Why the teachings of men, part 14...overseers of Scripture

History is one of those things that fascinate some, infuriate others, and we are told we must know it in order to not repeat it. For me history is both fascination and boredom. Interesting and dull. I did not enjoy history in school and didn't actually gain any interest in it at all until I was grown. Even then some of it I find very interesting and some of it I find extremely boring and could care less about. 

What I have learned though is that no deep delving into Scripture is complete unless we can understand a little bit of history. The Scriptures were recorded when times as we know them did not exist. Regardless of the country one lives in today, there is no denying that that country is far different than it was 2000 years ago. Times are different. People are different. Even our very way of speaking is different. 

To make all that worse, the more 'civilized' a country becomes the further it gets from its roots and the way things used to be. How then can we view Scripture only through our modern 'civilized' view of things when these oh, so precious words were recorded when times were different? How can we read words we think we know the meaning of and automatically give a modern definition to those words?

Here's just one example...the Latin Vulgate. I know that version of the Scriptures is controversial and not the best example of true Scripture. I'm not promoting it, I am simply using it as an example. The word vulgate supposedly means vulgar. What do you think of when you read the word vulgar? 

Let me help out a bit. Here is the definition of the word straight from the dictionary:

1. 
   
   
   

   lacking sophistication or good taste; unrefined.

   
   

   
   

   
   

   synonyms:

   tasteless, crass, tawdry, ostentatious, flamboyant, overdone, showy, gaudy,  garish, brassy, kitsch, kitschy, tinselly, loud;

   • 
     
     
     

     making explicit and offensive reference to sex or bodily functions; coarse and rude.

     
     

     "a vulgar joke"

     
     

     synonyms:

     rude, indecent, indelicate, offensive, distasteful, coarse, crude, ribald, risqué, naughty, suggestive, racy, earthy, off-color, bawdy, obscene, profane, lewd, salacious, smutty, dirty, filthy, pornographic, X-rated;

So if we were to see the words Latin vulgar today our minds would automatically want to assume that vulgar at best meant something in poor taste and at worst it represents all manner of sexual sin. At least that is the modern American definition of the word. That wasn't the case when the name was applied to that form of the Scriptures though. Vulgar at that time meant common. The same dictionary definition had this little note at the bottom:

dated

characteristic of or belonging to the masses.

Vulgar once merely meant 'common'. Our minds are so conditioned to using words in certain ways that we cannot grasp the idea, at least not without stopping and thinking about it, that words as we know them may not be what we think they are. And if the word is not what we think it to be than it's unlikely that whatever that word is conveying is what we think it to be. 

In this ever going...ever growing...study, my husband has spoken many times of what an "elder", "preacher" or "teacher" spoken of in Scripture must have been. We have studied it, compared verse upon verse, upon verse. I have written of 'preachers'. Our poor family members are probably sick of hearing us go on and on...and on...over this. I even filled many pages of a letter to a relative with a summary of this study. As anyone that's been reading these blog posts can imagine, it was a long letter. 

I'm guessing they would like to tell us, enough already.

But back to what my husband keeps saying. In all of our studies he has actually managed to hang onto one of the original points to this whole thing, that of the definition of 'preacher' (or teacher or elder). 

In the first century we had brand new baby Christians. Really. Literally. Truly, brand new Christians. Not just new to the faith, but the entire faith, as it was after Christ, was brand new.  The new covenant was brand new. There were no examples. No precedents. No one to say, 'oh, I'm a Christian, I know what that means'. They had no one to turn to to explain things. No Bibles hidden away on dusty bookshelves that they could pull out and study. Nothing.

There were no 'Christian' churches on every street corner. There was nothing but rumors and if they were very lucky personal experiences with men that traveled around spreading the news of Christ and giving a bit of instruction. 

Some might have been lucky enough to have a copy of the Old Testament but I'm not real sure that would have been a help to a new believer in those days. The Old Testament was the law they were being delivered from. To study it would teach them of the Lord but would not have taught them of grace. It would have taught them the foreshadows of Christ, if they understood the connection, but it would not have taught them what regeneration was. 

