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i Your own selves.
f Remember.
g Ceased not to warn you.
I
Acts 22:32.
c And now I commend.
GRACE.
e Word of His grace.
H3 Acts 20:33-35.
a I have not coveted.
PRACTISING.
b I have showed.
G Acts 20:36-38.
LEAVE-TAKING OF THE ELDERS.
They accompany him.
It will be observed that the subject-matter falls into three main groups. The sections labelled H1, H2 and H3 are
in the nature of a personal defence, linking together, as the apostle so often did, his teaching and his manner of life.
The sections labelled I are concerned with the apostle's ministry of grace, with its hint of prison, and his
commending of his hearers to the grace of God.
Before tracing the apostle's teaching through this section, let us first become acquainted with what was involved
in the office of an `elder', for we shall meet this title in the pastoral epistles, and there has been a good deal of
controversy as to its exact significance.
The word translated `elder' is the Greek presbuteros, which occurs in its Anglicized form in 1 Timothy 4:14
as the word, `presbytery'. The base of the word is proeisbenai, `to be far advanced in', probaino being translated
both `to go on' (Matt. 4:21), and `of great age' (Luke 2:36). Persons of mature years were considered worthy of
offices of trust, and so we have the words presbeia, `ambassage' (Luke 14:32), and presbeuo, `I am an ambassador'
(Eph. 6:20). The idea of age associated with the holding of office is familiar in our present-day words `alderman'
and `senator'.
In the Old Testament the `elders' of Egypt are referred to (Gen. 50:7 LXX presbuteros), and the `elders' of Israel
*
(Exod. 3:16 ), and the title occurs many times in the Gospels. The word is often disguised in our language under the
title `priest', for our Saxon forefathers spoke of the `elder' as a preoster or preste. The sacerdotal associations
linked with the word `priest' in its modern usage should not be applied to presbuteros. The English word `priest'
should be reserved for the Greek hiereus, a title which, so far as the Church is concerned, belongs only to the Lord
Himself.
In the pastoral epistles, and in the epistles written by James, Peter and John, we again meet with this office of
`elder', and find the word applied to women as well as to men (1 Tim. 5:2; Tit 2:3). Its heavenly counterpart is also
referred to twelve times in the Book of the Revelation. Moreover we read that there were elders in the church at
Jerusalem (Acts 15:2) and that the apostle ordained elders in every church in Galatia (Acts 14:23).
In Acts 20, we find the elders of Ephesus addressed by another title:
`Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you
overseers' (Acts 20:28).
The word `overseers' here is the translation of the Greek episkopos, which is a compound of epi, `upon' or
`over,' and skopeo, from skeptomai, `to look'. Apart from this occurrence in Acts 20:28, the four other occurrences
of episkopos are translated `bishop'. The related word episkeptomai is translated ten times `visit', and once `look
out'. The first of these references (Matt. 25:36, `Sick, and ye visited Me') gives some idea of the unofficious and
kindly meaning of the word.
*
In Exodus 3:16 the LXX Greek gerousia (senate) is translated elders, with presbuteros being so translated in
Exodus 18:12 and 24:1.