Summary
In this lesson we examine in more detail a couple of the requirements for elders mentioned in the books of 1 Timothy and Titus. Specifically, we examine whether pastors/elders need to be physically old or not to be qualified for the office (they do not have to be – for example, see Timothy – but it is not uncommon for this to be the case), and also whether or not they need to be married to be qualified for the office (they do not – they just can’t have more than one wife if they are married).
Content
Q: Do elders need to be, well, elderly? Do they need to be married?
OK, so all these words are talking about the same people. I guess that makes sense.
You mentioned that since we have 1 Timothy 4:12, we know that “elders” don’t have to be, well, elderly. Is there anything at all we can go on with respect to age?
For example, 1 Timothy 3:6 (NASB) states that an elder must be “not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into condemnation incurred by the devil.” Doesn’t this imply someone who is at least somewhat on in years?
There is also Titus 1:6 (NASB), which states that an elder must be “the husband of one wife, having children who believe, not accused of indecent behavior or rebellion.” Doesn’t being married and having kids imply a certain age?
Also, does this passage mean that pastor-teachers have to be married? What about Paul?
Elders do not need to be grey-haired, nor do they need to be married
Do elders have to be physically old?
By way of introduction, let me state that etymologically speaking, πρεσβύτερος – the Greek word commonly translated “elder” – does literally mean “old man.” There is no getting around this.
However, this does not necessarily mean that elders have to be physically old. Why? Because, as already mentioned, we have a direct counterexample in scripture in 1 Timothy 4:12.
Also, etymology does not at all matter in translation. I truly mean this – not at all!
This may come as a shock if you’ve never heard it explained before, but in determining the meaning of words in translation and interpretation, rather than etymology, the things that matter are how words were actually used in the time period that they show up in scripture, their specific context (i.e., other nearby words in the passage, the structure of the specific sentence, whether the passage they show up in is poetry or prose, etc.), and a couple other such considerations.
The fact that words can and do change their meanings over time (no matter what their original etymology-derived meanings may have been) complicates lexicography to an exceptional degree – not just Biblical lexicography, but also lexicography generally. Biblical lexicography is no exception, however.
What we might say is that it is common for older people to be wiser and have more experience, such that Church leadership often does end up as a collection of old men in practice. As a tendency or heuristic, it’s reasonably accurate.
But, as with Timothy, there are some young men who are far advanced spiritually for their years. And there are also some very foolish old men, with hearts largely darkened to spiritual truth.
Biblical examples
Jesus was 30 when he began His public ministry… and if any teacher in the history of the world was qualified to start sooner, it would have been Him. John the Baptist also started his public ministry when he was 30.
Jesus is so exceptional that it is typically dangerous to consider ourselves similar to Him in our decision-making. We are not God like He is, after all.
This is why “What would Jesus do?” is somewhat useless as a concept – it is always more appropriate to ask “What does Jesus want me to do?”.
All this said, it is still not particularly out of place here to make the observation that Jesus was 30 when he began His public ministry. That is not exceptionally young, but it is also not exceptionally old.
The Levites are described as beginning their service at 20, 25, or 30, depending upon their specific roles. See Ezra 3:8, 1 Chronicles 23:27, Numbers 8:24, Numbers 4:3. (Accounting for the differences is mostly a matter of context and exactly what tasks are in mind for those appointed. Many exegetes believe that those Levites entering the temple at the younger age of 20 were largely serving as apprentices, for example).
Naturally, people who are older will have more experience to draw on, and that is definitely advantageous. However, the thing that is really more important than chronological age is “spiritual age” – how mature is the man in question in spiritual terms? A man in his early 20s who is gifted and properly prepared to teach the Bible may be more advanced in “spiritual age” than a man in his 60s who has not put in the requisite effort over the years, but instead squandered all the opportunities before him.
To conclude, then, we don’t have anything in the way of scriptural examples with Church leadership younger than probably 25ish, but even if a man starts teaching several years before this, what really matters anyway is his level of spiritual maturity. Since it seems that most all people in Church leadership have historically started before or around 30 or so, it is definitely not proper to mandate that all pastor-teachers in the church be grey-haired (even if some or even many of them are in practice).
Do elders have to be married?
First off, formally speaking, Paul was an Apostle (with a capital A) – one of the true twelve. Apostles were a different office in the Church than pastor-teachers (compare Ephesians 4:11). It is definitely proper to view Paul as possessing the spiritual gift of teaching (which underpins the Church office of pastor-teacher), but he carried much more authority than rank-and-file teachers on account of his Apostleship. Regardless:
The NASB’s translation “husband of one wife” in Titus 1:6 is actually pretty good. The Greek reads μιᾶς γυναικὸς ἀνήρ, which is quite literally “a one-woman man.” Rather than requiring all pastor-teachers to be married (which would sort of fly in the face of Paul’s comments in 1 Corinthians 7, for example), this verse is prohibiting polygamists from serving as pastor-teachers within the Church. (It may seem kind of strange to us to explicitly forbid such, but polygamy was something more common at the time this epistle was written than in our own day). If you wish to sacrifice brevity for clarity: “An elder shall have either no wife or one wife, but not multiple wives.”
Back to the “big picture”
Spending time detailing exactly what scripture says and means (as we have been doing here) is never a bad thing. However, it does bear repeating again that the Bible is really quite flexible on matters of church polity. Thus, completely switching focus from macro-level generalities to micro-level specifics is somewhat hazardous. For this reason, we shall now return to a higher-level perspective.
In practice, here is how Church organization works:
- Whenever there is a group of people meeting (a church; Greek ἐκκλησία = assembly), there will be a group of people in charge. (Biblically speaking, these people are to be men – compare 1 Timothy 2:12). These people are the elders.
- If the church is worth anything, there will be Bible teaching going on. Inevitably, one or more of the elders will do the bulk of the teaching. It is probably most common for one person to carry most of the primary teaching load (although things do not have to be this way).
- Thus, whether or not those teaching have authority de jure, they will have it de facto. The man (or men) teaching will exercise primary spiritual leadership over the local assembly.
Anything and everything else on top of this is just window-dressing. There is nothing inherently wrong with window-dressing, mind you, but issues arise when people start getting exercised doctrinally about matters of window-dressing.
Trying to write down lots of rules and regulations about who can or cannot serve as elders (that is, more on top of what we already have from scripture), what specific things elders ought to do day-to-day, and so on only serves to obfuscate the core points of church organization, as outlined above. Things get even messier when rather than just being honest and admitting that their rules are arbitrary, people try to rationalize them by “supporting” them with scripture (which is actually nothing but twisting scripture and pulling things out of context).
All of this “noise” also serves to distract from the primary purpose of assembly: orthodox, substantive teaching of the Word of God that builds up the Body of Christ (compare Ephesians 4:16).