ESSAY I.

ON THE ORIGIN OF THE CHRISTIAN ELDERSHIP.

In various living languages there are titles of honour and respect, the etymological origin of which is to be sought in the idea of old age or seniority. Such are Sire, as addressed to kings, and the cognate expression Sir, as used in common parlance, and also in the title of an English knight or baronet. Such too are the French Sieur, Seigneur, the Spanish Señor, the Italian Signore, with their various compounds, Monsieur, Monseigneur, Monsignore, Messire, etc., all which may be traced back to the Latin Senior, considered as the comparative of Senex. We find, moreover, that terms thus derived have been extensively employed, not only as expressions of personal respect, but also as designations of official dignity. This is the case with most of the words already mentioned, to which may be added Alderman (elder man), Senator, Patres Conscripti, the Arabic Sheikh, and many others.

This extensive use of words, which properly denote

old age, to signify official rank, might possibly admit of explanation on the hypothesis, that what was first used to express a merely personal respect was afterwards employed to express the same feeling with respect to public or official dignity; that as any respected person might be called a father or an old man, so a ruler or a magistrate might be so called by way of eminence. But the usage now in question may be still more satisfactorily accounted for, by the fact, that as we trace the history of governments backwards, we find them all to terminate in the patriarchal system. It is this which exists in families among all nations. It is founded on the natural relation between parents and children. It has no concern with artificial theories respecting social compacts and equality. Among those races which have retained most. of a primitive simplicity in their mode of life, this organization of society is still found. As the father governs his own household, so the head of the family, i. e. of the elder branch, governs the younger, and the head of the whole tribe governs both. This system lingers still among the Highland clans of Scotland, and continues in full force among the wandering Arabs. Hence their strict regard to genealogy, which existed also among the ancient Hebrews.

Under all the changes in the Hebrew form of gov ernment, this patriarchal system still remained as the substratum of the whole theocracy; and its peculiar phraseology is constantly recurring in the sacred history. As the natural heads of houses, families, and tribes, were the hereditary magistrates, the name trip?, old men, elders, was the common appellation for the rulers of the people.

The same usage of the term occurs in application to domestic arrangements. Eliezer of Damascus, Abraham's steward, is called (Gen. 24:2), not "his eldest servant of his house," as our translation has it, but “his servant, the elder (i. e. ruler) of his house." So in Gen. 50: 7, we read of "all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house," as well as "all the elders. of the land of Egypt." These elders and the senators of Ps. 105: 22 are identical in Hebrew.

During the residence of Israel in Egypt, the patriarchal system seems to have been maintained, as one suited to every change of circumstances. Hence, when the people were to be delivered, the communications. from Jehovah were made, not directly to the mass of the nation, but to the Elders, as their national and acknowledged representatives. When God commanded Moses (Ex. 3: 14), "Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you," he immediately explained the way in which the command was to be executed, by adding, "Go and gather THE ELDERS of Israel together, and say unto them,” etc. (v. 16), "and thou shalt come, thou and THE ELDERS Of Israel, unto the king of Egypt" (v. 18). Again we read (Ex. 4:30, 31), that Moses and Aaron "did the signs

in the sight of THE PEOPLE, and THE PEOPLE believed.” But immediately before it had been said (v. 29), that they "went and gathered together all THE ELDERS of the children of Israel," which would be a nugatory statement, if it did not mean that the people, who saw the signs and believed in consequence, were the elders of the people.

In Ex. 12: 3, the Lord says unto Moses and Aaron, "Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel;" but in

executing this command "Moses called for all the elders of Israel," and gave them the necessary orders (v. 21). When Moses smote the rock by divine direction, it was "in the sight of the elders of Israel" (Ex. 17 : 5, 6), as the representatives of the people who were to be relieved, and at the same time reproved for murmuring. When Jethro offered sacrifices and made a feast, "all the elders of Israel" came, as a matter of course, "to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law before God" (Ex. 18:12).

A still more remarkable instance of the Elders being taken for the people is in Ex. 19:8, where it is said that "ALL THE PEOPLE answered together and said, all that the Lord hath spoken we will do; and Moses told the words of THE PEOPLE unto the Lord;" whereas in the verse immediately preceding it is said, that "Moses came and called for THE ELDERS of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him." Another example of the same thing may be found in Deut. 5: 23, where Moses, addressing the people, says, "Ye came near unto me, (even) all the heads of your tribes and your elders."

In the Mosaic ritual, the Elders are recognized as the representatives of the people, not only by being joined with Aaron and his sons in the directions with respect to certain sacrifices (Lev. 9: 1), but in the solemn ceremony of imposing hands upon the victim, as a symbol of the transfer of the sins of the whole people to the substitute (Lev. 4: 15).

The "seventy elders" (Num. 11:25), who acted as assistants to Moses and Aaron in certain cases, were not ordained to a new office, but merely selected for a special purpose from a body of men already in exist