The Talmud resolves the apparent contradiction between the ruling of the mishna and the statement of Rabbi Elazar by explaining the situation to which the mishna refers.

The Gemara answers: It is as Rabbi Yohanan said elsewhere: The Sages taught with regard to the laymen’s courts in Syria. Here, too, the mishna is addressing a similar situation: They taught the halakha in the mishna with regard to the laymen’s courts in Syria, where even a debtor can refuse to be judged before the court chosen by the creditor, and claim that they are not worthy judges. But, by inference, if the creditor chooses a court of experts, the debtor does not have the right to refuse to be judged before them.