Presbyter

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File:Reading-an-espistle.jpg
And elder church member reads an epistle to the congregation.

Presbyter is a Greek term meaning "elder," which has become the basis both for the Catholic "priest," to which is etymologically related, and the idea of a governing board of elders in other churches, especially the Presbyterian Church. In the New Testament the term sometimes refers to a leader in local Christian congregations. In this case it is a synonym of episkopos (literally "overseer," and later bishop). In modern usage, it can be synonymous with priest, pastor, elder, or minister in various Christian denominations.

In the early Pauline Christian churches, the basic form of church governance seems to have been based on three spiritually-inspired offices: apostles, prophets, and teachers. The Jerusalem church, on the other hand, had a more definite administrative structure, consisting of what later came to be called a bishop and deacons. The New Testament, especially in the later letters attributed to Paul, also refers to presbyters as elder members who had authority, either singly or collectively, over the local church and its members.

In the second and third centuries, the office of presbyter became a more defined ministry, second to the bishop in authority, with the deacons serving in a more strictly administrative capacity. Although forms of church leadership varied from location to location, the presbyters seem to have served as a board of advisers to the bishop, as well as in various other capacities. By the beginning of the third century, sources indicate that they had the right to act as sacramental ministers if so authorized by the bishop, administering baptism and celebrating communion.

Later, they developed more complete sacerdotal functions similar to the concept of the Catholic or Orthodox priest today, although they still lacked pastoral authority over their own churches. Once the Christian movement grew to the point where several churches might exist in one city or diocese, the presbyter came to have charge of his own church under the bishop's oversight.

In modern times, some Protestant churches rejected the episcopal (bishop-centered) form of church governance and returned to what they consider to be the more ancient presbyterian model, in which a board of elders governs the church rather than a single bishop.

History

Terminology

Since the word "presbyter" came to be synonymous with the idea of a priest as someone who prays professionally, it is important to understand at the outset, that the sacerdotal office—prayer, offering of sacrifices, and the conducting of sacred rituals—was originally described by the terms sacerdos in Latin, iereus in Greek, kohen in Hebrew. Thus, when the word "priest" appears in the New Testament, the usual word for it in Greek is iereus, not presbyteros. Only considerably later did the term presbyter become synonymous with "priest" as we use the term today. Etymologically, however, priest and presbyter are virtually identical.

Elders in the earliest church

The earliest organization of the Christian Churches in Judea was similar to that of Jewish synagogues, who were governed by a council of elders (presbyteroi). In Acts 11:30 and 15:22, we see this collegiate system of government in Jerusalem, and in Acts 14:23, the Apostle Paul ordains elders in the churches he founded. Some modern commentators believe that these presbyters may have been identical to the "overseers" (episkopoi, i.e., bishops) and cite such passages as Acts 20:17, Titus 1:5,7 and 1 Peter 5:1 to support this claim. On the other hand, the view of the Book of Acts differs somewhat from that of the early letters of Paul, which rarely if ever mention presbyters and describe a less formal, more spiritually-led form of church governance.

The earliest post-apostolic writings, the Didache and Clement for example, speak of the churches as having two local church offices—presbyters and deacons, with the presbyter's office have the function of overseer and thus practically synonymous with the idea of bishops. While Acts describes James the Just as ruling the church fairly early at Jerusalem, the beginnings of a single ruling bishop elsewhere may be traced to the offices occupied by Timothy and Titus in the New Testament. We are told that Paul had left Timothy in Ephesus and Titus in Crete to oversee the local church (1 Tim. 1:3 and Titus 1:5). Paul commands them to ordain presbyters/bishops and to exercise general oversight, telling Titus to "rebuke with all authority" (Titus 2:15). This issue, however, is complicated by the fact that the letters to Timothy and Titus are rejected as authentically Pauline by modern critical scholars.

Presbyters as "priests"

In any case, it is certain that the office of bishop and presbyter were clearly distinguished by the second century. The bishop functioned mainly as the president of the council of presbyters, and so the bishop came to be distinguished both in honor and in prerogative from the presbyters, who were seen as deriving their authority by means of delegation from the bishop.

As the church was faced the dual pressures of external persecution and internal schism, the bishop's office became increasingly important as the source of "apostolic" teaching authority and church order. Three offices become more clearly defined: bishop, elder (presbyter) and deacon. This is most clearly seen in the second century writings of St. Ignatius of Antioch and later in the writings of St. Irenaeus of Lyons.

Presbyters soon began to take on more clearly sacerdotal functions, become "priests" not simply in the sense of elders but as ministers of the sacraments such as baptism and communion, and probably others as well, although the sources are not clear and sometimes contradictory, possibly due to variations in local tradition.

Eventually, as the Church grew, individual congregations could no longer be served directly by a bishop. The bishop in a large city would thus appoint a presbyter to pastor the flock in each congregation, acting as his delegate. By the sixth century CE, presbyters were functioning fully as priests in the sense that we think of the term today, and also as local pastors.

Presbyters after the Reformation

The identity of presbyter and priest persisted for the most part until the Protestant Reformation, when the reformers looked anew at the biblical texts for models of church governance and organization. In Presbyterian churches of the Calvinist tradition, the office of bishop was abolished and the heads of local congregations began using the name minister instead of priest. In this arrangement, the ministers' leadership is shared with presbyters (also called elders, who are usually elected by the local congregations. The presbyters help the professional ministers care the church while keeping their secular professions. The "presyterian" model is not limited to Presbyterian churches, but may also be found in Congregational, Baptist, and other church traditions as well.

Modern usage

Despite the popular impression that the term "priest" is derived from the priest function of prayer, the term is actually derived from the Greek presbyteros, meaning elder. The Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, the Anglican/Episcopal Communion and other groups generally refer to these edlers/presbyters in English as priests. Collectively, however, their "college" is referred to as the "presbyterium", "presbytery", or "presbyterate."

This usage is seen by some Protestant Christians as stripping the laity of its rightful priestly status, in the sense that each person has the authority to approach God directly without the need of a human mediator. Some who defend the term insist that they do believe in the "priesthood of all believers," but they do not believe in the eldership of all believers. This is generally true of United Methodists, who ordain "elders" as clergy while affirming the priesthood of all believers. Some Anglican churches have abolished the use of the word "priest" for those ordained as such, refering to them instead as to as "presbyters.".

The term father for presbyters is generally restricted to Catholic and Orthodox usage, though many Anglicans and even some Lutherans will use the term, as well. It is not generally thought of as a title, however, but simply as an affectionate respectful term of address for the presbyter/elder/priest.

See also

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Cross, F L; Livingstone, Elizabeth A. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (3rd ed.). New York : Oxford University Press, 1997. p. 1322 ISBN 019211655X ISBN 9780192116550
  • Liddell & Scott. An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1975. pp. 301, 668
  • The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, p. 2297

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