elder, in Christianity, any of various church officers. In modern times the title of elder has been used notably in the Presbyterian and Reformed churches and in Mormonism.
In the early Christian Church the term elder (Hebrew zaken, Greek presbyteros), though possibly influenced by the use of the title for secular magistrates in Asia Minor, was derived from the Israelites, who shared it with other Semitic peoples. Moses appointed 70 elders as intermediaries between himself and the people (Num. 11:16). In the New Testament, elders are mentioned together with bishops (episcopoi) as leaders of local churches; in some passages the two terms seem interchangeable. Later the word presbyteros came to mean “presbyter” (i.e., priest). It is thus difficult to decide on its exact significance in the early church. After the threefold ministry of bishop, priest, and deacon became fully adopted in the 2nd and following centuries, the office of elder lapsed in the Roman Catholic Church.
During the Reformation in the 16th century the office of elder was revived by certain Protestant churches, notably the Reformed and Presbyterian. According to Presbyterian theory of church government, there are two classes of elders: the teaching elders, called ministers, ordained and especially set apart to the pastoral office, and the ruling elders, who are lay persons chosen generally by the congregation and ordained to assist the minister in the oversight and government of the church.
Most Protestant churches employ the term “elder” with various meanings. Among Methodists it refers to a fully ordained minister. In its rare use in the Lutheran tradition, it is interchangeable with deacon in reference to lay persons chosen by a congregation to assist the pastor with official duties; they and the pastor form a board of elders with advisory powers.
In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormonism, an elder is a male member aged 20 or over. This church makes no distinctions between a layperson and a priest. At age 12, all worthy Mormon males become deacons; and before the age of 20 they become priests. At that age a man becomes an elder in the Melchizedek priesthood. In later life he may possibly rise to become a high priest, a member of the so-called seventy.