5. What did Paul write to Titus to do about the congregations in Crete, and what qualifications did Titus have to observe?

⁵ Years afterward, about the years 61 to 64 C.E., which was after Paul’s release from his first imprisonment in Rome, he wrote to his fellow worker Titus, who was then in the island of Crete. Paul said: “For this reason I left you in Crete, that you might correct the things that were defective and might make appointments of older men in city after city, as I gave you orders.” (Titus 1:5) Then Paul sets out the requirements for one’s being appointed as an “older man,” by adding: “If there is any man free from accusation, a husband of one wife, having believing children that were not under a charge of debauchery nor unruly. For an overseer must be free from accusation as God’s steward, not self-willed, not prone to wrath, not a drunken brawler, not a smiter, not greedy of dishonest gain, but hospitable, a lover of goodness, sound in mind, righteous, loyal, self-controlled, holding firmly to the faithful word as respects his art of teaching, that he may be able both to exhort by the teaching that is healthful and to reprove those who contradict.”​—Titus 1:6-9.

6. How was Paul here using the terms “older men” and ‘overseers,’ and how is this shown?

⁶ By beginning to discuss the requirements for being an appointed “older man” and then going on to say, “For an overseer must be free from accusation,” and so forth, Paul shows that an “older man” is also an “overseer” (e·piʹsko·pos, Greek). So at the same time that Titus would be appointing “older men” he would be also appointing overseers in the congregation. Thus Paul here uses the words “older men” and “overseers” as being synonymous, as expressing the same idea, as being interchangeable. So an overseer must be an “older man,” and an “older man” must carry out the duties of an overseer. Paul showed this at Miletus.

7. For whom did Paul at Miletus send to come from Ephesus, and what did he tell them to do?

⁷ We read: “From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called for the older men of the congregation. When they got to him he said to them: ‘ . . . Pay attention to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the holy spirit has appointed you overseers [e·piʹsko·poi, Greek], to shepherd the congregation of God, which he purchased with the blood of his own Son.’”​—Acts 20:17-28.

8. How had Paul’s visitors been made “older men,” what service were they obliged to render, and to whom were they primarily responsible?

⁸ According to those words, those “older men” had been put in office, not by any democratic election or voting, but by appointment of God’s holy spirit acting through the visible governing body over all the congregations. By being thus appointed to be “older men” (presbyters, elders) they were simultaneously appointed to be “overseers,” and the duty of overseer obliged them to act as shepherds of the flock, God’s congregation. They were accountable primarily, not to the governing body, but to the Great Overseer, Jehovah God. (1 Pet. 2:25; Isa. 53:6) Paul’s words to the “older men” of Ephesus agree with those of the apostle Peter, when telling the “older men among you” to shepherd God’s flock.​—1 Pet. 5:1, 2.

OVERSEERS AND MINISTERIAL SERVANTS

9. (a) In connection with filling the place vacated by unfaithful Judas, how is it indicated that the apostles were “overseers”? (b) With how many “overseers” did the Jerusalem congregation start at Pentecost of 33 C.E.?

⁹ The apostle Peter and the other eleven apostles were, not only “older men,” but also “overseers.” This becomes apparent at the time that Peter recommended to the Jerusalem congregation to fill the place that had been vacated by the unfaithful apostle Judas. As calling for this, Psalm 109:8 was quoted by Peter, as he said: “It is written in the book of Psalms, . . . ‘His office of oversight let someone else take.’” (Acts 1:20) The Hebrew word for “office of oversight” was rendered in the Greek Septuagint Version by the word e·pi·sko·peʹ, which refers to the office of an overseer (e·piʹsko·pos, Greek). Logically, then, the office of an apostle was the office of an overseer, and the apostles were overseers appointed by Jesus Christ. For this reason, on the day of Pentecost of 33 C.E., the Jerusalem congregation of about one hundred and twenty members started out with twelve overseers. (Acts 1:15 to 2:43) Thereafter as “older men” were appointed to help in taking care of the growing congregation, more than twelve overseers were serving in it.

10. (a) When Paul sent from Miletus to Ephesus, how was the oversight of the Ephesian congregation being taken care of? (b) According to Philippians 1:1, how was the congregation in Philippi being served?

¹⁰ About twenty-three years after that Pentecost, when Paul was en route to Jerusalem and stopped at Miletus, the congregation at nearby Ephesus had a number of overseers, for all the “older men” whom he summoned to see him were overseers. (Acts 20:17-28) Four or five years later the congregation of Philippi in Macedonia had a number of overseers as well as a number of ministerial servants to act as assistants to the overseers. That is why Paul, when writing from Rome, opened up his letter to the congregation in that city by saying: “Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus, to all the holy ones in union with Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, along with overseers [e·piʹsko·poi] and ministerial servants [di·aʹko·noi, Greek].”​—Phil. 1:1.

11. To judge from the Philippi congregation, how were all other congregations with sufficient manpower staffed, in contrast with the later system of “bishops”?

¹¹ From this there is no mistaking that the Philippian congregation had more than one overseer as well as more than one ministerial servant (di·aʹko·nos). This was doubtless true of all other first-century Christian congregations that had enough competent manpower to provide overseers and ministerial servants for their needs. It was a later development after the death of the twelve apostles to have one overseer over a congregation or over a number of congregations in a certain area.a

“BODY OF OLDER MEN” (“PRE·SBY·TEʹRI·ON”)

12. According to 1 Timothy 4;14, what would the congregation group of “older men” compose, and how did they compare with one another as to status?

¹² The congregational group of overseers would compose a “body of older men,” or “presbytery” (Authorized Version; American Standard Version), or, “elders as a body” (New English Bible), such as the apostle Paul mentions in 1 Timothy 4:14. (Compare Luke 22:66; Acts 22:5 as to “the assembly of older men.”) The members of such a “body [or, assembly] of older men” were all equal, having the same official status, and none of them was the most important, most prominent, most powerful member in the congregation. Each member gladly took his share of the responsibility of overseeing and shepherding the whole congregation.

13. According to 1 Timothy 3:1, what was a desirous man aspiring to be and do?

¹³ Accordingly, what did the apostle Paul mean by what he wrote in 1 Timothy 3:1? There he said to Timothy: “If any man is reaching out for an office of overseer [e·pi·sko·peʹ, Greek], he is desirous of a fine work.” He did not mean that such a desirous Christian man is reaching out to become the most important, responsible, prominent and powerful person in the congregation as its sole overseer, something like a “bishop” in Christendom, who reigns over an area (a diocese) containing a number of congregations. (1 Tim. 3:1, AV; AS; Revised Standard Version; Douay Version; New American Bible) No, but this desirous man is merely wanting to share with other overseers in the congregation the duties of watching over the spiritual condition of the congregation, feeding it spiritually, guiding it in Jehovah’s worship. He strives to meet the requirements for overseership that are set out by the apostle Paul in the succeeding verses, in 1 Timothy 3:2-7, and which correspond with the requirements set out in Titus 1:6-9. Such requirements prove that he is “desirous of a fine work.”