FOOTNOTES.
Reading edition
Next to the Archysynagogus were the Elders or presbyters of the Synagogue. The person whose office it was to offer up public prayer to God for the whole congregation, was probably one of these. He was called Sheliac Zibbor, that is, the Angel of the Church, because as their messenger, he spoke to God for them. Hence the pastors of the seven churches of Asia, in the book of the Revelation, are called by a name borrowed from the Synagogue, “Angels of the Churches.”
Under these were inferior officers in every Synagogue, called in Hebrew Chezanim, who were also fixed ministers, and under the rulers of the Synagogue, had the charge and oversight of all things in it. The deacon is mentioned in Luke iv. 20.
In every instance, so far as I have observed, our Lord adopted the institutions of the Jewish Church, unless they were inapplicable to His new dispensation. “To the end we may understand apostolical tradition to have been taken from the Old Testament; that which Aaron, and his sons, and the Levites were in the Temple, Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons in the Church may lawfully challenge to themselves.”—St. Hierom, Ep. 85.