presbyter, (from Greek presbyteros, “elder”), an officer or minister in the early Christian Church intermediate between bishop and deacon or, in modern Presbyterianism, an alternative name for elder. The word presbyter is etymologically the original form of “priest.”
The history of presbyterial government in the early church as opposed to episcopacy and pure congregationalism is not known in detail. During the last quarter of the 1st century, a threefold organization is found in the church: (1) a spiritual organization composed of apostles, prophets, and teachers; (2) an administrative organization, consisting of the bishop and the deacons, the former for higher, the latter for inferior services; and (3) a patriarchal organization based upon the natural deference of the younger to the older members of the church. The senior members of the community, by virtue of their age and experience, watched over the conduct and guided the action of the younger and less experienced portion of the church, though they held no official position and were not appointed for any particular work as were the bishops and deacons. In the 2nd century the patriarchal element in the organization was merged in the administrative, and the presbyters became a definite order in the ministry. The time at which the change occurred cannot be definitely fixed.
The next stage of the development of the office is marked by the rise of the single episcopus, or bishop, as the head of the individual church. The first trace of this is to be found in the Epistles of Ignatius, which prove that by the year 115 “the three orders” as they were afterward called—bishops, presbyters, and deacons—already existed, not indeed universally, but in a large proportion of the churches. The presbyters occupied an intermediate position between the bishop and the deacons. They constituted “the council of the bishop.” It was their duty to maintain order, exercise discipline, and superintend the affairs of the church. At the beginning of the 3rd century, if Tertullian is to be believed, they had no spiritual authority of their own, at any rate as far as the sacraments are concerned. The right to baptize and celebrate the communion was delegated to them by the bishop.
In the next stage the presbyters, like the bishops, were endowed with special sacerdotal powers and functions. With the rise of the diocesan bishops, the position of the presbyters became more important. The charge of the individual church was entrusted to them, and gradually they took the place of the local bishops of earlier days, so that in the 5th and 6th centuries an organization was reached that approximated in general outline to the system of the priesthood, as known in modern times.