And so here were these brand new baby believers in a brand new belief system. They were alone with their newfound faith, most likely absorbing every rumor they could if it even hinted of Christ or what had happened to them. They probably longed for understanding more than anything else. 

What happened to me?

Who am I now?

What do I do now?

It would be much like being dropped in the middle of a foreign country that you've never heard of. You know no one there, don't understand the culture, can't speak the language, and there are people in this country that will kill you if they see you. 

There had to be a great confusion and fear with this new belief. Our modern American minds that have grown up being told we live in a 'Christian' country, where 'In God we trust' is written on our money, where people curse using Christ's name...we cannot imagine a world where the New Testament is wiped clear of our minds and hearts.

We have grown up on the traditions of men and they are a deeply ingrained part of who and what we are. 

I remember being drawn ever closer to Christ in my adult years. I remember the preacher that assured me I was 'saved' because I had said the 'prayer'. I remember the doubts that plagued me. I remember saying the 'prayer' time after time, dozens, maybe even hundreds, of times because I did not feel 'saved', didn't feel that the 'prayer' 'saved' me but not knowing what else there was. 

And I remember when I knew I was different. I remember looking at the 'christians' I knew or encountered, seeing their faith, hearing them talk, and wondering, 'if they are Christians, what am I?' 

Those experiences and thoughts plagued me. I searched and searched trying to find the 'true' Christians. I knew they weren't found in the Baptist 'church' or other 'church' so who were they and where were they? I dabbled in the Anabaptist faith because they were the only ones that appeared to me to be living their faith. I just didn't know how to understand what was different about me or where to find others that held the same faith. 

That was in modern America where 'christians' abound and there was no doubt in my mind that 'christianity' held the answer to all my questions I just had to figure out which branch was the right one. I went into all those questions and feelings with an understanding of 'Christianity'. I knew the terms born again, Christ, salvation, and a good deal of the other important parts of the gospel. What I didn't understand was born again meant regeneration and being 'saved' was done through the power of Christ. Still, I had a deep ingraining of what 'christianity' was. I knew to start with the Bible and to search among the 'christians' for the answers I sought.

These first century Christians did not have that ingraining. Instead they had the teachings of the Old Testament and quite honestly, those are teachings I would not have wanted to grow up under. Death ruled in the OT. Make blood sacrifices to atone for your sins. Kill your children if they are disrespectful. Adultery is punishable by stoning. So is going against the religious system.

And here these new believers were. 

Paul and the other Apostles blew through town, stirring up excitement, anger, and all other manner of emotions. They were shaking up the system. People were getting violently angry. The punishment for the 'crimes' they were committing was death and many people tried, sometimes succeeding, to kill them. These were angry mobs.

On the other hand there were new believers so thirsty for the things the Apostles were teaching that they risked life and limb to hear them. They had to, there was nowhere else to find the kinds of things these men were teaching. 

People came to them for instructions in living in the new covenant. No one understood it. There were no writings on it, no common held beliefs or teachings, no traditions to turn to. It was all new. 

The Apostles knew what they were...fallen men given divine authority to stand in Christ's place. They were walking, talking Bibles in a time when Bibles did not exist. They were to teach Christ and the new covenant in a time when the new covenant was untaught. 

Christ taught His disciples while He walked and talked with them but there came a day when He no longer dwelled with them, giving them instruction day by day, even moment by moment. He stopped holding their hands and left them to finish the work He had in store for them. John 14 shows them questioning Him on this new stage of their lives and He gave them this reply:

These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. John 14:24-26 ESV

He essentially told them, God (through the Spirit) will cause all these things that I have taught you to come back to you. They were to be given a memory the likes of which the world had never seen before and would never see again. 

These human men, these fallen, failing, human men were to be given the greatest task ever assigned to men. They were to give the Scriptures to the world. In Mark 15:15-18 we have this from Christ's own words:

Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues;18 they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

Christ not only gave them the command to give the Scriptures...the New Testament as we know it today...to all the world but He gave them gifts...or the ability to perform miracles so that they might be able to do the task assigned to them. 

This was a divinely appointed work and they were given divine gifts to be able to carry out their assigned job. They were not asked if they wanted this job. They were told to do it and were equipped for the assignment. 

