have been developed out of the government of the synagogue. We read of Christian elders in Acts 11:30 (in Judaea), Acts 14:23 (in South Galatia), Acts 15:16 (in Jerusalem), Acts 20:17, where we have the same phrase as here, “the elders of the Church” of Ephesus, 1 Pet. 5:1 (of the Churches of Asia Minor). In one of Paul’s earliest writings, written about the year 52, we read of those “who are over you in the Lord and admonish you,” “presiding over you in the Lord and maintaining discipline,” as Moffatt
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