29.Hebrews 13:7-24
Heb 13:7-24"Remember your Guides" and obey your Ruling Elders!
Also Owen realized this. For he soon goes on (XXIII:420f) to quote Heb 13:7 as follows:
"Remember your Guides [plural] who have spoken unto you the Word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of [their] conversation" alias the purpose of their behaviour.
Owen then further explains that this relates to the "persons of some men" [plural] who lead the People of God namely to such as are "their ’Guides’ [plural].
He adds: "We must consider who are the persons intended. Our translation makes them to be their present Rulers, toon Heegoumenoonhumoon, ’them which have the rule over you’.... Heegoumenos is a participle of the present tense" meaning: ’he who keeps on ruling.’ Hence the plural Heegoumenoi means "those who keep on ruling"and thus:
’Rulers’ alias Ruling Elders.
Owen continues with his advice to New Testament Church Members to obey their Ruling Elders. On Heb 13:17, he states: "There is another precept given with respect unto them afterwards...and that in words suited unto the duty which they owe them.... ’Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves’....
"Judas and Silas are called Andras Heegoumenous en tois adelphois, Acts 15:22 [the General Assembly passage!] ’Chief Men among the brethren’.... Ho heegoumenos...is used in this chapter only Heb 13:7; Heb 13:17; Heb 13:24 for an Officer or Officers in the Church...who guide and direct the Church; which is the nature of their Office. That is Bishops, Pastors, Elders that preside in the Church; guide it; and go before it." In XXIII:462f, Owen cites also Heb 13:7 ’Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves.’ Owen then explains: "There is a supposition of a settled church-state among them unto whom the Apostle wrote whereof he gave intimation, Heb 10:24-25. For there were among them Rulers, and those that were ruled....
"These Guides or Rulers," explains Owen, "are those who are called the ’Elders’ [plural] or ’Bishops’ [plural] of the Church.... There were many of them in each Church [alias each single Congregation].... Each of them must be supposed to have had more of these Rulers of their own than one; for they are directed to obey them that had the rule over them.... Here is no room left for a single Bishop and his rule in the Church, must less for a Pope....
"These Rulers or Guides were then of two sorts, as the Apostle declares, 1Ti 1:17; first, such as together with rulelaboured also in Word and doctrine; and then, such as attended unto rule only.... The Rulers or Guides here intended, were the ordinary Elders or Officers of the Church which were then settled among them.... That there be such, more than one in every Church [alias Congregation], belongs unto the complete state and constitution of it." In Heb 13:24, a postscript, the holy writer enjoins: "Salute all them that have the rule over you, and all the saints. They of Italy salute you." The latter phrase perhaps suggests that the Members of at least one Presbytery in Italy and apparently also from Italy were giving their fraternal and also connectional salute to Hebrew Christians under the several Presbyteries in Judaea within the General Assem-bly of the Church of the first-born.
Compare Owen’s Works XVII:96-101 with Heb 12:22f and also with Heb 13:24. At XXIII:484f, Owen explains it is his immediate addressees (in Judaea) to whom the holy writer "speaks...peculiarly in this post[s]cript giving them in charge [within Judaea] to salute both their Rulers and all the rest of the saints or members of the Church, in his name.... Who these Rulers were whom they are enjoined to salute, hath been fully declared in verse 17."