Biblical Eldership Church Leadership

The Acts of the Apostles

the law to the people regularly and publicly, and to ensure that the law was obeyed (Deut. 2721-8; 3129-11). The Old Testament elders were preeminently men of counsel and wisdom. The concept of wisdom and discernment is implied in the word, elder, itself: “Wisdom is with aged men, with long life is under standing” (Job 12:12, also 1 Kings 1228,13). To be an elder is to be a wise man and counselor. The prophet Ezekiel wrote that visions be long to the prophet, law to the priest, and counsel to the elders: “Di saster will come upon disaster, and rumor will be added to rumor; then they will seek a vision from a prophet, but the law will be lost from the priest and counsel from the elders” (Ezek. 7226). Job refers to the sov ereign God who takes away the discernment of the elders (Job 12:20; cf. Pss. 105222; 1192100; Lam. 2:10; 5214). At the time of Christ, there were local and national Jewish elders. Luke mentions local Jewish elders only once: “And a certain centurion’s slave, who was highly regarded by him, was sick and about to die. And when he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders asking Him to come and save the life of his slave. And when they had come to Jesus, they earnestly entreated Him, saying, ‘He is worthy for You to grant this to him; for he loves our nation, and it was he who built us our synagogue.” (Luke 722-5; italics added). Exactly who these local el ders were and what their relationship to the synagogue was, however, we don’t know. All other references to nonChristian, Jewish elders that occur in the Gospels and Acts are associated with the Sanhedrin of Jerusalem. The Sanhedrin was the supreme court of the Jewish people, and the New Testament indicates a threefold classification of its members: high priests, scribes, and elders. Their frequent appearance is due to their leading role in the rejection and death of Christ: “And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be re jected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes” (Mark 8:31). Judging from the meager historical information available, it appears that these elders were part of the nonpriestly nobility, heads of impor tant, wealthy Judean families. Joseph of Arimathea, whom Matthew identifies as a rich man ofArimathea was one such elder (Matt. 27:57). In addition, the entire Sanhedrin is referred to three times in the New Testament as the council of elders (presbyterion, Luke 22:66; Acts 22:5; gerousia, Acts 5:21). The eldership structure of government, there fore, was very familiar to the Jewish Christians.

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