In your opinion, does Ephesians 4:11 speak of a five-fold ministry or a four-fold one?

Your Question:

In your opinion, does Ephesians 4:11 speak of a fivefold ministry or a fourfold one? In other words, does ποιμένας καὶ διδασκάλους (pastors and teachers) refer to one office or two?

My Answer:

When we read in Ephesians 4:11 is that "he gave…some, pastors and teachers." Here "pastors and teachers" refer back to the single "some," describing two facets of the same work.

Now, the big question is: Who were these apostles and prophets? For we find that the Church was "built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone." Eph. 2:20 and further, even more disturbingly for we Protestants is that very Church is called "the pillar and foundation of truth" 1 Tim 3:15 Not, the Scriptures, mind you, but the Church.

So, I've got to be honest with you. When every Tom, Dick and Harry is a magisterium of one, I get a little nervous. Perhaps, it would do us all good to do a little research into church history and see what Christians before us taught; and please let's not start at 1517, when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses onto a Wittenberg Church door.There's more history before that, than afterwards.

Could we possibly learn something from our Catholic and Orthodox, yes, and Anglican brethren? What about the Apostolic Fathers— Clement of Rome or Ignatius of Antioch or Polycarp of Smyrna? What about the Greek Fathers—Irenaeus of Lyons or Clement of Alexandria or Origen of Alexandria or Athanasius of Alexandria? What about the Cappadocian Fathers—John Chrysostom or Cyril of Alexandria or even John of Damascus? Oh, my, we can’t skip the Latin Fathers, either. There’s that old tongues speaker Tertullian and oh yes, another one called Hilary of Poitiers . . . whew, I am running out of breath. Oh, did I fail to mention St. Augustine, a favorite of both Luther and Calvin?

The point is, we don’t have to scratch out our theology like chickens in a barn yard. Most of it has already been packaged for us and is there for the taking.

Now, as far as the Greek goes believe me I have terrible trouble with a God who expects me to ferret out these truths when we have perhaps over 4,000 manuscripts to choose from, and again every Thomas, Richard, and Harold has his opinion on that, too. Surely, there must be a teaching magisterium besides old Tom, and old Dick, and old Harry. We have better resources that just that of someone with a correspondence school diploma from Podunk Hollow pontificating on every nuance that suits their fancy.