“Another thing which he rebuketh is, that I interpret this Greek word presbyteros by this word senior. Of a truth senior is no very good English, though senior and junior be used in the universities; but there came no better in my mind at that time. Howbeit, I spied my fault since, long ere M. More told it me, and have mended it in all the works which I since made, and call it an elder. And in that he maketh heresy of it, to call presbyteros an elder, he condemneth their own old Latin text of heresy, which only they use yet daily in the church, and have used, I suppose, this fourteen hundred years: for that text doth call it an elder likewise. In the 1 Pet. v. thus standeth it in the Latin text: Seniores ergo qui in vobis sunt obsecro consenior, pascite qui in vobis est gregem Christi: “ The elders that are among you, I beseech, which am an elder also, that ye feed the flock of Christ, which is among you.” There is presbyteros called an elder. And in that he saith, “ Feed Christ’s flock,” he meaneth even the ministers that were chosen to teach the people, and to inform them in God’s word, and no lay persons. And in the second epistle of John saith 2 John. the text, Senior electee domince et filiis ejus: “ The elder unto the elect lady and to her children.” And in the third 3 John, epistle of John, Senior Gaio dilecto: “ The elder unto the beloved Gaius.” In these two epistles presbyteros is called an elder. And in Acts, chap, xx., the text saith: “ Paul sent Actsxx. for majores natu ecclesice, the elders in birth of the congregation or church, and said unto them, Take heed unto yourselves, and unto the whole flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made you episcopos ad regendum ecclesiam ; Dei,” bishops, or overseers, to govern the church of God. There is presbyteros called an elder in birth; which same immediately is called a bishop or overseer, to declare what persons are meant. Hereof ye see that I have no more erred than their own text, which they have used since the scripture was first in the Latin tongue, and that their own I text understandeth by presbyteros nothing save an elder.”
William Tyndale
Tyndale was a heretic. His opinions simply don’t impress me.