We are told that Christ Himself told them 'go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation' (Mark 15) and are shown that He told them "the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you" (John 14). And then we are shown just how they are to accomplish the task assigned to them, "And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison it will not hurt them, they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover." (Mark 15)

So here these fallen human men were, probably feeling ill equipped to do the job assigned to them. One of which, Paul, was not even among them yet, he was still out persecuting Christians. But the plan was in place. The Scriptures as we know them were not in the world yet. These men were appointed by Christ to go forth into the world and to give the Scriptures, something they did not even know yet. 

Paul would later say, " For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. (1 Corinthians 13:9)

These men did not even know the Scriptures they were to give. They were living, breathing men being controlled by the overtaking of the Holy Spirit that guided their actions, thoughts, and words so that they gave the Scriptures that would eventually be preserved through written word and passed down through the generations. 

Did they wonder how long they would be able to just know these things?

Did they fear they would forget them before they could preserve them?

Did they stumble when people questioned them, having the answer, the very Scriptures, on the tip of their tongues but failing to call them to mind at least for a moment? 

Did they have 'aha' moments? 

They were mortal men. They had human feelings. They had human failings. They walked and talked just as we do. As the old saying goes, they put their pants on one leg at a time just as we do, although they actually wore robes rather than pants.

So here they were, it would seem, feeling ill prepared for the task at hand, traveling around, spreading the Gospel, giving the Scriptures through their words, living in harsh times, experiencing what was probably a great love but also great persecution. They were walking, talking Bibles being loved and hated by all they encountered. 

They were giving the new covenant which was shaking up the traditions long held by the religious people and institutions. They were essentially turning everything upside down and shaking it until nothing was recognizable. What people had been raised in and taught was all of a sudden no longer the 'right' way. Everything was eschew. 

Some were drawn to these new teachings, pulled into the new covenant, others were against it. Signs and wonders, miracles even, were proof to some that these men were of God. To others even miracles performed before their very eyes were not enough to turn them. 

And yet the Apostles continued on. They went city by city, splitting into smaller groups, going from place to place, giving the Gospel as it came to them. They taught in person, they wrote letters, they prayed for the very souls of the people they encountered. 

They did not sit down and write out the Scriptures as they received them, their goal was not to write the New Testament but to go out and give the Gospel to all creation. They did not lock themselves away and write the remembrances the Holy Spirit brought to them, instead they went into the midst of the people and shared the Scriptures. 

They walked and talked with these first century believers, be they of the elect or just professing. They shared the Gospel with all who would listen and probably with many that did not wish to listen. They wrote letters of encouragement, chastisement, and instruction. They worked and labored among the people. They ached for them, cried for them. 

In short they were in the midst of the masses, the nonbelievers and the elect, the professing believers and the false teachers. In the middle of all that were the groups and crowds of believers, the elect and the professing believer alike, that were given this new gospel, that were told of the new covenant, were pulled into it even, and they had only the explanations, teachings and examples of the Apostles.

They were walking in new ground. There were no examples of Christians to be had save the ones in the old covenant but those examples could not match what they were now being told in the new covenant. This was the assembling of believers in each town and place, these were the 'church' of Scripture, not the elect, not the 'preachers', not the 'church' on the corner or down the street, but these groups of struggling new believers that professed a belief in Christ. Some of them were the elect, some of them weren't, but they all professed a belief in Christ and what the Apostles were teaching.

We see time and again that Paul and the other Apostles went into towns and villages, met with people in small numbers and great crowds, and there was no separating out the people that came. Those that were truly sinning were pointed to...adulterers, murderers, even the Pharisees...but there was no distinction between the elect and the professing believers. All were addressed, all were given instructions. If one professed a belief in Christ they were embraced. They were allowed to come and learn, to mingle with everyone that came out to hear what the Apostles had to say. 

There was no quibbling over who was 'reformed' or who was a 'Calvinist', no kicking them out for being a 'Baptist' or a 'Pentecostal'. In fact Paul had this to say about the aligning of people to certain leaders:

But I, brothers,[a] could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?

