Biblical Eldership Church Leadership

Notes

brethren.” The Revised Version (1881-85) translates this Greek phrase as, “The apostles and the elder brethren.” According to this translation, “el ders” is an adjective. If “elder brethren” is the correct translation, this is a definite identification of who the Jerusalem elders were. They were, in deed, the older men. However, Greek grammar does not require the trans lation “the elder brethren.” Greek usage of the article in such appositional constructions is too imprecise to be certain. (See H. Hyman, The Classi cal Review 3[1889]2 73.) Following the norm in most modern English translations, then, it is better to understand the word “brethren” as a noun without an article—apposed to both “the apostles” and “the elders.” Both the apostles and elders are brethren writing to fellow brethren. This ren dering better fits the context. (See also F.F. Bruce The Book ofActs, p. 298.) James Bannerman, The Church ofChrist, 2 vols. (1869; repr. Cherry Hill: Mack, 1972), 2: 326. See also, \Villiam Cunningham, Historical Theol ogy, 2 vols. (London: The Banner of Truth, 1969), 1: 59 ff. Edwin Hatch, The Organization of the Early Christian Churches (Lon don: Longmans, Green, and C0,, 1901), pp. 170-172,]75. Ibid., p. 195. For an excellent explanation of the elders’ counsel and Paul’s response, see David Gooding, True to the Faith: A Fresh Approach to the Acts ofthe Apostles (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1990), pp. 366-372. William Mitchell Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1951), p. 121. J. B. Lightfoot, Saint Paul ’s Epistle to the Philippians (New York: Macmillan, 1894), p. 193. Roland Allen, Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours? 6th ed. (1912; repr. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1962), pp. 83,87,3. Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 2nd ed., trans. William F. Arndt and F. Wilbur Gingrich, rev. F. Wilbur Gingrich and Frederick W. Danker (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1979), s.v. “ekklésia,” p. 241. (Hereafter cited as Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament.) John Chrysostom, “A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles,” in The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 14 vols., First Series, ed. Philip Schaff (repr. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1956), 112 90. (Hereafter cited as The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series.) Lawrence 0. Richards, Expository Dictionary of Bible Words (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1985), s.v. “appoint,” p. 68. John Calvin, Institutes ofthe Christian Religion, 2 vols., ed. John T. McNeill, trans. F.L. Battles (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960), 2: 1066. “This does not involve a choice by the group; here the word means

9°

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

305