Part 1 of 9 of the theme 'Leadership of elders ' by Gijs van den Brink
Usually the leaders in the early church are called "elders. Who were these 'elders' and what was their responsibility? Are they comparable to 'elders' or 'elders' in our churches or is this different? In most studies where the subject is discussed, you read that the idea of 'elders' as leaders was adopted by Paul and others from the synagogue . And it is then assumed that already in the time of the NT every group of Christians who met somewhere on Sunday was led by elders, who were appointed for this function. In this and subsequent blogs we want to go over the texts in the NT to see if this representation is correct or not. Since this representation assumes and depends on practice in the Jewish synagogue, we want to look at that first.
It is assumed without question in the traditional model that the elders held office in the synagogue. However, this turns out not to be the case. E. Schürer, in his five-volume history of the Jewish people as early as the end of the 19th century, reports that the synagogue was supervised by the elders in the Jewish community, but that in terms of day-to-day administration, the synagogue was run by the archisunagōgos (the head, responsible for the order of service) and the hupēretēs (servant, helper, assistant, who among other things took care of the room and taught the children). There has been agreement on this among scholars for half a century, as expressed by M.H. Shepherd in the widely accepted Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible: "Jewish elders were not responsible for worship in the synagogue, though they enjoyed seats of honor at the synagogue assemblies. Doubtless the synagogue rulers were frequently elected from among their number" (IDB II, 72). The "elders" were community-respected, usually older wise men (from respected families) who were responsible for the ins and outs of the community (and thus including, but certainly not limited to, the synagogue). This is the first sacred house that falls down. That this is also recognizable in the NT and has implications for the meaning of the service of elders, we will see in the next few blogs.
Author: Gijs van den Brink
From: Study Bible Magazine
This is part 1 of 9 concise blog on the topic "Leadership of elders" from Study Bible Magazine, Some of which we will be posting online in the near future. We hope this will help you understand the Bible better!
