# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Februar 1858_S56
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

56 On Lay Elders, or Congregational Overseers.

...they state the reason why they do this: namely, so that they might attend to the ministry of the Word and to prayer without hindrance, Acts 6:4. And this original origin of the ranks and orders of the preaching office in the apostolic church shows for what reason, in what manner, and for what purpose and use such ranks and orders should exist — namely, so that, according to the condition of the local church, the individual functions belonging to the preaching office might be discharged more conveniently, more correctly, more diligently, and in order, with a certain dignity, for edification." After Chemnitz then goes on to cite several other so-called "ranks of office," namely: prophets, evangelists, teachers, shepherds, he continues thus: "1 Timothy 5:17 — Paul makes mention of two kinds of presbyters, of whom some labored in the Word and in doctrine, while others were set over matters of church discipline; of which presbyterate Tertullian too makes mention in the Apologeticus, ch. 39. These are, roughly, the ranks into which, as we read, the functions of the preaching office were distributed at the time of the apostles.. But this reminder must be added: 1. that it is no commandment of God which or how many such ranks or orders there should be. 2. That in the time of the apostles the same, and equally many, ranks or orders did not exist in all congregations always — which is to be inferred from the letters of Paul written to various congregations. 3. That in the time of the apostles the distribution of those ranks was not such that one and the same person did not often take on and carry out all these functions belonging to the preaching office, as is known from apostolic history. Such orders were therefore free at the time of the apostles, in that regard was had to order, propriety, and edification; only that at that time certain special gifts, such as those of tongues, of prophecy, of apostleship, and of miracles, were bestowed by God upon certain persons. Those ranks, however, of which we have spoken thus far, were nothing over and above the office of the Word and the sacraments; rather, precisely the functions of the preaching office were divided into those ranks, for the reasons already set forth. That example of the apostles the early Church imitated in the same manner and with equal freedom. The degrees of the functions of the preaching office were distributed — though not in quite the same way as in the Corinthian or Ephesian congregation, but according to the circumstances of each congregation. From which it may be gathered what freedom prevailed in the distribution of those ranks... In this way, however, and to this end, and with observance of this freedom, most of those ranks of the ancient Church are observed among us as well." (Part II, Loc. 13, Sect. 2, De septem ordinibus, fol. 574 and following.)

Johann Gerhard writes as follows: "In the apostolic and