5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each.6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building.

1 Corinthians 3:1-9 ESV

Paul did say he had to address them as people of the flesh and not as brothers but he did not call them false believers, heretics, or demons, nor did he shun them for holding to ways of the flesh. He addressed them in much the same way he did brothers with the additional statement of I must address you as 'people of the flesh'. He then went on to tell them that he and Appollos were nothing, that it was all of God and nothing of them. 

In that single set of verses we can see the primitive set up for denominations and we can see Paul's response to it. Scripture shows us two sets of people, those that believe in Christ and those that do not. It shows us to point out sin and to turn from it. It shows us that those that stay in sin are not of Christ but nowhere do we see that we should separate from those that profess Christ if they are not 'reformed', 'Calvinist', or even the elect. 

And so there in the first century, a time that we can only begin to understand what the Scriptures were being given into if we understand something of life in those times, come the Apostles. It was a very turbulent time. Death came swiftly for even minor offenses if you happened to offend the wrong people. Scripture shows us that the authorities found no crime in Christ but He was put to death because He had offended the people, people that wanted Him held, tried, and killed at the expense of releasing a known murderer. 

This was the way of life that the Apostles were up against. Mobs of angry people were allowed to stone and beat the Apostles simply because they were offended at what the Apostles said and taught. 

And as the Apostles prepared to leave each city they knew they were leaving brothers and sisters behind in darkness if they did not do something. There were not enough of the Apostles to stay with each new group of believers. They had a job to do and they could not stay in one place to guide the believers there, they were commanded to go into all the world and give the Gospel, they must move on. 

So they looked to the believers and chose men that appeared to have the faith, men that could retain what they were teaching, to leave as overseers of these new groups of believers. The Apostles were not omniscient, they could not see into the souls of these men, they could not look into the future and see who would go to heaven and who would wind up in hell. All they had was what they could see. Yes, they were getting divine revelation but they were not God. They were still men in the flesh. 

So they assigned overseers to look over the believers that they were leaving behind. These were not 'preachers' as we know them today but mature believers that were appointed to stand in the place of the Apostles. 

Not 'elders' as in older men...how could older men be the deciding factor for who was to stand in the Apostles places as the guiding hand for Christ when there might not have been an older man in the midst of these believers? There was also the issue of the general life expectancy of the time. To be an old man in those days was to reach the age of 30 or so. I'm not saying there might not have been really old men, old men by our standards today, in their midst. There could have been, a life expectancy is only an average number, taking the age of death for all people of that time, and infant and childhood deaths were high in those days. But there is no guarantee that there were any men in their midst over the age of 30. There's also no guarantee that all the actual old men of the time even professed a belief in Christ. 'Elder', which is sometimes translated as 'overseer', a much better description for what these men probably really were, needs to have its own definition and not our modern understanding of what an 'elder' is. 

And so out of the crowds of people that came to hear of Christ and get a better understanding of what they now believed, the Apostles had to pick men to stand in their place. Someone had to be able to answer these people's questions. Someone had to point out their sins and teach them the holy way. Someone had to be there to show them where their traditions and religious teachings, even those of the old covenant, no longer applied under the new covenant. Someone had to give them the Scriptures because the Apostles had to move on. 

That's where the overseers came in. Scripture shows us different terms for these men, overseer, preacher, elder, teacher, even shepherd. And that's where our modern minds get into trouble. In my research I discovered that we can see the modern 'church' as we know it taking hold in Scripture. Diotrophes turned the "brothers' away, preferring to rule over the people. 

I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. 10 So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church.

11 Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God.  3 John 1:9-11esv

This sounds an awful lot like what we know as preachers today and nothing like the example the Apostles were setting. 

What then are we to think of 'elders', 'preachers', 'teachers'...? These descriptions are in Scripture. I even went back to the Greek and double checked that these were the actual words used. 

Let me add that I can't read Greek so I have to take others' word for it but the Interlinear Bible shows that 'preacher' was the word used. Granted, the people translating the Greek are still fallen men and they approach these languages with the traditions of their time firmly ingrained into them. But even if the original Scriptures truly used the word preachers...did preacher mean then what it does now?

