Ordination?
Biblical Leadership
Before diving into the topic of ordination, it is important to establish God’s view of leadership and I believe Jesus makes this abundantly clear in the following passage.
17 Now Jesus was going up to Jerusalem. On the way, he took the Twelve aside and said to them, 18 “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death 19 and will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!”
20 Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of him.
21 “What is it you want?” he asked.
She said, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.”
22 “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said to them. “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?”
“We can,” they answered.
23 Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father.”
24 When the ten heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers. 25 Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
— Matthew 20:17-28 NKJV (bold mine)
Ordination
This week we ordained three new elders at our church, and I wanted to briefly touch on this topic and how it relates to power and authority. To be clear, the word “ordination” does not appear in the Bible in the sense that there is no Greek or Hebrew word that corresponds to how we use it today. However, there are some translations that use the word ordination. Below is a quote that goes into more detail.
The word for ordination appears in Exod 29:22, 26, 27, 31, 34; Lev 7:37, 8:22, and 28, describing Moses’ appointing of Aaron and his sons as priests, and the sacrifices used in ordination. All of these passages include the same Hebrew term, מִלֻּא (millu', “filling”), which can also refer to the installation of priests (see BDB 571). The KJV, NKJV, Douay-Rheims 1899, and ASV translate the word as “consecration”; LEB uses “ordination” for only the Exod 29 verses, and “consecration” for the three Leviticus passages. While these differences may indicate a legitimate translation issue, they also highlight the difficulty of discussing postbiblical Jewish and Christian practices of ordination, which lack precise biblical antecedents. No biblical Hebrew or Greek term corresponds one-to-one with the contemporary use of “ordination” (Collins, “Ordination,” 339).
—Thomas Scott Caulley, “Ordination,” ed. John D. Barry et al., The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016). (bold mine)
I have met many people who are very passionate about the topic of ordination, and though I will not do a deep dive into in this post I do want to clarify that this topic is not as simple as some appear to believe. Perhaps you are thinking,
But what about the appointment of the 70 elders and the consecration of the Levites?
To which I would reply, great point. Let’s briefly take a look at what happened on those occasions.
The 70 Elders
The appointment of the 70 elders who will help Moses is recorded in Numbers 11:16–25. The Lord tells Moses to gather 70 elders who he knows to be elders of the people and officers over them and bring them to the tabernacle of meeting. God says “I will take of the Spirit that is upon you and will put the same upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you may not bear it yourself alone.” (Numbers 20:17b NKJV) When the spirit comes upon them, they prophesy, but they do not do so again (Num 11:25). Notice that this account does not mention the laying on of hands.
The Levites
In Numbers 8:5–26, God instructs Moses to separate the Levites from the other Israelites for service at the tent of meeting. Moses cleanses them by sprinkling them with water of purification, and then they shave their whole bodies and wash their clothes. After Moses sacrifices a young bull and grain offering, the Lord commands Moses to bring the Levites before him at the tent of meeting where the Israelites “lay their hands” (סָמְכ֧וּ, somkhu) on the heads of the Levites. Aaron presents the Levites as an “elevation offering” from the Israelites (Num 8:10–11 NRSV). Here, the laying on of hands is used to “elevate” the Levites before the Lord, though not as a sacrifice. Notice that this is not the consecration of an individual, but of the tribe, and the consecration becomes hereditary. (for more see Brisco, “Antecedents,” 167 and Thomas Scott Caulley, “Ordination,” ed. John D. Barry et al., The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).
These instances are helpful in giving us an example of leaders being chosen to serve in specific ways, but you can also see that neither of these examples is identical to the church’s modern practice of ordination. A son of a pastor, elder, or deacon is not automatically ordained to ministry like the Levites. Regarding the 70 elders, they were already elders, they were already leaders, and what changed is that God gave them an extra portion of the same Spirit that was upon Moses. Moses did not ordain them, he gathered them, and God filled them with the Spirit. Feel free to read these passages for yourself in their context and share with me any further insights you discover.
