Template:Ancient Orders
The Ancient Orders of Overseers
We see the word "paqad" translated [2] more than one way. While it appears more than three hundred times in the Bible but only translated overseer a few times but visit 59 times.
Most of the time it is translated number(119). If you added the letter Hey to paqad you got the word pequddah[3] which included ideas like "oversight, care, custody, mustering, visitation, store".
All these words together described the role of an overseer in the national network of the tens, hundreds, and thousands. They played a role in the service of the people but did not rule over the people.
They were in theory chosen by God but had no authority except by the recognition of the people and the granting of their support through freewill offerings.
They supplied oversight to prevent corruption and provide care. They were part of a charitable network providing care and welfare for the people freely given by the people.
These overseers would take custody of the property of the ministers they served in the case of death or loss of capacity to make sure it got to the next minister chosen by the people through a pattern of recognition by the people.
These overseers were key to ordering the number of the people in congregation of ten families identified as free assemblies and became an important element of the care of the people as a nation.
In time of war or attack they would muster those who would come to the aid of society; In the time of disease or famine they would not just visit but bring aid to those communities that needed more help which is what the practice of Pure Religion was all about; Because they were connected in the network of tens, gathering with other overseers of congregations in free assemblies they could call on a huge storehouse of aid without putting all their supplies in one place or a central treasury.
A repeated pattern
Before the Early Church appointed by Jesus and the Church in the wilderness appointed by Moses there was Abraham and Melchisedec who was tithed to and provided a righteous mammon through a network of living Altars.
Israel, the early Church and many nations throughout history gathered in a numerical pattern of tens, hundreds, and thousands.
An overseer is a joint heir in a national and international network and one of the main purposes of an overseer was to account for those he served by keeping everyone connected in a system of service.
He would gather with other overseers like himself in his own congregation called an Order not of the world.
Those who chose him as overseer did so in hope that he would connect them with the rest of the people seeking the kingdom of God in other congregations.
- ↑ Garcillasso de Vega, an ancient Inca historian says Peru was divided into small districts containing ten families with each registered under a magistrate.
- ↑ 06485 ^דקפ^ paqad \@paw-kad’\@ a primitive root; v; AV-number 119, visit 59, punish 31, appoint 14, commit 6, miss 6, set 6, charge 5, governor 5, lack 4, oversight 4, officers 4, counted 3, empty 3, ruler 3, overseer 3, judgment 2, misc 28; 305 v
- 1) to attend to, muster, number, reckon, visit, punish, appoint, look after, care for
- 1a) (Qal)
- 1a1) to pay attention to, observe
- 1a2) to attend to
- 1a3) to seek, look about for
- 1a4) to seek in vain, need, miss, lack
- 1a5) to visit
- 1a6) to visit upon, punish
- 1a7) to pass in review, muster, number
- 1a8) to appoint, assign, lay upon as a charge, deposit
- 1b) (Niphal)
- 1b1) to be sought, be needed, be missed, be lacking
- 1b2) to be visited
- 1b3) to be visited upon
- 1b4) to be appointed
- 1b5) to be watched over
- 1c) (Piel) to muster, call up
- 1d) (Pual) to be passed in review, be caused to miss, be called, be called to account
- 1e) (Hiphil)
- 1e1) to set over, make overseer, appoint an overseer
- 1e2) to commit, entrust, commit for care, deposit
- 1f) (Hophal)
- 1f1) to be visited
- 1f2) to be deposited
- 1f3) to be made overseer, be entrusted
- 1g) (Hithpael) numbered
- 1h) (Hothpael) numbered
- n m pl abstr
- 2) musterings, expenses</Ref>
- 1) to attend to, muster, number, reckon, visit, punish, appoint, look after, care for
- ↑ 06486 ^הדקפ^ pᵉquddah \@pek-ood-daw’\@ pass part of 06485; n f; AV-visitation 13, office 5, charge 2, oversight 2, officers 2, orderings 1, account 1, custody 1, numbers 1, misc 4; 32
- 1) oversight, care, custody, mustering, visitation, store
- 1a) visitation, punishment
- 1b) oversight, charge, office, overseer, class of officers
- 1c) mustering
- 1d) store
- 1) oversight, care, custody, mustering, visitation, store