Biblical Eldership Church Leadership

CHAPTER 8 Paul’s Letters to the Churches

“Live in peace with one another”

1 Thessalonians 5213b

ans, we must address an issue that troubles many biblical schol ars. The problem is that the book of Acts and the letters of 1 Timothy and Titus say that Paul appointed elders and include detailed instructions about elders, yet in none of Paul’s nine letters to the churches does he mention specifically the term elder (Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and 1 and 2 Thessalonians). As a result of this omission, most liberal schol ars conclude that during Paul’s lifetime there were no officially desig nated elders in any of the churches he founded. They maintain that Luke’s claims about elders in the Pauline churches is unhistorical and that the letters to Timothy and Titus were written by someone other than Paul. Clearly articulating this view, Ernst Kfisemann, a German theolo gian and commentator, writes, “For we may assert without hesitation that the Pauline community had no presbytery during the Apostle’s lifetime. Otherwise the silence on the subject in every Pauline epistle is quite incomprehensible.”I Hans Kfing, a Roman Catholic theolo gian and author, also asserts, “At all events Luke is making an unhistorical addition—either theologically conditioned, or based on a B efore examining the letters of 1 Thessalonians and Philippi

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