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

The word translated "elder" is the Greek presbuteros, which occurs in its Anglicized

form in I Tim. 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, "embassage" (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 O.T. 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

(I Tim. 5: 2; Titus 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:

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") give some

idea of the unofficious and kindly meaning of the word.

Episkopeo is translated "looking diligently" in  Heb. 12: 15,  and "taking the

oversight" in I Pet. 5: 2; while episkope is translated "visitation" in Luke 19: 44 and

I Pet. 2: 12, "bishoprick" in Acts 1: 20, and "office of a bishop" in I Tim. 3: 1.

The tendency of the Saxon to soften some of the harsher sounds of the Greek is seen

in the transition from the original episkop to "bishop", and from the Greek kuriake