We think of the observable part of a physical tree as starting with a trunk at ground level and branching and branching until reaching the leaves at the top (or logically outer part) of a branch.

Note that the root system (not shown) appears as a tree in the opposite direction.

A management hierarchy, as usually drawn, can be thought of as a tree with a root at the top with the boss and branching down through possibly many layer of management until the workers (not managers, by definition) are at the level of the leaves.

The same organizational chart can be drawn as a computer tree where the root is at the top (of the paper) and grows downward, in contrast to real trees (where the root system grows downward under the ground).

Hierarchies as trees of nodes and edges are often used in computer science in the areas of algorithms, data structures, programming languages, etc.

Computer trees and graphs are collections of nodes (vertices) and edges (arcs) connecting those nodes.

The Facebook graph is a data structure of users and who they know, are friends with, etc. The Facebook graph is huge, with hundreds of millions of nodes (people, groups, organizations, etc.) and billions of edges connecting those nodes.

Mathematicians often call nodes vertices and edges arcs.

Computer scientists often like when names (as in variables) have the same number of letters. The words "node" and "edge" each have four letters. And the letter "v" is often used for "variables" so it is already taken as an abbreviation.

An undirected edge (arc) connects two nodes (vertices) without a direction on the edge (arc).

In the Facebook graph, the "friend" relation goes both ways. Both sides need to agree or accept that relation. It is an undirected edge in the Facebook graph.

A directed edge (arc) connects two nodes (vertices) with a direction on the edge (arc).

In the Facebook graph, a "like" is a relation that goes one way. It is a directed edge. What is "liked" does not have to return the "like".

In many ways, Moses is a type of Jesus. Moses needs to "judge" his people - deciding on matters that cannot be resolved between individuals, etc.

Moses is using the same organizational style as Jesus. For more about the hierarchy in the "kingdom" see the following.

• Mother left the right idea

Jesus explains his hierarchy another way in John 15, where vines do not have branches like trees,

In this world, however, efficiency considerations (not always the best reason) lead to a different organizational style as will be suggested by Jethro.

Jethro was the father-in-law of Moses. After Moses brought his people out of Egypt, Jethro joined him.

Jethro had a solution to a problem that Moses had as judge of the people.

Jethro now gives some man-made advice to arrive at a more time-efficient way of doing things.

Discussion question: Provide some examples of when time-efficiency considerations cause problems.

Our modern overriding concern with time efficiency has roots in the railroad system in the mid-1800's. In order to have the trains run on "time" and to not collide with other trains, an exact time schedule was needed. This "exact" time schedule soon found its way into all other ways of life. For centuries, an exact time system had been desired in order to have ships accurately determine their longitude. Now that exact time system became part of everyone's life - for better or worse.

Jethro carefully conditions his advice on a premise "if God command thee so".

Moses will do what Jethro suggests. Where can we find that God commanded Moses to do it so?

In the above verse, we have the hierarchy being created.

• Rulers of thousands.
• Rulers of hundreds.
• Rulers of fifties.
• Rulers of tens.

Some use the above verse as part of the idea of democracy, which, in theory, has power coming bottom-up from the people instead of top-down from a dictator.

Obviously this is not the first time that such a hierarchy of human management had been created. It is inconceivable that the Tower of Babel, the Pyramids, etc., could have been created without such a human organization. This appears to be the first time in the Bible that it is stated in detail and from inception.

An interesting part here is that what it replaced models the hierarchy of Jesus (and God) while what it established was a hierarchy established by humans - for better or worse.

The temple hierarchy tree has its roots, so to speak, in the innovation suggested by Jethro to Moses.

God does give specific commands for this temple hierarchy - a future topic.

At human hierarchy, such as the temple system, grew and expanded to be quite complex. So much so that Jesus has many criticisms about that system.

Here is how a human hierarchy system happens in a bottom-up manner.

Start with a collection of people.

