ELDERS, or SENIORS, in Jewish history, were persons the most considerable for age, experience, and wisdom. Of this sort were the 70 men whom Moses associated to himself in the government of his people; such, likewise, afterwards were those who held the first rank in the synagogue, as presidents.
In the first assemblies of the primitive Christians, those who held the first place were called elders. The word presbyter, often used in the New Testament, is of the same signification: hence the first councils of Christians were called presbyteria, or councils of elders.
ELDER is also a denomination preserved in the presbyterian discipline. See PRESBYTERIAN.