Moses’ Appointment of Joshua
One of the events that has a greater influence on the modern understanding of ordination could perhaps be Moses’ appointment of Joshua as his successor (Num 27:15–23; Deut 31:7–23; Josh 1:1–9). These passages provide us with an important referent for later ordination practices. However, the accounts vary regarding the “laying on of hands” and its significance. In Numbers, God appoints Joshua, “a man in whom is the Spirit,” and instructs Moses to lay his hand upon him (Num 27:18 ESV). In Deuteronomy 31, Moses tells Joshua to “be strong and bold, for you are the one who will go with this people into the land” (Deut 31:7 NRSV), and God Himself commissions Joshua with similar words (Deut 31:14–15, 23). However, this account does not mention laying on of hands. Only later, in Deut 34:9, is Joshua said to be “full of the spirit of wisdom, because Moses had laid his hands on him” (NRSV). The text makes it clear that Moses confers his authority and office on Joshua by laying his hands on him.
Though Moses’ appointment of Joshua may be referenced regarding ordination, in our modern practice we do not have a retiring pastor lay hands on the new pastor who will take his place. So once again, though we can see the practice of the laying on of hands it cannot be compared to our modern practice. Also, Joshua did not appoint his successor in the same manner. In the book of Judges, we have God raising judges according to the needs of Israel. The judges were not ordained, and neither did they ordain judges to follow them.
What about the New Testament?
If we want to trace the idea of “ordination” as a biblical principle then we would be interested in Greek translation of the Old Testament and what words were used with regards to ordination or the laying on of hands. The Greek translation of the Old Testament is called the Septuagint. Below is a paragraph that goes into some detail regarding ordination and the septuagint.
The Septuagint renders the Hebrew word for ordination as τελείωσις (teleiōsis) (Exod 20 LXX; Lev 7:37; 8:22, 28 LXX). This carries the sense of “completion, accomplishment” (Judith 10:9 LXX), “perfection, fulfillment” (LSJ 1770), or “validation” (NETS). Sirach 45:15 records that Moses ordained (ἐπλήρωσεν, eplērōsen…τὰς χεῖρας, tas cheiras) Aaron and anointed him with holy oil. Here, the verb “ordained” literally means “[Moses] filled the hands” of Aaron (or “filled his hands”; NETS), an apparent translation of the Hebrew מלא (ml'). Although Daube stresses the alleged distinctions between סָמַךְ (samakh, “to lean, lay, rest”) and שִׂים (sim, “to put, place”), the Septuagint typically translates both terms with ἐπιτίθημι (epitithēmi, “put upon, place upon”; Daube, Rabbinic Judaism; Ferguson, “Laying on of Hands,” 1; “Jewish and Christian Ordination,” 13).
— Thomas Scott Caulley, “Ordination,” ed. John D. Barry et al., The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).
However, as I mentioned earlier, these terms are not used consistently referring to ordination. Ordination as we practice it today is quite different. Once again, this topic is not as simple as some would suggest. Here are some of the challenges regarding the Greek words used regarding “ordination.”
As with the Hebrew, the Greek word ἐπιτίθημι (epitithēmi) is generic—a common term for all kinds of putting or placing as well as the laying on of hands. Likewise, the term “laying on of hands” in Greek has varying applications. For example, in the Genesis Apocryphon from Qumran, laying on of hands is attested in Abraham’s exorcism of an evil spirit from the Egyptian king (1QapGen XX 22, 29). By contrast, Philo says the 70 elders in Numbers did not specifically receive the Spirit of God by Moses’ laying on of hands (Philo, On Giants, 24). Elsewhere, Philo discusses Jacob laying his hands on Ephraim and Manasseh, but does not mention the laying on of hands in Joshua’s ordination (Philo, Allegorical Interpretation, 3.90; On the Virtues, 66; Ehrhardt, “Ordination,” 125). Josephus uses ἐπιτίθημι (epitithēmi) for the laying of hands on a sacrificial animal (Josephus, Antiquities, 9.268), as well as laying hands on the head of an accused criminal (Antiquities 16.365).
— Ibid.
The Sanhedrin?
Some bring in the Sanhedrin as a possible example of ordination but I don’t think it’s a strong argument. In the case of the Sanhedrin, ordination meant appointment to the position. The Mishnah gives no indication that the laying on of hands was understood to confer the Spirit. As with later rabbinical tradition, ordination to the Sanhedrin was an appointment to a legal post with no clerical or priestly function. Thus, this type of ordination differed from the later practice of Christian ordination, which authorized the person to duties like administering sacraments (Ehrhardt, “Ordination,” 125–26 see also Thomas Scott Caulley, “Ordination,” ed. John D. Barry et al., The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).