These people organize into small groups.

These groups now organize more.

A leader is at the top. Here, four levels are shown.

• One level are the people, the leaves of the tree.
• Three levels are managers, the nodes of the tree.
• The root node is the person in overall charge.

There are many variations on this idea that do not fit exactly into this idealized model.

Another way is the top-down method that starts with a leader who finds others to find other, etc.

The leader finds some followers.

Imagine a multi-level marketing scheme where those who sell make more if they find followers who can also sell, etc.

This is how multi-level marketing works. It is the idea behind a pyramid scheme where the system collapses when there are not enough people left at the leaves.

The limiting factor in other examples is when there are no more followers to be found.

Hierarchies of people tend to evidence certain issues.

Each part of a people hierarchy starts, in general, to have their own best interests as a goal and not the best interests of the organization. People, due to laziness, etc., will actually use other people to further their own interests (usually for not good or bad purposes).

The effect of this is what is sometimes called the "deep state" even though the principle becomes an integral part of any large human organization.

The "birds" or "fowls" are or are of the "evil" or "wicked" one that take away what was sown from those who do not understand. The KJV translates as "evil" or "wicked" the Greek word that means "oppression" or "oppressor".

More: Overly burdened in the cares and concerns of evil

More: Evil training is toilsome work: no pain no gain

Any large organizational structure of humans has many "birds" that come and pick what they can from that part of the organization, finding a place in the organization in which to nest.

Another issue is that what started as a cooperative way to organize might give the overall leader (and sub-leaders) enough power that the rights of those at the bottom can be ignored where the interests of the leader (and sub-leaders) take priority.

Pilate understood this hierarchy of power when Jesus talked about it.

The Roman power went from top to bottom. The primary question from what has been discussed is the following.

• Jesus appears to have a flat organizational structure without intermediate structure.
• The church (and the world) tends to have extensive intermediate structures with lots of middle management in any organization, for better or worse.

Discussion question: Is the "church" as envisioned by Jesus to be more of a flat organizational structure or a deep and extensive organizational structure? Explain.

Discussion question: How important is it that church structures be small and not large?

What happens when a church gets too large - either a single church or a denomination?

As computers were becoming more prevalent, in the late 1980's, a common analogy of the hierarchy of the select group of computer professionals running the expensive mainframes was that of the "ivory tower". This included the idea of those professionals being aloof and secluded from the practical needs of those who asked for their services.

This is somewhat similar to the temple when Jesus walked the streets of Jerusalem and the surrounding area.

Sometimes the ivory tower is specific to an area, such as the "ivory tower of academia".

To some, this brings to bind the Tower of Babel in the Old Testament where the languages were confused.

Building a tower of bricks to reach the heavens is not very practical. And, by all indications, that was not the intention.

Organizing large numbers of people to accomplish a goal requires a lot of "middle management" to command and control the vast number of people, material, resources, etc., to accomplish tasks.

How do these goals contrast with that of being a simple gardener taking care of a little piece of land?

In the GNT (Greek New Testament), the Greek words for "hierarchy" as in "high priest" are in the opposite order.

The Greek city name "Hierapolis" means "holy city".

• The modern Greek word "πόλη" (PO-lee) ≈ "city" and is the source of English word "politics".

Colossae, to which Paul's letter to the Colossians was written, was near to both Hierapolis and Laodicea.

Hierapolis was near Laodicea (mentioned here) and Sardus, both mentioned in Revelation 3.

From working in organizations from very small to very large, my experience is that very small organizations have few meetings and those are kept short and to the point. That is, the person having the meeting is personally paying for every minute that everyone is attending. In larger organizations, there are many meetings that have very little value and the manager having the meeting is not personally paying in any real sense for people to be there.

Discussion question: (and a future topic)

• When Jesus established his church and Paul organized it, was that church intended to be an extensive hierarchy as has happened over history?
• Was the church intended to be a decentralized local institution?