Two minute commentary on the word "pastor" in Ephesians 4:11

This is a republishing of a blog I originally did on December 4,2010.  It is unique in that, unlike any of my other blogs, it never received a page view.  Maybe it is because of the title I gave it, or that it was with the first few days after I started this blog.  This piece was written to be a one minute long radio commentary.  At the time, I recorded it and was able to say all this in clear English in two minutes.  Later, when I compiled a recording, I did five minute commentaries.  Because of the time limit I was working on, there is one statement below that comes across less nuanced than may be proper.

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95—“pastor” word study

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.

            The modern job, position, and title of the word “pastor” is far different from what Paul meant in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11.  The Greek word “poimen” appears 18 times in the New Testament.  The other 17 times it is translated “shepherd” meaning either a) a sheep herder, or b) a reference to Jesus, that what He does for his people is like what a shepherd does for the sheep.  Neither of those meanings fit Ephesians 4:11.  Paul is speaking about gifts of ministry.  Pastor is the Latin word for shepherd; its use is a distinction in context, but not in the word itself.  The way the sentence is constructed, Paul was putting shepherd or pastor together with teacher, such as we, in English, would write shepherd hyphen teacher.  This was an experienced, faithful, obedient believer who has accepted a gift to care for and teach others in Christian love as a matter of their growing in spiritual maturity.  Such maturity is a criterion on the shepherd’s part.  Intellectual achievement was not.  Certainly no man or organization was or is today capable of giving God’s gifts.  It was not an honorific title.  It had nothing to do with getting paid. 

            Another thing that shows that pastor or shepherd does not stand alone from teacher is that, in the New Covenant days scriptures, one can find persons indicated to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, and teachers, but no person is designated to be a pastor.  How did we wind up using the term to designate the leader of a group of believers? Before the Reformation, the word “priest” was used, but the Old Testament shows that a priest is a mediator between man and God.  Jesus’ death destroyed that need.  After the Reformation, over time, the word “pastor” worked itself out over time.

            You can email me at 757757tev@gmail.com.(1) For more info on organic worship, visit http://www.simplechurch.com/ or locally at (local website).
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 What would be more nuanced is the idea that pastor/shepard and teacher definitely would be a hyphenated two word phrase in English.  This, I am told by people who know this better than I, is a maybe yes, maybe no thing, although, personally, I believe it makes better sense when combined with the fact that we have no early examples of a person being called a pastor or shepherd, and we have a woman, Junia, being called an apostle in Romans 16:7.
I got all this information from Barna & Viola's Pagan Christianity, which, in turn, has the scholarly references.
1)  In the original post, I had a different email address, but that one I am no longer watching.  I have inserted the one I do regularly use for all kinds of purposes.

1004--pastor, as a one minute commentary

Today, I am posting another one-minute commentary that I somehow neglected to publish earlier.

1004—pastor

            My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.  You may have heard that the one place that the word “pastor” appears in the New Testament is Ephesians 4 verse 11.  In English, this is true.  A standard tenant of the Christian faith is that we believe that God inspired the writers of the Bible to say what they did in the original languages.  In studying the Bible, one finds that the original words have some extremely meaningful nuances, and, as much as we can appreciate translations, they invariably and unavoidably add and delete nuances.  In the original Koine Greek, the word translated “pastor” is poimen, and that appears 18 times in the New Testament.  All the other times it is translated “shepherd” and refers to either a sheep herder, or that Jesus cares for us as a shepherd cares for his sheep.  In Ephesians 4, there is reason to believe that the word is modifying the following word, “teacher”.  We have no evidence of this being used to designate a type of leader in the church by itself until after the Reformation.  You can find out more about simple worship at www.hrscn.org. You can call me at 757-735-3639.

Simple Church Minute 95--"pastor" word study

95—“pastor” word study

THIS IS NOT ON FIRST RECORDING

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.

            The modern job, position, and title of the word “pastor” is far different from what Paul meant in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11.  The Greek word “poimen” appears 18 times in the New Testament.  The other 17 times it is translated “shepherd” meaning either a) a sheepherder, or b) a reference to Jesus, that what He does for his people is like what a shepherd does for the sheep.  Neither of those meanings fit Ephesians 4:11.  Paul is speaking about gifts of ministry.  Pastor is the Latin word for shepherd; its use is a distinction in context, but not in the word itself.  The way the sentence is constructed, Paul was putting shepherd or pastor together with teacher, such as we, in English, would write shepherd hyphen teacher.  This was an experienced, faithful, obedient believer who has accepted a gift to care for and teach others in Christian love as a matter of their growing in spiritual maturity.  Such maturity is a criterion on the shepherd’s part.  Intellectual achievement was not.  Certainly no man or organization was or is today capable of giving God’s gifts.  It was not an honorific title.  It had nothing to do with getting paid. 

            Another thing that shows that pastor or shepherd does not stand alone from teacher is that, in the New Covenant days scriptures, one can find persons indicated to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, and teachers, but no person is designated to be a pastor.  How did we wind up using the term to designate the leader of a group of believers? Before the Reformation, the word “priest” was used, but the Old Testament shows that a priest is a mediator between man and God.  Jesus’ death destroyed that need.  After the Reformation, over time, the word “pastor” worked itself out over time.

            You can email me at simplechurchminute@gmail.com. For more info on organic worship, visit http://www.simplechurch.com/ or locally at (local website).

Simple Church Minute 29--leaders and shepherds

29—leaders and shepherds

NOTE:  I originally wrote a segment for each of the 61 points Frank Viola and George Barna make in their book, Pagan Christianity, about traditions in the institutional church not based on scripture.  After writing it, I chose to not include this segment merely as I felt that in wouldn’t be an interesting radio commentary.

My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute

            Why are there so many analogies between leaders and shepherds in the Bible?

We humans cannot read the mind of God to say why he chose to use that idea so often, but it is clear that He did.  Moses, the adopted son of Pharaoh, after the murder of the field manager, hid for 40 years as a shepherd.  There is clearly the contrast of his being born low status, raised to high status, only to flee and hide in a job of low status, to have the humility to be placed by God in the position of the leader of God’s people at a time they would need direction and protection.  David, in Psalm 23, shows how God is the ultimate shepherd to his people.  In John chapter 10, Jesus told us that he is the Good Shepherd, the shepherd knows his sheep by name and defends them.  In the New Covenant, a type of ministry is called pastor, a synonym for shepherd.

            I’ve heard some traditional church pastors say, in sermons on Psalm 23, that sheep are dumb.  We humans are dumb in comparison to an all-knowing God.  If you want a sheep to do a human’s job, they are dumb, and no good at public speaking, either. Sheep are appropriately intelligent for what they are to do—eat, sleep, reproduce, get sheared and butchered, and put up with being around humans.  Wild sheep can hide in steep mountainous areas people and most of their predetors cannot get around well in.  Modern shepherds, like other farmers, differentiate large numbers with ear tags.

            How can spiritual shepherds know a large amount of people?  Farther, Son, and Holy Spirit have no problem.  Humans gifted for a leadership position are a different story.  Ear tags? No. A church phone list?  That’s not what I mean, either.  You, nor I, can lead another much further in faith than where we have already walked, and we can do so better when we know each other.  One person can only know so many people, and it isn’t measured in hundreds.  Jesus intensely mentored 12, and Luke 10 seems to indicate, at a less intense level, another 58 or 70. And that was Jesus!

            You…