Bible Lexicons

";an old man"; : see P Strass I. 41.38 (A.D. 250) ὡς πρεσβύτης καὶ πίστεως ἄξιος εἰπὲ ἃ οἶδας ἐν τῷ πρά [γματ ]̣ι, 40 πρεσβύτης ἄνθρωπός εἰμι, οὐκ ἐνιαυτὸς [δι ]αγέγονεν οὐδὲ δύο οὐδὲ τρ ̣ῖς, P Flor I. 50.62 (A.D. 268) Βίκτορα πρεσβύτην ὡς (ἒτων) ξ ̄η ̄, and so.95. In BGU IV. 1024viii. 12 (end of vi/A.D.) the word is used of an old woman—Θεοδώρα δὲ αὐτῆς πενίχρα καὶ πρεσβύτης ἡ μήτηρ τῆς ἀπ [ελ ]θούσης.

Πρεσβύτης = senex is written quater in the LXX for πρεσβευτής = legatus (see Thackeray Gr. i. p. 97), and a like confusion may have arisen in Philemon 1:9, where Lightfoot, in accordance with the interchange of ευ and υ in the common dialect of the time, reads πρεσβύτης with the MSS., but renders ";ambassador."; It may be noted, however, that in P Oxy VI. 933.31 (late ii/A.D.) a letter addressed πρεσβευτῇ, the editors remark that an error for πρεσβύτῃ is unlikely : cf. Moulton Gr. i. p. 86 f. and see s.v. πρεσβεύω. On the use of πρεσβευταί for πρέσβεις in the inscrr. see Nachmanson p. 121, and Lafoscade de Epistulis p. 90.