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indicating the nature of their work
$
their maturity of spiritual experience. The
divine arrangement seen throughout the NT was for a plurality of these to be appointed in
each church, Acts 14:23; 20:17; Phil. 1:1; 1 Tim. 5:17; Titus 1:5. The duty of “elders” is
described by the verb
. They were appointed according as they had given
evidence of fulfilling the divine qualifications, Titus 1:6 to 9; cf. 1 Tim. 3:1-7 and 1 Pet.
5:2; (4) the twenty-four “elders” enthroned in heaven around the throne of God, Rev. 4:4,
10; 5:5-14; 7:11, 13; 11:16; 14:3; 19:4. The number twenty-four is representative of
earthly conditions. The word “elder” is nowhere applied to angels. See
OLD
.
2.
$ $
(
$ " $
, 4850), “a fellow-elder” (
$
, “with”), is used in
1 Pet. 5:1.¶
3.
(
&
, 3187), “greater,” the comparative degree of
, “great,” is
used of age, and translated “elder” in Rom. 9:12, with reference to Esau and Jacob. See
GREATER
,
GREATEST
,
MORE
.
B. Noun.
$
(
$ !$
, 4244), “an assembly of aged men,” denotes (a) the
Council or Senate among the Jews, Luke 22:66; Acts 22:5; (b) the “elders” or bishops in
a local church, 1 Tim. 4:14, “the presbytery.” For their functions see A, No. 1, (3).
ELECT, ELECTED, ELECTION
A. Adjectives.
1.
(
#
, 1588) lit. signifies “picked out, chosen” ( , “from,”
, “to
gather, pick out”), and is used of (a) Christ, the “chosen” of God, as the Messiah, Luke
23:35 (for the verb in 9:35 see Note below), and metaphorically as a “living Stone,” “a
chief corner Stone,” 1 Pet. 2:4, 6; some mss. have it in John 1:34, instead of
$
, “Son”;
(b) angels, 1 Tim. 5:21, as “chosen” to be of especially high rank in administrative
association with God, or as His messengers to human beings, doubtless in contrast to
fallen angels (see 2 Pet. 2:4 and Jude 6); (c) believers (Jews or Gentiles), Matt. 24:22, 24,
31; Mark 13:20, 22, 27; Luke 18:7; Rom. 8:33; Col. 3:12; 2 Tim. 2:10; Titus 1:1; 1 Pet.
1:1; 2:9 (as a spiritual race); Matt. 20:16; 22:14 and Rev. 17:14, “chosen”; individual
believers are so mentioned in Rom. 16:13; 2 John 1, 13.¶
Believers were “chosen” “before the foundation of the world” (cf. “before times
eternal,” 2 Tim. 1:9), in Christ, Eph. 1:4, to adoption, Eph. 1:5; good works, 2:10;
conformity to Christ, Rom. 8:29; salvation from the delusions of the Antichrist and the
doom of the deluded, 2 Thess. 2:13; eternal glory, Rom. 9:23.
The source of their “election” is God’s grace, not human will, Eph. 1:4, 5; Rom. 9:11;
11:5. They are given by God the Father to Christ as the fruit of His death, all being
foreknown and foreseen by God, John 17:6 and Rom. 8:29. While Christ’s death was
sufficient for all men, and is effective in the case of the “elect,” yet men are treated as
responsible, being capable of the will and power to choose. For the rendering “being
chosen as firstfruits,” an alternative reading in 2 Thess. 2:13, see
FIRSTFRUITS
. See
CHOICE
, B.
2.
$
(
, 4899) means “elect together with,” 1 Pet. 5:13.¶
B. Noun.