From Synagogue to Church: Public Services and Offices in the Earliest Christian Communities (review)

This historical revisionist sees continuity between the synagogue and the emerging early churches of the first and second century. He sees this continuity in the threetier leadership model: bishop, presbyter, and deacon. His thesis is that there was intrinsic continuity of a universal pattern between leadership within the synagogue and the leadership within the early churches of both the first and second centuries. This intrinsic continuity of pattern was not as obvious in the first-century churches because their successors were overshadowed by the animated form of leadership: the charismatic prophets, apostles and teachers. By the second century there was a significant distinction, which became most evident as Christians were rejected and separated from the synagogue. Because this rejection and separation from the existing leadership within the synagogue did not end their need for a similar form of leadership these outcasts continued that which was most familiar to them, a model based on the synagogue.

The early followers of Christ identified and strengthened their leadership based upon a three-tier pattern familiar to them from the synagogue: president, elder, and assistant. This was a reassertion of a familiar pattern of leadership that already functioned during the late Second Temple period. This pattern continued among the first-century churches along with the charismatic prophets, apostles, and teachers, and eventually it began to dominate within the second or third generation.

This domination was not "merely a clerical take-over," but a "reinvigoration" of a "customary" pattern found in Israel. It was a "foundational structure for the new Christian groups since before they were very conscious of it" (pp. xii-xiii). What emerged was the domination of human-structured leadership and what diminished was Spirit-initiated leadership. As they were forced to break with Judaism they became more conscious of their three-tier pattern. This break caused a need for distinction even of nomenclature: they moved from generic terms for president, elder, and assistant to specific titles of bishop, presbyter, and deacon.

Burtchaell's revision adds to the established consensus which affirms an emerging three-tier form of leadership and diminishes a Spirit-initiated form of leadership. Although the nineteenth-century consensus of scholars argued for this change, Burtchaell discovers that they did not consider the primary sources of the Second Temple period as a basis for the intrinsic continuity of leadership from synagogue to church.

This book is a good historical overview of the consensus which has shaped much of our thinking about leadership within the churches, but its most significant contribution is its examination of the primary sources. Although Burtchaell makes many assertions and assumptions, some are plausible or at least worthy of consideration in the presence of so much silence about continuity. As revisionists continue to look at the primary sources, maybe we can consider the possibility that both forms of leadership have always existed within the church of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Perhaps one group has dominated but neither group has been totally negated by the other.