is the view taken by Boehmer,1 See also:Ritschl 2 and See also:Lindsay.' It is urged that the traditional view which regards the seven as deacons is untenable because the See also:term " See also:deacon " is never used in the narrative, and there is no reference to the office in the Acts.

On the other See also:

hand the officials of the See also:Jerusalem church are always called " elders " and when they are first introduced (Acts xi. 30) appear to be discharging the functions for which " the seven " were specially set apart. (2) The view adopted by the See also:majority of English scholars is, while refusing to accept the connexion between the presbyters and the seven, to regard the office as distinctly See also:primitive and say that it was taken over by the earliest Christian community at Jerusalem from the Jewish synagogue.' (3) See also:Harnack and a few other See also:modern scholars maintain that the office of presbyter did not come into existence till the 2nd See also:century. During the last See also:quarter of the 1st century, a three-See also:fold organization is found in the Church: (a) a spiritual organization composed of " apostles, prophets and teachers who had been awakened by the spirit and by the spirit endowed "; (b) an administrative organization, " For the care of the poor, for See also:worship, for See also:correspondence, the See also:congregation needed controlling officials. These were the See also:bishop and the deacons, the former for higher, the latter for inferior services "; (c) a patriarchal organization based upon the natural deference of the younger to the older members of the Church. The senior members of the community, by virtue of their age and experience, watched over the conduct and guided the See also:action of the younger and less experienced portion of the Church, though they held no official position and were not appointed for any particular See also:work 'like the bishops and deacons. In the 2nd century the patriarchal See also:element in the organization was merged in the administrative, and the presbyters Dias. See also:jur. eccl. p. 373. s Entstehung der altkatholischen Kirche, 2nd ed. p. 355. 'The Church and the See also:Ministry, p. 116; cf. also See also:Brown, See also:Apostolical See also:Succession, p.

144. 4 See also:

Lightfoot, Ep. to the See also:Philippians, p. 192. 'E.g. Sohm, Kirchenrecht, 92; Weizsaeker, Apostolic Age (Eng. trans. ii. 330) ; See also:Allen, Christian Institutions, p. 38 ; A. C. See also:McGiffert, Apostolic Age, p. 663 (1897). became a definite See also:order in the ministry. The See also:time at which the See also:change occurred cannot be definitely fixed.

" In some congregations," as Harnack says, " it may have been See also:

long before the elders were chosen, in others this may have come very soon; in some the See also:sphere of the competency of the presbyters and patrons may have been quite indefinite and in others more precise." Harnack's theory is based upon the following arguments: (a) The silence of the genuine Epistles of St See also:Paul and the See also:Epistle to the See also:Hebrews. In i See also:Cor. xii. 28 Paul says that See also:God has given to the Church apostles, prophets, teachers, miracles, gifts of healing, See also:helps, governments; but of presbyters he has not a word to say. Even from passages where he is speaking of the See also:jurisdiction of the congregation, as for example in i Cor. v., vi., the presbyters are absent, while in Phil. i. 1 it is the bishops and deacons that he mentions. (b) The documents in which presbyters are mentioned in an official sense, viz. the Epistle of See also:James, the first Epistle of See also:Peter, the Acts of the Apostles and the See also:Pastoral Epistles belong to a later age and reflect the customs of their own See also:day rather than those of the primitive Church. (c) Even See also:Clement of See also:Rome does not say that the apostles had appointed presbyters in the congregation, he speaks only of bishops and deacons. For this See also:reason the statement in Acts xiv. 23 is to be looked upon with suspicion. These arguments, however, are not absolutely decisive. It is true that presbyters are not mentioned in the genuine Epistles of St Paul, but there are hints that similar officers existed in some of the churches founded by the apostle. There is a reference in i Thess. v.

