Pastors, by whatever name they may have been known, had the same service, and were of the same grade, dignity, and authority. In the first churches there were no high orders of clergy placed over lower grades, and over the churches ruling with superior authority. All were equals among equals, and all equally ministered to the churches. If in the same church there might chance to be several to whom the titles _bishop, presbyter,_ or _elder_ were applied, they were all of equal rank or authority, though one might be selected to serve as the pastor of the church, and devote himself to its local interests; while the others might give themselves to more general missionary work. NEANDER says: "The word _presbyter,_ or _elder,_ indicates rather the dignity of the office, since presbyters among the Jews were usually aged and venerable; while _bishop,_ or _episcopos,_ designated the nature of their work as overseers, or pastors of the churches. The former title was used by Jewish Christians as a name familiar in the synagogue; while the latter was chiefly used by the Greek and other Gentile converts, as more familiar and expressive to them." "They were not designed to exercise absolute authority, but to act as presiding officers and guides of an ecclesiastical republic: to conduct all things, with the cooperation of the communities, as their ministers and not as their masters." _Introd. to Cole., Prim. Ch., p. 20; Ch. Hist., Vol. 1., p. 184; Plant. and Train., p. 147._ MOSHEIM says: "The rulers of the churches were denominated sometimes _presbyters,_ or _elders,_ a designation borrowed from the Jews, and indicative rather of the wisdom than the age of the persons, and sometimes also _bishops:_ for it is most manifest that both terms are promiscuously used in the New Testament of one and the same class of persons." "In these primitive times, each Christian church was composed of the _people,_ the presiding _officers,_ and the assistants, or _deacons._ These must be the components of every society." _Eccl. Hist., Cent 1., p. 2; Ch. 2, Secs. 5, 8._ GIESELER asserts: "The new churches everywhere formed themselves on the model of the mother church at Jerusalem. At the head of each were the _elders_ (_presbyter, bishop_), all officially of equal rank, though in several instances a peculiar authority seems to have been conceded to some one individual from personal considerations." _Ch. Hist., Part 1, Div. 1, Ch. 2, Sec. 29._ WADDINGTON declares: "It is also true that in the earliest government of the first Christian society,--that of Jerusalem,--not the _elders_ only, but the 'whole church,' were associated with the Apostles; and it is even certain that the terms _bishop_ and _elder,_ or _presbyter,_ were in the first instance and for a short period, sometimes used synonymously, and indiscriminately applied to the same order in the ministry." _Hist. Christ. Church, Ch. 2, Sec. 2._