# Pastor AND teachers one office or two?



## 3John2 (Jun 22, 2007)

I was at another board & they were having a discussion about Ephesians 4. The main gist of it was they were discussing whether where it states "pastors & teacher" is referring to one office that is pastor AND teacher or a office of pastor & office of teacher, thus two separate offices? Was there a fivefold ministry or fourfold ministry? They were trying to ask someone who knew Greek. I am just finishing my first Summer session of Greek so I don't want to pretend I know more than I do as they were quoting some other Greek "experts". Anyone?


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## Jimmy the Greek (Jun 26, 2007)

Brian Schwertley has suggested the following in support of the "one gift" or "one office" view:

(1) In the sentence that lists the various offices in the church, each particular office is preceded by the word “some” (_tous de_). Yet the recurring “some” (_tous de_) is omitted before the word teacher (_didaskalous_). Pastor and teacher are connected by the simple conjunction “and” (_kai_). “The absence of the article before didaskalous [teacher] proves that the apostle intended to designate the same persons as at once pastors and teachers. The former term designates them as _episkopoi_, ‘overseers,’ the latter as instructors.”106 “Were they two separate offices we would expect to read, ‘He gave some, apostles; some, prophets; some, evangelists; some, pastors; some, teachers;’ but the apostle writes, ‘some, pastors and teachers,’ linking the two together; and generally speaking, these two offices are found in the same man.”107 

(2) There are no historical examples in the New Testament of a separate office of teacher or doctor as described by Calvin. While we owe a great debt to Calvin as the greatest theologian and expositor in the sixteenth century, it is likely that he was reading a modern function back into the New Testament. The university professor was a development of the middle ages. The seminary professor came into being even later after the Protestant Reformation. 

(3) The New Testament describes pastors as men who are able to teach. In their role as shepherd or pastor (_poimeno_) they are elders ([_presbuteroi_] Ac. 14:23; 15:2-4; 20:17; 1 Tim. 5:17; Tit. 1:5; 1 Pet. 5:1) and overseers ([episkopoi] Ac. 20:28; Phil. 1:1; 1 Tim. 3:2; Tit. 1:70) who have the ability to teach (1 Tim. 3:2; Tit. 1:9; Rom. 12:7-8). It is simply impossible to separate biblical teaching from exhortation. “The thing is well nigh impossible. The one function includes the other. The man who teaches duty and the grounds of it, does at the same time admonish and exhort.”108 While it is certainly true that some pastors are much better at teaching than others and some may be better at personal counseling and human interaction than others, all should continually work at improving in both areas.

Read the entire article with the footnotes here:


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## Herald (Jun 26, 2007)

Wouldn't Granville Sharpe apply here? ποιμένας *και *διδασκάλους. The two are one in the same. Shepherding and teaching are the two roles of the same office.


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## KMK (Jun 26, 2007)

Charles Hodge uses basically the same argument as Schwertly. Hodge points out that the Puritan's attempts to form the church position of 'doctor' were a failure for the two offices cannnot, in practice, be separated.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Jun 26, 2007)

On the office of doctor, see this thread.


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## 3John2 (Jun 26, 2007)

Thanks guys.


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