So what does that leave us to make of these words today? Do we take them as the meanings our modern minds automatically associate with those words or do we delve deeper and look at history? Or better yet, do we look at Scripture and rather than reading these words, 'bishop', 'preacher', 'teacher', 'elder', etc, do we look to the example in Scripture and let that example show us what these men were?

I'm walking on thin ground here and I realize it. I'm writing against our learning from the teachings of men while I am WRITING out my own thoughts and understandings. My purpose here is not to teach anyone. If you're reading this please, please, do not take me at my word. Please use the things I am writing as a springboard for doing your own studies. Read the passages I am writing of. Read all of the New Testament, or at least from Acts on with an open mind and a heart to learn. Look at it not through the lens of our modern world, not through what you've been taught in life, not even through what you think it is, but through Scripture and only Scripture. 

See what the Apostles did. Feel what they felt, or try to. Hear what they heard, or try to. Put yourself in the place of the Apostles...how would you have felt? Put yourself in the place of the early believers, imagine what it was like for them. And READ Scripture with an open mind and an open heart, tossing aside all previously held ideas of what anything might have meant. 

And so I ask...what were elders? What were teachers? What were preachers? Were they what our churchinized minds lead us to see them as? Or were they something else? 

1 Peter 5:2 gives us an excellent example of what an elder was:

shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; (ESV)

One of the great things about our modern times is the ability to look at various versions of Scripture very nearly all at once. With only the stroke of my keyboard I was able to view that very verse in multiple translations. As a general rule I stick to only a couple of translations but sometimes I find it interesting to compare one verse across multiple translations. Today I enjoyed doing just that with the above verse and came up with this...

Be shepherds of God’s flock that is among you, watching over them not out of compulsion, but because it is God’s will; not out of greed, but out of eagerness; (Berean Study Bible)

Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; (KJV)

Shepherd God's flock among you, not overseeing out of compulsion but freely, according to God's will; not for the money but eagerly;  (HCSB)

So many different versions all saying pretty much the same thing yet all saying something different. Let's first look at the last part of that verse...not for shameful gain, not out of greed, not for filthy lucre, and most plainly put, not for the money.

We see there that what these men are doing are not supposed to be for money. Now lets look to what they were doing. Shepherd the flock...be shepherd's of God's flock...and my favorite, feed the flock of God (which is among you). 

What are they feeding the flock? How are they shepherding them? 

We must once again look to what the Apostles were, to what their divinely appointed job was. They were given the task to bring the Scriptures into being. Prior to their unceasing work there were no New Testament Scriptures. 

My modern American mind cannot even fathom a world in which there is no Bible. My heart sings when I read Scripture. I fall in love all over again with the words of the Lord, written through the Apostles, each time I read them. If need be I could walk through my home and gather together more Bibles than any one family probably has a right to own. Should I ever have the need to do so I could go to any number of stores and buy a Bible with no trouble. 

What I cannot do no matter how hard I try is imagine a world without the Bible. I simply can't do it. I have tried and tried but I can't do it. Mentally I know there was a time when there were no Bibles. I understand that for some people today, in some countries or situations, there still are no Bibles. But my modern American mind cannot imagine it. I simply can't grasp what life would be like without a Bible. 

Call us Bible hoarders but as I write this I can literally see eight Bibles from where I sit. Eight. How can I, someone that without turning my head can see eight Bibles, truly comprehend what life would be like not only without owning a Bible but without any knowledge of what one was?

Yet, that is exactly what the world was like when the Apostles were doing their divinely appointed job. These brand new new covenant Christians had no Bible to turn to. They couldn't read the Scriptures to learn about Christ, couldn't read them, study them, to learn what a Christian was. 

The Apostles were their Bibles. And when the Apostles had to leave town they literally HAD to appoint someone to oversee not so much the believers but the Scriptures. Someone had to be the keepers...the guardians...of the Scriptures. Someone had to know them so that they could share them with believers and unbelievers alike. 

That's what the 'preachers' were. It's what the 'elders' were. It's what the 'bishops' were. They were the keepers or overseers of the Scriptures.