Appendix B: The Pastor-Teacher Concept

Some writers combine the gifts of pastor and teacher into one hyphenated gift based on the Greek construction of Eph. 4:11. They do this based on a rule of Greek grammar called the Granville Sharp rule which was formulated around the end of the 18th century. This is a brief summary of the issue.

The pastor-teacher concept is based on the fact that in Ephesians 4:11 the definite article occurs before each of the titles except pastor and teacher. Both pastor and teacher are included under one article. A literal translation is: “And He gave the apostles, and the prophets, and the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.”[1]

The Granville Sharp rule states that when the article is missing between the two nouns, the second noun is a further description of the same person. If the rule applied to Eph. 4:11 it would imply that the teacher would be the same person as the pastor, perhaps even in an adjectival sense such as “the pastor who teaches.” Edgar disagrees with this application of the rule noting that Sharp himself stated that there are numerous exceptions to the rule when the nouns are plural, as they are in this case.[2]

Richard Young, in his text on New Testament Greek, gives the same exception to the Granville Sharp rule, noting Eph. 4:11 specifically as a verse that is disqualified by its plural construction.[3] He then, however, cites the work of Daniel Wallace, who offers five categories where plural nouns of the same construction should also be grouped in some way, one of which is “overlapping groups”.[4] Young summarizes by stating that some passages such as Eph. 4:11 are “still difficult to classify”.[5]

The application of the rule to Eph. 4:11 has support from Wayne Grudem, “Although the grammar does not require it, it is fair to say that it would be more likely to understand this as ‘pastor-teachers’ than as two groups ‘pastors and teachers,’ and many interpreters understand it that way today.”[6] But Grudem has been strongly refuted by David Farnell, writing in Bibliothecra Sacra.

Middleton, whose early study on the Greek article is still highly respected, was the first Greek grammarian to accept the validity of Sharp’s rule. He notes many exceptions to Sharp’s rule when plural nouns are involved.
On the basis of an extensive analysis of plural nouns in comparable constructions in the New Testament, Wallace affirms that plural nouns are an exception to Sharp’s rule. He has cited many passages where the members of the construction cannot be equated with each other and they thus constitute clear exceptions (e.g., Matt. 3:7; 17:1; 27:56; Acts 17:12). His conclusion is, “Granville Sharp applied his rule only to singular, non-proper, personal nouns of the same case.” Wallace[7] has cataloged the abuse of Sharp’s rule by several grammatical works considered standards in the field of New Testament grammar. Regarding this abuse he notes,
“But what about the abuse of this rule? Almost without exception, those who seem to be acquainted with Sharp’s rule and agree with its validity misunderstand and abuse it. Virtually no one is exempt from this charge—grammarians, commentators, theologians alike are guilty. Typically, the rule is usually perceived to plural and impersonal constructions—in spite of the fact that the evidence of the New Testament with reference to plural and impersonal nouns is contrary to this supposition.”
Moreover, he cites several well-known grammarians to illustrate his point.
"Although most commentators consider the two terms [“pastors” and “teachers”] to refer to one group, we must emphatically insist that such a view has no grammatical basis, even though the writers who maintain this view almost unanimously rest their case on the supposed semantics of the article-noun-kain-construction. Yet, as we have seen, there are no other examples in the New Testament of this construction with nouns in the plural, either clearly tagged or ambiguous, which allow for such a possibility. One would, therefore, be on rather shaky ground to insist on such a nuance here [Eph. 4:11]—especially if the main weapon in his arsenal is syntax!"[8]

References

[1] Thomas Edgar, Miraculous Gifts (Neptune, NJ: Loizeaux Brothers, 1983), 325.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Richard A. Young, Intermediate New Testament Greek: A Linguistic and Exegetical Approach (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1994), 63.

[4] Daniel B. Wallace as cited by Richard A. Young in Intermediate New Testament Greek. The reference he supplies is “The Semantic Range of the Article-Noun-kai-Noun Plural Construction in the New Testament.” Grace Theological Journal 4:59-84.

[5] Ibid, 64.

[6] Wayne A. Grudem, The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament and Today, Rev. ed. (Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Books, 2000), 334.

[7] The completely different perspectives that Young and Farnell take on Wallace are noted. I have yet to obtain a personal copy.

[8] F. David Farnell, “Does the New Testament Teach Two Prophetic Gifts? Part 3.” Bibliotheca Sacra 150 (January-March 1993), 76-77.

powered by performancing firefox