Acts 14:23
Acts 14:2323Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church, praying and fasting as they entrusted them to the Lord, in whom they had believed.
JWs cite this verse as evidence that the apostles appointed elders in every congregation, paralleling the Watchtower's own elder arrangement. The appointment process is presented as flowing from centralised authority — the Governing Body appoints circuit overseers who recommend elders for local congregations.
Paul and Barnabas "appointed elders in each congregation" — the pattern is plural elders in every local church, not a single elder or a centralised hierarchy. The same pattern appears in , , , and . Crucially, Paul in commits the Ephesian elders to "God and the word of his undeserved kindness" — not to a successor governing body. The chain of authority runs from Christ to local elders accountable to their congregation, not from a headquarters city to branches to circuits to local bodies. Peter calls himself "a fellow elder" () and identifies Christ alone as "the chief shepherd" (5:4). The NT nowhere authorises eight men in one city directing millions worldwide.