---
title: Acts 14:23
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/acts-14-23/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/acts-14-23.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Acts 14:23
testament: NT
section: Acts
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Acts 14:23

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church, praying and fasting as they entrusted them to the Lord, in whom they had believed.

## JW Usage

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.

## Protestant Usage

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 Titus 1:5, Acts 20:17, 1 Timothy 5:17, and 1 Peter 5:1–4. Crucially, Paul in Acts 20:28–30 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" (1 Peter 5:1) and identifies Christ alone as "the chief shepherd" (5:4). The NT nowhere authorises eight men in one city directing millions worldwide.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Plural Eldership — The Bible's Distributed Leadership Model](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/plural-eldership.md) — Acts 14:23 / Titus 1:5 / 1 Timothy 5:17 — Elders, never one Elder [Authority]
- [Already, But Not Yet — The New Covenant's Direction of Travel](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/inaugurated-eschatology-already-not-yet.md) — Jeremiah 31:34 and 1 Corinthians 13:12 read together [Authority]
- [To Whom Shall We Go? — Peter Was Answering a Person, Not an Organisation](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/john6-68-words-of-eternal-life.md) — John 6:68 is a confession of Christ, not a defence of the Watchtower [Authority]