Bible Dictionaries
Young Men

　　Several Greek words, with little difference of meaning, are thus translated in Acts and the Epistles. (1) ‘lad’) alive’ (Acts 20:12 Authorized Versionνεώτερος: ‘the younger men arose and … carried him out’ (Acts 5:6 [Revised Version margin], 1 Timothy 5:1, Titus 2:6θίασοι of the Greeks (Weizsäcker, ii. 331 f.), and apparently also of the Apostolic Church. Age was regarded as a title to honour, and one of the qualifications for office. Submission and reverence were the duty of the young. Age and rank or office are so closely related, as in the word ; 1 Peter 5:5, and Acts 5:6 in loc.). The passage in Peter runs: ‘The elders therefore among you I exhort, who am a fellow-elder.… Likewise, ye younger (πρεσβύτερος in 1 Timothy 5:1 is official, it would be natural to conclude that it has the same significance in 1 Timothy 5:5, and that συνπρεσβύτερος). Had he been referring to his official position, he would have said ‘an apostle’ (1 Timothy 1:1). He appears to be giving injunctions to the older and more experienced members of the Christian community to ‘tend the flock of God,’ and does so, not on his authority as an apostle, but as one who was, like themselves, advanced in age and experience. Accordingly, it seems best to conclude that νεανίσκοι in Acts 5:10 (Knowing, Neander, Lechler, etc.). The absence in the NT of any clear reference to them as officials is also an objection. Most probably they are simply distinguished as a class in the Christian community, in accordance with Eastern custom. The distinction between ‘elder’ and ‘younger’ was not confined strictly to difference of age. It also included difference of experience and length of connexion with the Church (Weizsäcker, Hatch).

　　Literature.-Comm. on Acts by R. J. Knowling (Expositor’s Greek Testament , 1910, in loc.; N. J. D. White, ‘1 Timothy,’ in ib., in loc.; C. Bigg, International Critical Commentary