What’s My Pastor’s Job? - Part 1

In my last post I gave you the bad news: pastors are stressed out, tired, and struggle with the precise role they’ve been called to fill in the Church; not having one single text they can run to for the definitive biblical job description. Now, here’s the good news…God has weighed in on the discussion and done so quite clearly. So, let’s start looking at what God has said one bite at a time.

We’re going to begin by looking at the biblical terminology commonly associated with the pastoral office. Before we do, a word of caution needs to be noted. Too often, modern Christians assign 21^st century meanings to ancient biblical terms; ascribing today’s nuances and meanings to words – meaning s that were never intended by the original authors. In ascertaining the primary role of the pastor, one example of this kind of faulty hermeneutic stands out above the rest. Many authors and pastors take the word pastor or shepherd and apply literal shepherding practices to the term with the intent of creating a modern spiritual application. The question is, is this what the original author(s) meant when they used the same term(s) in their day and to their audiences? Therefore, before we get running in this, we must understand that a word can never mean what it never meant. What the original author intended his immediate audience to understand when he used a word is the same meaning the word must carry for us today. If proper communication is going to occur, we must understand a word in the same way its writer used it. So, when we examine the biblical terminology related to the pastoral role, we will endeavor to understand it as the biblical authors intended us to.

So now, we dive into the biblical text. Let us begin in the Old Testament, for it has bearing on our New Testament understandings. Some of this is going to be a bit technical, but bear with me.

Elder / !qez"

Brown-Driver-Briggs lists three entries for elder/!qez. The verbal form refers to being or becoming old in the Qal stem, while the Hiphil stem refers to growing old or showing age. The noun form refers fundamentally to old age.  However, it is the adjectival form which constitutes the most widely used and predominate nuance; being used more than 100 times. The adjectival form conveys two basic nuances. The first is a simple reference to age, old, and is used exclusively of human beings. The second refers directly to personhood, an old man or elder.   When the adjective is used in the plural it most often refers to the elders of one or another part of a community. When so used, it becomes a technical term referring to those having authority. Used in this plural technical way, elder/!qez"  emphasizes the totality of men of mature years with legal competence in a community. The term and its ancient near eastern equivalents refer to one who wears a full beard or is of full or advanced age. In biblical literature, when in the plural adjectival form, elder/!qez"  almost exclusively refers to the council of elders. Though other Semitic speaking peoples used a body of elder men as part of their governmental system, elder/!qez"  is unique to biblical literature.

While the adjective can refer generally to old age, it is its more frequent use, related to the governmental and leadership positions of the elders within ancient Israelite society that has the most import upon the development of the term’s meaning. Thus, the development of elder/!qez"  as it is used throughout biblical history has direct bearing on the meaning of the term and its influence on the New Testament concept of elders.

Pre-Mosaic Usage

The function of elder/!qez" seen in the pre-Mosaic period is rooted in its role within individual families and clans. Elders were the heads of the families and the leaders and representatives of the tribes. They exercised patriarchal authority based on kinship and the wisdom of experience. The nature of the elder role in the patriarchal period seems to be largely pastoral – the meeting of the pastoral care needs of the family/clan. Such familial exercise of the elder role is seen in characters such as Job (Job 1:5), Noah (Gen. 8:20), Abraham (Gen. 12:7), and Isaac (Gen. 26:25).

Mosaic Usage

Though the familial aspect represents the historical roots and original exercise of the role; the term is most often applied to those who hold a more official position within national Israel. The term is used, in the Mosaic period, to refer to those tribal elders who are most closely associated with Moses in the rule and governance of the nation (cf. Ex. 3:16, 18; 4:29; 12:21; 18:12; 19:7). God officially sanctioned the employment of seventy elders as permanent assistants to Moses in the oversight, leadership, and governance of the nation (cf. Num. 11:16-25). In so doing, God authorized an official and permanent leadership role within the nation. The shift in perspective of elder/!qez" from a predominantly familial and tribal representative role to an official and divinely authorized leadership position within the nation, seen in Numbers 11, can be easily explained. The narrative of Numbers 11 serves to validate the office of elder as a Divine appointment; qualified by the resting of the Spirit upon them (11:25). Parallel passages in Exodus 18:21 and Deuteronomy 1:13 require ability, integrity, and reverence for God as further qualifications for elder leadership; solidifying the concept that early in Israel’s national history the term elder/!qez came to refer to an divinely authorized leadership office.

Monarchic Usage

During the monarchic period, elder/!qez"  was used primarily to refer to leaders of local communities (1 Sam. 16:4; Lam. 2:10). Elders during this period held authority in judicial matters and were responsible for providing wise counsel to their local regions (e.g. Ruth 4:1-12). This latter responsibility was placed alongside the teaching of the priests and visions of the prophets as sources of direction within the life of the community and for maintenance of its well-being (cf. Ezek. 7:26). Proverbs 31:23 refers to the elder/!qez as “elders of the land,” an expression repeated in 1 Kings 20:7 and Jeremiah 26:17.  The association of elder/!qez"  with governmental responsibility demonstrates that the elders of the land had become, a more or less ad hoc consultative body representing the interests of the local communities at the royal court. Keil and Delitzsch refer to the elder/!qez in these passages as the king’s counselors. Throughout the monarchial period the elders left off their largely familial and tribal associations, functioning primarily as pastoral counselors and local wise men, and became identified with the interests of the monarchy and its ruling elite. Thus, the advent of the monarchy transformed Israel’s elders from familial and tribal leaders for whom age was once a prerequisite to a leadership class for whom age may or may not have been a primary factor.