New Testament Church Leadership
This is probably the part that you’re really interested in. But I felt it necessary to point out that there isn’t a clear model that we see used throughout the scriptures. But let’s take a look at what leadership looked like in the New Testament.
The way I see it, there is a fundamental difference between New Testament church leadership roles as functions and later Christian ideas of leadership positions as offices. This creates difficulties in the discussion of ordination in the New Testament. Leadership roles in the New Testament churches may have been related more strongly to giftedness (Eph 4:7–16; Warkentin, Ordination). For example, in the Pastoral Letters, the church leadership roles are defined by functions, not offices. First Timothy 3:1 describes someone aspiring to “supervision” (LEB), where the term (ἐπισκοπή, episkopē) here means “engagement in oversight” (compare 1 Tim 3:1 NIV). In a more technical sense, it can also refer to the office of bishop or overseer and is sometimes translated as “whoever aspires to the office of bishop” (RSV, NRSV; for “overseer,” see ESV and NASB). Paul, Timothy, and Titus (see Titus 1:5; compare 1 Tim 5:22) appointed leaders for various churches, but these appointments are not described as ordination (see Stepp, Leadership). (for more see Thomas Scott Caulley, “Ordination,” ed. John D. Barry et al., The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).
Laying on of hands
The laying on of hands does not seem to be related to ordination or positions of leadership, rather we see it in the context of healing and blessing.
Touching (especially laying on of hands) (ἐπιτίθημι, epitithēmi) was common in healing (Mark 5:23; 6:5; 7:32; 8:23, 25; Culpepper, “Biblical Basis,” 477). On the other hand, while Jesus appoints 12 disciples and later commissions 11 in Matt 28:18–20, the New Testament does not record that He lays hands on them. The early Christians used laying on of hands—often accompanied by prayer—as a symbol of a blessing (see Ferguson, “Jewish and Christian Ordination,” 15).
— Thomas Scott Caulley, “Ordination,” ed. John D. Barry et al., The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016). (bold mine)
The Appointment of the Seven Deacons
In Acts 6:1–6, the Twelve need help serving widows in the community, and they appoint seven deacons. The verb for “appoint” (καθίστημι, kathistēmi) used here is also used elsewhere for official appointments (Acts 7:10, 27, 35; 17:15; Titus 1:5). Some theologians believe the text implies the whole congregation laid hands on them (Culpepper, “Biblical Basis,” 477).
Some claim this account shows that “Luke viewed this ceremony as (based on) the account of Moses’ appointment of Joshua” (Culpepper, “Biblical Basis,” 478). There are parallels with the appointment of a person or persons having the Spirit, who is “set before/stand before” those in charge, and on whom those in authority lay hands (for example Numbers 27:16–23; compare with Acts 6:3–6;). However, the seven deacons are not made equal with and do not replace the apostles; therefore this is “neither a Pharisaic nor a priestly ordination, but a lay ordination” (Culpepper, “Biblical Basis,” 478). In that light, the appointment of the seven deacons may not truly be ordination as practiced in some churches, in the sense of apostolic succession.
My Approach
I see the appointment of the seven deacons (Acts 6:1-7) as a model that use in my local church. I look for those who are of good reputation, full of the holy spirit and wisdom who may be appointed over specific areas of ministry. In this context, those chosen were chosen because they were already showing evidence of having the Holy Spirit. In this case, I see the prayer and the laying on of hands as a special blessing. The seven were chosen by their community to serve their community and they were prayed over and hands were laid on them with the desire to bless them in a special way for the task ahead.
I understand that what we do at the local church is unique and based on our current needs, and even though it is based on biblical practices and principles there is no direct equivalent in the Bible. Each church does it (slightly?) differently, but the idea of order, organization, responsibilities, and special prayers for blessing is biblical. We want to be orderly and organized for mission. People are chosen to help further ministry, to serve, and to aid in advancing the kingdom of God.
The point I want to be clear is that ordination is not about magical powers and status, but rather about responsibility, trust, and blessings for the advancement of the mission.
Jesus gave us the mission
18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
— Matthew 28:18-20 NKJV
We should never lose sight of the mission. The organization is necessary and helpful so long as it is aimed at accomplishing the mission. Leaders are appointed locally due to felt needs and a recognition that the leader already possesses the skillset, giftedness, and evidence of the Holy Spirit, to accomplish the task at hand. We pray and lay hands on the appointed leaders because we desire to support them and want them to experience a greater blessing that will further equip them to succeed in ministry.