12 to " those who See also:

rule over you " (7rpoior4evoe), and the same word occurs in Rom. xii. 8.1 The term " governments " (KV,+Epv7/See also:oeLS) in 1 Cor. xiv. 28 obviously refers to men who discharged the same functions as presbyters. If too, as seems most probable, bishops and presbyters were practically identical, there is of course a specific reference to them in Phil. i. 1. The " leaders " who are mentioned three times in Hebrews xiii. were also probably " presbyters" under another name. Harnack's second See also:argument depends for its validity upon certain conclusions with regard to the date of James and 1 Peter, which are not universally accepted. Few English scholars, for instance, would accept as See also:late a date as 120–140 for James, and 1 Peter may be as early as 65, as Harnack himself admits, though he prefers a date in the reign of See also:Domitian. If this possibility in regard to I Peter is granted, it is fatal to the theory, because at the time when the epistle was written official presbyters were so well established that abuse and degeneration had already begun to creep in and some of the elders were already guilty of " lording it over their heritage " and making a profit out of their office (I Pet. v. 1–4). With regard to the testimony of Acts, the only question, since Harnack admits the See also:Lucan authorship,2 is whether See also:Luke is describing the organization of the Church as it existed at the time of the events recorded or reflecting the arrangements which prevailed at the time when the See also:book was written. It is difficult to see how Luke can have been wrong with regard to the " Ephesian elders " who came to meet Paul at See also:Miletus since he was See also:present on the occasion (xx.

15–17). The only See also:

mistake that seems possible is that he may have conferred a later title upon the emissaries of the Church of See also:Ephesus. This is not likely, but, at all events, it would only prove that the office under another name existed at Ephesus, for otherwise Luke could not possibly have put into the mouth of Paul the address which follows. Neither is there prima facie ground for objecting to the statements with regard to the presbyters of Jerusalem. If the Church at Jerusalem had any officials, it is highly probable that those officials bore the name and took over the functions of the elders of the synagogue. The statement in Acts xiv. 23, that Paul and See also:Barnabas appointed elders in the churches of See also:South See also:Galatia, is more open to objection perhaps, owing to the silence of the Epistle to the See also:Galatians. With regard to the See also:evidence of the Epistle of Clement, Harnack seems to be incorrect in his conclusions. Scholars of such opposite See also:schools of thought as Schmiedel3 and Lindsay* maintain that the epistle contains the most explicit references to presbyters of the official type. The See also:crucial passage (xliv. 4–6) seems to See also:bear out their contention. " It will be no See also:light See also:sin for us if we thrust out of the oversight (E7toKolri) those who have offered the gifts unblameably and holily.

Blessed are those presbyters who have gone before for they have no fear lest any one should remove them from their appointed See also:

place " (are) See also:Toll tbpvµhvou r67rou). There is an equally specific reference in liv. 2: " Only let the See also:flock of See also:Christ keep See also:peace with its duly-appointed presbyters" (fssrh TWV KaOtoTap, sow 7rpEQj9uTEpc,v). The conclusions which we seem to reach are as follows: (1) In the earliest See also:stage (between 30 and 6o) there is no See also:uniform organization 1 See also:Hort translates 7rpoioraµ0,o1 " those who care for you," but 1 Tim. iii. 12 and v. 17 seem to be against this. In See also:Justin See also:Martyr, A pot. i. 67, 7rpoEOTWS evidently refers to " the See also:president of the church," and in a recently discovered See also:papyrus which See also:Ramsay See also:dates 303 a certain bishop is described as Xao8 7rpoioraµevov, Studies in See also:Roman Provinces, pp. 125–126. 2 Lukas der Arzt (1906), cap. 1. Ency.

Bib. p. 3134 sqq. *The Church and the Ministry, p. 16o. Cf. also Loening, See also:

Die Gemeindeverfassung See also:des Urchristentums, p. 58. in the Christian Church. Presbyters are found in Jerusalem from primitive times. In the Pauline churches the name is not found except at Ephesus and possibly in south Galatia, though there are traces of the office, at any See also:rate in germ, under different titles in other churches. (2) In the second stage (between 6o and See also:ioo) there is an increasing tendency towards uniformity. The office is found definitely mentioned ,in connexion with the churches of Asia Minor (I Pet. i. I), See also:Corinth (Epistle of Clement) and See also:Crete (See also:Titus).