Post-Exilic Usage

The post-exilic period witnessed the continuance of the elder/!qez"  in their official leadership role within the nation. Ezra 5:5 and 6:7 associate the Aramaic synonym elders/bf', and 10:8, 14 the Hebrew elder/!qez with the nobles of the land as a unified decision-making body. When one compares Ezra 9:2 with 10:8 and Nehemiah 2:16; 4:14, 19, and other passages of the post-exilic period, it becomes evident that elder/!qez, are equivalent to the more frequently mentioned  rulers or officials. One scholar notes that at the close of the post-exilic period, at the Qumran community, elder/!qez"  represented a class of lay leaders second only to the priests (cf. 1QS 6:8; 1QM 13:1). With the entrance of the Persian Empire, the elder/!qez" became a council of elders, an official ruling body within Judaism. This council of elders came to be known as the Sanhedrin during the intertestamental and gospel periods.

Here, we have noted briefly the linguistic transformation of elder/!qez" from a primarily pastoral focus, seen in the familial and tribal usage of the patriarchal period, into a primarily leadership role by the end of the post-exilic period is obvious. This transformation influenced the New Testament term elder/presbu,teroj associated with church leadership.

Shepherd/h['r'

The shepherding motif cannot be ignored in Scripture; it is a dominant theme. The Old Testament term shepherd/h['r'  is the term which is most often referred to when seeking to determine the primary role of the New Testament pastor. Not a few writers have ascribed a strict shepherding motif of the Old Testament to the New Testament pastor, and, by extension, to the modern world. John Sittema noted, “You may wonder why so much emphasis is placed on the word shepherd.…More than just a convenient handle, it identifies what the office of elder really is, a shepherding – that is, pastoring – duty.”  Another author, writing on the subject of spiritual leadership for the twenty-first century, noted, “The shepherd metaphor shows up more than five hundred times in Scripture, across both Old and New Testaments. Without question, the dominant biblical model for spiritual leadership is the shepherd and flock.” This begs the question, does shepherd/h['r'  only convey a strict shepherding motif, or does the term convey a larger nuance applicable to the pastoral role?

Basic Meaning

 The basic meaning of shepherd/h['r is, “to graze, pasture, tend, keep (flocks), to shepherd.”  Brown Driver Briggs, however, goes beyond this foundational definition distinguishing two entries for shepherd/h['r; only the first of which is germane to our discussion. The verb form of shepherd/h['r is used literally in the Qal and Hiphil to refer to the tending of flocks and herds; thus conveying the meaning “to pasture, tend, graze, shepherd.” Louis Jonker notes that shepherd/h['r is used 168 times in the Old Testament, and that almost half of the occurrences are in the masculine substantive participle form. The verb form of shepherd/h['r occurs most often with two types of subjects: people and animals. When people are the subject of the verb it is translated as, “to feed, tend, shepherd.” When animals are the subject, the verb is translated, “to graze”. Shepherd/h['r is also used literally, in combination with other terms, to reference places of pasturage and pasturing rights.

Metaphorical Meaning

Shepherd/h['r also carries a figurative, or metaphorical, nuance which is used of rulers, priests, prophets, teachers, et al . Vine substantiates the figurative use of shepherd/h['r when he comments, “Used metaphorically, this verb represents a leader’s or a ruler’s relationship to his people.” This metaphorical nuance is applied to God, as the ultimate shepherd of Israel, and to human leaders as mediate shepherds of the people. Though no Israelite king assumes the title shepherd/h['r, it is a common use for non-Israelite rulers; Hammurabi, Cyrus, Assyrian leaders, et al. all claimed the title or had it imposed upon them. This application of the shepherding imagery to human leadership is understandable in the largely pastoral Israelite society. It is expected that a social structure that began as a largely pastoral group, and whose greatest sustainable source was its flocks and herds, would associate its human leadership with a pastoral motif.

The shepherding nuance found in shepherd/h['r was applied to more than just religious leaders. The prophet Jeremiah applies shepherding imagery to both civil and religious leaders of varying degrees within the leadership strata, while Ezekiel 34 applies shepherding imagery specifically to the prophet caste for the purpose of passing judgment upon the unrighteous prophets of Israel who were exploiting God’s people as evil shepherds. From such usages, it can be seen that no later than the late seventh to the early sixth centuries the metaphorical usage of shepherd/h['r was being consistently applied to those holding leadership positions both inside and outside of Israel. Jonker notes that, “Jeremiah shows that by this time it was a well-established and regular designation for the ruling nobility”.

That shepherd/h['r carries a literal pastoral undertone is obvious, but it is its metaphorical leadership application that has had the greatest bearing on the New Testament role of the pastoral office. The import of shepherd/h['r on New Testament terminology, such as pastor/poimh,n, is significant.

Summary

While it’s easy to attribute the literal meaning of a word stringently in every occurrence, that is not always the best interpretive method. When used metaphorically, or when the authorial intent is clearly something other than stringent from the context, we must interpret it that way. When we look at the Old Testament terms for elder and shepherd, it becomes clear that they do not always refer to old men or those who tend sheep. As we look at the New Testament terms and the bearing the terms we’ve just seen have upon them the impact of the biblical terminology on the discussion of the pastor’s primary role will become clearer.