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HoLogos wrote:

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Re Acts 14:23, pretty much all Greek manuscripts contain the phrase KAT' EKKLHSIAN. The phrase means "for each church." To translate it "by election" is actually the unduly biased rendering, since there is no lexical authority for that rendering.

Concerning this verse, Henry Alford, Dean of Canterburg, wrote: "The word will not bear Jerome's and Chrysostom's sense of 'laying on of hands,' adopted by Roman Catholic expositors. Nor is there any reason here for departing from the usual meaning of electing by show of hands" (Greek Testament, I, p. 160-161). In Alford's 1870 revision of the KJV, Alford translated the beginning of Acts 14:23 as follows: "when they had elected for them elders in every church" (p. 218). John Owen noted that those who would have the Greek word be "an authoritative imposition of hands, wherein this ordination did consist" …"feign a disorder in them [the words] to serve their own hypothesis; for they suppose that their complete ordination was effected before there was any prayer with fasting, for by imposition of hands in their judgment ordination is completed; so Bellarmine and a Lapide on the place, with those that follow them" (Works, XVI, p. 61). Alexander Strauch wrote: "Ancient churchmen erroneously changed this word to mean ordination or the laying on of hands, which threw later commentators and translators off the right track. In Luke's day, however, the word had nothing to do with ordination or the laying on of hands. In fact, Luke employs a distinct Greek verb (epitithemi) to designate the laying on of hands, which he doesn't use here" (Biblical Eldership, p. 73). Concerning this verse in his notes on Acts, Melancthon Jacobus asserted that "much less is there any ground for Jerome's rendering, 'when they had laid hands on elders'" (p. 257).

John Owen (1616-1683) noted that Erasmus, Vatablus, Beza, and all of our old English translations indicated that the choice of elders was "by election or the suffrage of the disciples" (Church & the Bible or Works, XVI, p. 60). Theodore Beza (1519-1605) contended that "the Christians of Asia gave their votes by lifting up their hands (Acts 14:23, Cheirotoneo)" (The Christian Faith, p. 104). In the Paraphrase on the Acts of the Apostles by Erasmus as translated by Robert Sider, Erasmus at Acts 14:23 maintained that "presbyters were chosen throughout by popular vote in each city" (p. 93). Sider also referred to "the annotation on 14:23 where Erasmus insists that we are to understand here a choice by vote" (p. 262, note 33). The 1599 edition of the Geneva Bible and 1672 edition of the KJV have a marginal note at Acts 14:23 that observed that the apostles "chose and placed them [pastors] by the voice of the congregation." The Geneva Bible and the 1672 edition of the KJV also have this note at Acts 14:23: "The word in the original is taken from the custom of the Greeks, whose manner was to chose their officers by lifting up of the hands." The 1557 Whittingham's New Testament has this note for the word "election" at Acts 14:23: "The word signifieth to elect by putting up the hands, which declareth that ministers were not made without the consent of the people." In his commentary on Acts, John Calvin (1509-1564) noted that this Greek word "means to determine something by raising hands, as is usually done in the assemblies of the people" (p. 19). John Cotton also asserted that "the apostles are said to have ordained elders by lifting up of hands (to wit, of the people) as the original word implieth" (Way, p. 42). In his 1612 Christian Dictionary, Thomas Wilson (1563-1622) has this third definition for election: "the choosing or appointing some unto public functions, by voices, or by a common consent (Acts 14:23) 'when they had ordained elders by election in every church'" (p. 122). John Lightfoot reported that Sidrach Simpson (c1600-1655) maintained that this Greek word "is 'to give suffrage' in all lexicons" (Pitman, Whole Works, XIII, p. 101). Lightfoot also quoted William Bridge (1600-1670) as saying that "the apostles appointed the people to chose; as Acts 6:3, 5, so here [Acts 14:23]" (p. 102). The Dutch Annotations as translated into English by Theodore Haak in 1657 presented the first part of the text of Acts 14:23 as follows: "And when they in every church with lifting up of hands had chosen them elders." Owen observed that the first constant use of this Greek word "in things political or civil, and so consequently ecclesiastical, is to choose, elect, design, or create any person an officer, magistrate, or ruler, by suffrage or common consent of those concerned. And this was usually done with making bare the hand and arm with lifting up" (Church & the Bible, p. 61).

In his commentary, Matthew Poole (1624- 1679) wrote that "the word properly signifies a stretching out of the hand, such as was used when they gave their suffrages in the election of their magistrates" (III, p. 432). Smith pointed out that George Gillespie (1613-1648) "opposed the episcopal translation [the KJV], and shewed the [Westminster] assembly, that the Greek word, by them [KJV translators] turned into ordination, was, in reality, choosing, and imported the suffrages of the people in electing their own officebears" (Select Memoirs, p. 631). George Gillespie noted: "Such men only were ordained elders by Paul and Barnabas who were chosen and approved by the whole church, their suffrages being signified by the lifting up of their hands, Acts 14:23" (Dispute, p. 162). Gillespie maintained that elders "were chosen by most voices of the church, the suffrages being signified, per cheirotoneesantes, that is, by lifting up, or stretching out of the hand, Acts 14:23, where the Syriac version doth insinuate, that the [Greek] word is not to be understood of the Apostles' ordination of elders, but of the Churches' election of elders" (Treatise, p. 9).