The officials were called by two names, " elders " and " bishops," the former denoting the office, the latter the See also:

function (exercising the oversight). The substantial identity of the two titles cannot be doubted in the light of such passages as Acts xx. 17, 28.; I Pet. v. i, 2; I Tim. iii. 1–7, V. 17–19 and Titus i. 5–7. There is far less controversy with regard to the later history of the presbyters. The third stage of the development of the office is marked by the rise of the single episcopus as the head of the individual church (see BISHOP; EPISCOPACY). The first trace of this is to be found in the Epistles of See also:Ignatius which prove that by the See also:year 115 " the three orders " as they were afterwards called—bishop, presbyters and deacons—already existed, not indeed universally, but in a large proportion of the churches. The presbyters occupied an intermediate position between the bishop and the deacons. They constituted " the See also:council of the bishop." It was some time before the threefold ministry became universal. The See also:Didache knows nothing of the presbyters; bishops and deacons are mentioned, but there is no reference to the second order.

The Shepherd of See also:

Hermas knows nothing of the single bishop; the churches are under the See also:control of a See also:body of presbyter-bishops. Before the See also:close of the 2nd century however the three orders were established almost everywhere. The See also:sources of the Apostolic Canons (which date between 14o–18o) See also:lay down the rule that even the smallest community of Christians, though it contain only twelve members, must have its bishop and its presbyters. The original equality of bishops and presbyters was still however theoretically maintained. The Canons of See also:Hippolytus which belong to the end of the 2nd century distinctly lay it down that " at the ordination of a presbyter everything is to be done as in the See also:case of a bishop, See also:save that he does not seat himself upon the See also:throne. The same See also:prayer shall also be said as for a bishop, the name of the bishop only being See also:left out. The presbyter shall in all things be equal with the bishop, save in the See also:matter of pre-siding and ordaining, for the See also:power to ordain is not given him." The presbyters formed the governing body of the church. It was their duty to maintain order, exercise discipline, and superintend the affairs of the Church. At the beginning of the 3rd century, if we are to believe See also:Tertullian, they had no spiritual authority of their own, at any rate as far as the sacraments are concerned. The right to baptize and celebrate the communion was delegated to them by the bishop.5 In the See also:fourth stage we find the presbyters, like the bishops, becoming endowed with See also:special sacerdotal See also:powers and functions. Up to the end of the 2nd century the universal priesthood of all believers was the accepted See also:doctrine of the Church. It was not till the See also:middle of the 3rd century that the priesthood was restricted to the See also:clergy.

See also:

Cyprian is largely responsible for the change, though traces of it are found during the previous See also:half century. Cyprian bestows the highest sacerdotal terms upon the bishops of course, but his references to the priestly See also:character of the office of presbyter are also most definite.6 Henceforth presbyters are recognized as the secundum sacerdotium in the Church. With the rise of the diocesan bishops the position of the presbyters became more important. The See also:charge of the individual church was entrusted to them and gradually they took the place of the See also:local bishops of earlier days, so that in the 5th and 6th centuries an organization was reached which approximated in See also:general outline to the system which prevails in the See also:Anglican Church to-day. See See also:Hatch, Organization of the Early Christian Churches (2nd ed., 1882), and Harnack's " excursus" in the See also:German edition of this Tertull. De bapt, 17 : " Baptismi dandi habet See also:jus summus sacerdos qui est episcopus; dehinc presbyteri . . . . non tamen sine episcopi auctoritate." s Cf. Ep. 58 : "Presbyteri eum episcopo sacerdotali honore conjuncti." work (1883); Harnack, Die Lehre der zwolf Apostel (1884); Loening, Die Gemeindeverfassung des Urchristentums (1889); Sohm, Kirchenrecht (1892); an See also:article by Loofs, in Studien and Kritiken, for 1890 (pp. 619-658); Lindsay, The Church and the Ministry in the Early Centuries (1902); Schmiedel, article " Ministry," in Enc. Bib.

(H. T.

End of Article: PRESBYTER (Gr. apactObTepos, elder, the comparative of IrOo-Oas, an old man)

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