Eldership

[Peter Debelak]

Originally Posted by YP0534

Yeah....You just recently introduced me to the "elders" of the synagogue.

You make a point that I was considering even as I posted this. My contention in the 1 Tim. 5 post was not that Paul would never use "prespeturos" to refer to "office of elder" - since I do think there was, in fact, something of an "office" which carried over from Jewish tradition and which Paul even perpetuated. But here, in 1 Timothy 5, I do think that his use of "presbeturos" refers to elderly. I get that it makes sense he would have perhaps attempted to use separate terms, since he did know of and did use "presbeturos" in the sense of an "office." But in this chapter, he refers to elderly women as "presbeturos." Also, I think the point here is that the elderly should be treated with particular respect, regardless of position/title and, when they have particularly labored for the church, they are worthy of double honor. That "prespeturos" does not refer to "office of elder" in this chapter is not necessarily an argument that "office of elder" didn't exist at the time.