Paul briefly mentions one institution characteristic of the early Christian church: the institution of presbyters, or elders. Judging by the fact that alongside the laying on of hands there is a mention of "prophecy" as a gift, or "prophesying" as a special spiritual state characteristic of a prophet at the moment when he experiences revelation (the corresponding Greek word can mean both), one may suppose that the community of "elders" (presbyters) was, at any rate in the Church of the earliest Christian period, a charismatic community. In any case, the laying on of hands involved prayer for God to send down the Spirit who was to renew the one for whom they prayed; and the whole Yahwistic, and later synagogue, tradition, as well as the tradition of the Jewish religious brotherhoods that existed in the Gospel era, connected such renewal with the gift of prophecy.
Of course, someone who had undergone this kind of experience did not necessarily become a prophet, but he experienced in himself the action of God's breath that, properly speaking, makes a biblical prophet a prophet. Among the people of God, certain ministries had long presupposed the need for such an experience; a well-known example is the first kings of Israel, who could not claim authority without passing through prophetic consecration (a typical example is Saul's consecration, 1 Sam. 10:1-12). However, Saul's example is also the best proof that no consecration in itself changes a person automatically, apart from his will and spiritual effort. That is why Paul urges Timothy to care for the gifts received from God during the laying on of hands, gifts that otherwise can easily be lost.
As for the community of "elders" (presbyters), it was apparently a charismatic community not in the sense that all its members were prophets, but in the sense that all of them had undergone the experience of the Spirit's descent, just as Timothy had. Probably after such a laying on of hands the one who had experienced spiritual renewal himself became a presbyter, as happened with Timothy, who before, judging by the context of the letter, had probably been an ordinary deacon heading the community. Now he became a deacon-presbyter, and, as one can see, unusually young from the standpoint of church practice that existed at that time; judging by the encouragement Paul sends his disciple, this caused some people to feel perplexity and contempt toward the young "elder."
As one can see, the apostle remembered what some of his fellow believers forgot: spiritual age and physical age are not the same thing. Physical age is determined by the number of years lived; spiritual age by the intensity of spiritual life and the measure of rootedness in the Kingdom. And Paul, as one can see, advises Timothy to care above all for the second, without giving great importance to the first.
