Biblical Eldership Church Leadership

Paul’s Letters to the Churches

acknowledge it. Thus in every one of the extant commentaries on the epistles containing the crucial passages, whether Greek or Latin, before the close of the fifth century, this identity is affirmed. In the succeeding ages bishops and popes accept the verdict of St. Jerome without question. Even late in the medieval period, and at the era of the reformation, the justice of his criticism or the sanction of his name carries the general suffrages of theologians.28 I conclude with Lightfoot’s classic evaluation: “It is a fact now generally recognized by theologians of all shades of opinion, that in the language of the New Testament the same officer in the Church is called indifferently ‘bishop’ (episkopos) and ‘elder’ or ‘presbyter’ (presbytems).”29