The apostles were all natural circumcised Jews or Israelites, the same as Jesus Christ had been. They were well acquainted with the fact that the pre-Christian structure of the theocratic nation of Israel had had certain appointed officials or administrators. They knew that when Jehovah sent Moses back to Egypt to liberate His enslaved people he told Moses: “You go, and you must gather the older men [z^eqe·nim’, Hebrew] of Israel, and you must say to them, ‘Jehovah the God of your forefathers has appeared to me.’” (Ex. 3:16) Those “older men” were not just men of advanced age, but had the rank of “older men,” possibly on this occasion being representatives of the whole house of Israel.

16. What was the rank of the seventy men upon whom Jehovah put some of the spirit that was upon Moses?

¹⁶ Later, when Jehovah was about to put a share of the spirit that was upon Moses upon seventy other Israelites, he said to Moses: “Gather for me seventy men of the older men [z^eqe·nimʹ] of Israel, whom you do know that they are older men of the people and officers of theirs, and you must take them to the tent of meeting, and they must station themselves there with you.”

20. (a) According to Peter’s quotation of Joel 2:28, 29, what kind of men would be in the Christian congregation? (b) According to the word used in Joel 2:28, why could these be official “elders” or just plain “old men”?

²⁰ The apostle Peter’s quotation of Joel 2:28, 29 on the day of Pentecost of 33 C.E. showed that there were to be “old men” in the Christian congregation, which men would “dream dreams.” But when this prophecy is rendered into the Greek, the Septuagint Version uses the Greek word pres·byʹte·ros, which really means, in English, “presbyter,” or, “elder.” This is because the Hebrew word (za·qenʹ) used in Joel 2:28 is the word regularly applied to “elders,” such as those elders of cities and so forth. The Hebrew word, however, can also mean just old persons, like Abraham and Sarah. (Gen. 18:11; 25:8)