Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/699

Rh PRESBYTER 675 position as they have at the end of the century. With Ignatius also the presbyters come into account only as a college ; according to him they constitute a senate, as it were ; he compares them to the college of the apostles, but gives great prominence to their subordination under the bishop, whom he likens to our Lord Himself. Except in the Ignatian Epistles, however, one finds the presbyters holding a different position within the Christian commu nities of the period from 90 to 140. This is not at all surprising, for there was not at that time any rigid and uniform organization of the congregations at all ; as yet no one bishop stood at the head of each congregation, and as yet the church constitution was not determined by the idea of office alone, that of charismata (spiritual gifts) still having wide scope alongside of the other. Church organization was still influenced by a variety of ways of looking at the question ways which sometimes crossed each other, and from the combination of which it cannot be doubted that a variety of constitutions resulted. We are not in a position to give a complete view of these, the historical material being insufficient, but points of leading importance can be established. Before all it is of conse quence to recognize that in the congregations a threefold organization had place. (1) The duty of edifying and of preaching the gospel was not yet attached to an office but to a charisma. &quot; Service in the word &quot; was the business of apostles, prophets, and teachers who had been awakened by the Spirit and by the Spirit endowed. These were the ^yov/jifi OL in the congregations ; they alone in the first instance form the class of persons entitled to honour in Christendom ; they never belonged to any one congregation exclusively, but were held to be &quot; organs of the Spirit,&quot; given by God to the whole church. (2) In so far as each local church embraced a system of higher and lower functions each was indeed a little world to itself it possessed a governing body (OIKOVO/ZOI). For the care of the poor, for worship, for correspondence, in a word, for its &quot;economy,&quot; in the widest sense of that word, the con gregation needed controlling officials. These were the bishop and the deacons, the former for higher, the latter for inferior services ; they owed their official position to the congregation, and in the nature of their offices there was, strictly speaking, nothing which could have laid the foundation of any special rank or exaltation. Many of the functions discharged by them nevertheless had the result of making the post of a bishop a very influential one (charge of the worship, control of the funds), and in so far as their service rested upon a charisma (xapioyia TT^S dvTiX-i j/j.if eMs) a certain inner relation between them and the teachers endowed with the gift of the Spirit was established. (3) In so far as the individual congregation was an actual organism in which the varieties of age, of sex, of experience, of manner of life, and of ethical culture continued to exist and which had to be admonished, dis ciplined, and heeded, it from the nature of the case divided itself into leaders and led, a distinction which would assert itself in every sphere of the congregation s activities. The leaders were, as might be expected, the &quot;elders&quot; (ot Trpeo-- /3i&amp;gt;T&amp;lt;fpoi), or, so to speak, the patrons ; the led were the &quot; younger &quot; members (ot i/ewrepoi). Out of this distinction arose equally naturally for it was impossible for all the &quot;elders &quot; to take part in the conduct of affairs the separa tion of an elected ruling college (01 Trpea-fivrepoi ol Trpoi cr- Ta.lj.tvoi) from the TrA^os (plebs, Aao s). Thus an &quot; order &quot; (ordo) arose, placed over the congregation by the congrega tion itself. 1 To the presbyters belonged a n/xi) KaOiJKovo-a, that is to say, the honour which naturally came from their 1 Tertull., DC, exhort, cast., 7: &quot; Differential!! inter ordinem et plebem constituit ecdesi^ auctoritcas et honor per ordinis consessum sanctificatus.&quot; position in life. In some congregations it may have been long before the elders were chosen, in others this may have come very soon ; in some the sphere of the competency of the presbyters and patrons may have been quite indefinite and in others more precise. In some congregations, lastly, as in those of Asia Minor, the presbyters may have enjoyed particular honour for the special reason that they had known apostles or disciples of apostles personally ; 2 in the majority of congregations this was not the case. With the congregational administration, properly so called, in any case, they had nothing to do. We may call the first-named organization the spiritual, the second the administrative, the third the patriarchal. It is obvious that from the first it was impossible they should coexist side by side without coming into contact. Here two facts are of the highest importance. (1) If in any congregation prophets and teachers were wanting, then the administrative officials charged themselves with their function. 3 (2) The bishops had as such a seat and a voice in the presbyters college ; every bishop was at the same time a presbyter, whether old or young, but every presbyter was not necessarily also a bishop. In many communities, indeed as, for example, at Philippi, 4 at Ephesus, 5 and in Crete 6 all the presbyters may possibly also have been bishops, although this is by no means cer tain ; but in other cases as, for example, in that of Rome, as we learn from the Pastor of Hermassdl presbyters were not also bishops. Thus it is not the case that origin ally the bishops were simply identical with the presbyters, and that the one bishop was a gradual development out of the presbyters college ; on the contrary, the attributes of presbyters and bishops were originally distinct. But, since the bishops had a seat and a voice in the college and exercised special functions of importance besides, they ultimately acquired a higher place. The office of presbyter was not during the oldest period (90-140) a spiritual one. The apostle,, the pro phet, the teacher, in a certain sense also even the old bishop and deacon, had a spiritual character, for they pos sessed a charisma. It was not so with the presbyters ; they had no charisma, and the respect in which they were held arose out of the natural position which they took within the congregations. Hence the newly -discovered AiSax?) TWV d-n-oo-ToXfav has nothing to say at all about presbyters, but only about apostles, prophets, teachers, bishops, and deacons. The design of that writing was to give those institutions of the apostles which are peculiar to the Christian community. The system of leaders and led is, however, a matter of order ; it does not depend upon the special Christian charismata, and therefore does not impart to the Christian community its peculiar character. But, on the other hand, that the community is God s building is shown by such marks as these, that the apostles spread the gospel by their inspired preaching, that prophets and teachers edify the churches, that everywhere bishops and deacons are found at work in the churches, endowed with the gift of government and of loving service. Other communities also towns, temples, synagogues, and the like have presbyters, but they have no persons endowed with the gift of the Spirit. A sure proof of the correctness of the view just given is found in the cir cumstance that before the time of Domitian we do not 2 Compare what is said by Papias, Irenanis, and also by Clement of Alexandria. 3 See AtSax?? rCiv &TrocrTOuv, 15. According to 1 Tim. v. 17 those presbyters are to be counted worthy of special honour ot /coTi-ioWes iv yi{&amp;gt; KCLI SiSao-KaXtp. But this makes it plain that the presbyters were under no obligation to teach. 4 Polyc., Ad Philip)., 5, 6, 11. 5 1 Tim. and Acts xx. 17, 28. 6 Ep. to Titus.