# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_M rz 1858_S84
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

84 On Lay Elders or Congregational Overseers.

preach the Word, but not with proper diligence and zeal! No, indeed all kinds are worthy of honor, according to Scripture, but the presiding elders are worthy of double honor. And that is the correct interpretation. The interpretation of Saravia and Erastus is therefore too unnatural to deserve credence. What they use to prove it is worthless. The first instance is completely without foundation. For that double honor of which the apostle says the presiding elders are worthy is not simply wages or salary, but every showing of honor, whether it be outward reverence, or obedience, or maintenance. For according to the language of Scripture, double honor is as much as ample and abundant honor. Jer. 17:18. Prov. 31:21. Isa. 40:2. 2 Kings 2:9. One part of this double honor is wages, concerning which the holy Paul reminds us that it is owed especially to those who labor in the Word and in doctrine, as those who administer the more important office and, because they are occupied with the teaching office, do not understand another craft, or at least cannot practice it. The other instance is just as easily resolved. For although κοπιᾶν means to labor diligently and to the point of exhaustion, this word is nonetheless customarily used in the New Testament of every minister of the Word, not specifically of those who are more diligent than others. Well known is this exhortation of Paul, 1 Corinthians 16: "that you also be subject to such, and to everyone who works with us and labors." Since it is thus so certain that the word "labor" is used of every minister of the Word, this cannot be denied by anyone with any plausibility. To this add the passage 1 Thessalonians 5:12: "We ask you, brethren, that you recognize those who labor among you, and preside over you in the Lord, and admonish you." It is evident that in this apostolic statement, the words "those who labor, those who preside, those who admonish" designate, as by a periphrasis, every minister of the divine Word, which likewise cannot be denied by anyone. In vain, then, does our opponent seek support for his poor case in the word "labor." Our conclusion, therefore, shall be: that the presbytery in the apostolic age consisted of ecclesiastical and political persons." (Systema universae theologiae, Tom. II, c. 4, q. 5, fol. 383.)

Calov (professor and general superintendent at Wittenberg, d. 1686), after having set forth Grotius's explanation of 1 Timothy 5:17, continues as follows: "Others say more correctly that a double kind of presbyters is established, namely governing and teaching ones. The former they call lay, the latter clerical presbyters. For the former too held the dignity of an ecclesiastical office; appointed by the authorities for church discipline or outward morals, they kept watch over the order of the Christians in the church and over the maintenance of sound public doctrine, and were placed over others in the outward government of the church, and on that account sat in judgment together with the pastors.