Moroni’s descriptions of practices give glimpses of the Nephite church organization. The Nephite priesthood organization had at least two levels of hierarchy (disciples/apostles/elders and priests/teachers). Both Mormon and Moroni use “disciples” and “apostles” interchangeably. The New Testament has a similar conflation of terms—for example: “And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease” (Matt. 10:1). In Luke we find: “And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles” (Luke 6:13).
The original meanings were not as rigidly differentiated as in our current religious vocabulary. In modern terminology, the apostles are uniquely the Quorum of the Twelve, specifically called to a particular function. Otto Betz, professor and lecturer of New Testament and Jewish studies, retired, at Eberhard-Karls-Universität, Tübingen, Germany, explains the New Testament usage of the term “apostle”:
The Greek word apostolos (“someone who has been sent”) is seldom used in classical Greek, but it occurs eighty times in the New Testament where it means “delegate” of Jesus Christ and “messenger” of the gospel. Paul lists apostles first among the members of the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:29; cf. Eph. 4:11).
The corresponding word in Hebrew (saliah), was especially used to denote someone given full authority, for some particular purpose and for a limited time, to represent the person or persons from whom the delegate comes.
The New World similarly uses “disciples” as a generic term for those who follow Yahweh-Messiah, while the “twelve disciples” indicates the specifically designated quorum. Apparently, this specifically chosen quorum had the same regularizing effect in the New World as the Old World and a term was created or adopted to distinguish them from other believers in the Messiah. Joseph’s English vocabulary dictates the appearance of “apostle” here; we have no way of knowing what the comparable Nephite term was.
It is clear from the Book of Mormon that these twelve were the ruling quorum of the church. In this verse, Moroni calls them the “elders of the church,” rather than apostles or disciples. There is never any indication of any authority greater than the twelve. This situation differs slightly from the modern church in which the three men who constitute the First Presidency are drawn from the twelve and have an administrative function higher than that of the twelve.
The only other indication of religious functionaries is Moroni’s mention of “priests and teachers.” They have existed since the days of the first Nephi, who “did consecrate Jacob and Joseph, that they should be priests and teachers over the land of my people.” (See commentary accompanying 2 Nephi 5:26, also Alma, Part 1: Context, Chapter 2, “Alma’s Ecclesiastical Organization.”)
While we can certainly see a hierarchical relationship between the twelve and other religious positions, nothing suggests that a similar hierarchy of authority separated the priests and teachers nor suggests any particular functions that are not comprised in their names. The priests would officiate over the sacrifices while the Mosaic law was observed, but it is unclear how they would have functioned under the Messiah’s law. Teachers, logically, would teach and explain gospel principles. Officiating may have been a weightier responsibility than teaching, but there is no particular evidence for this assumption. In fact, they are so frequently mentioned together that the text seems to treat them as dual necessities for the proper functioning of public religion (2 Ne. 5:26; Jacob 1:18; Jarom 1:11; Mosiah 23:17, 25:19, 27:5; Alma 4:7, 14:18, 15:13, 23:4, 30:31, 35:5, 45:22-23; Hel. 3:25).