The title “ephor” (Gk. ephoros, “overseer”) was used—and occasionally is still used today in Catholic, Protestant, and Anglican circles—for those who supervise church institutions and for officials charged with the training of pastors or the administration of funds. It was a title in ancient Sparta that J. Calvin recalled in Inst. 4.20.31 and that stresses a biblical aspect of church leadership (2 Cor. 8:21; Col. 4:17). The extra salary that, according to German Protestant church law, deans and others receive is sometimes called the ephor allowance.

Albert Stein†