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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009
IT is a commonplace that the New Testament never speaks of the ordination of bishops. Elders or presbyters with powers of administration and instruction were the only ordained ministers. The church at Jerusalem was in the care of “the apostles and the elders”. When St. Paul visited Ephesus, it was the elders (presbyters) whom he summoned and addressed. It is not a little strange that he should tell these elders that the Holy Ghost had made them “bishops” to feed the church of God. The natural inference (unless the word episcopus is used in a general sense of overseer) would be that the office of elder and bishop could be held by the same person. St. Paul left Titus in Crete with the express purpose of completing the organization of the church there by appointing elders. But here, too, the bishop and the elder seem to be one and the same if any meaning is to be given to γὰρ in v. 7. Again, 1 Peter v, 2, if the reading ἐπισκποῦντ∊ς be allowed to stand, points in the same direction; if it is to be omitted then the epistle recognizes no bishop but Jesus Christ, and then only in a verbal, not a real sense. Moreover, though there are presbyters in heaven, there are no bishops: at any rate the apocalyptist of Patmos saw none !
On the other hand St. Paul, in addressing the whole congregation of the faithful at Philippi, adds “together with the bishops and deacons”, making no mention of presbyters.
page 23 note 1 Acts xiv, 23.
page 23 note 2 xv, 4, 6, 23; xvi, 4.
page 23 note 3 xx, 17.
page 23 note 4 xx, 28.
page 23 note 5 Titus i, 5–9.
page 23 note 6 I Pet. ii, 25, quite clearly uses the word episcopus in the Aramaic sense of shepherd, overseer. It is worth noting that the Feshitta recognizes bishops in Acts xx, 28 (epīsqūpe); but it rules out any suggestion of a bishopric of Jesus by rendering ἐπίσκοπον by sa‘ūrā, i.e. inspector, visitor, shepherd, etc.
page 23 note 7 Phil, i, 1.
page 23 note 8 A New Commentary on Holy Scripture, pp. 577, 8. Cf. Gore, “No one … can doubt that the names indicate practically the same officers”, Orders and Unity, London, 1909, p. 116.
page 24 note 1 In this sense 
is a favourite word in Proverbs. Cf. iv, 14, xxiii, 19, and elsewhere.
page 24 note 2 For the notes that follow I am largely indebted to Samuel Krauss, Synagogale Alterlümer, Berlin, 1922.
page 25 note 1 Yoma vii, 1.
page 25 note 2 M. Tam., v, 1.
page 25 note 3 Ant., xvii, 6, 2.
page 25 note 4 Schürer, GJV., ii, 515, quotes Epiph. haer., 30, 11, ’Aζανιτῶν τῶν παῤ αὐτοῖς διακόνων ἑρμην∊υομένων ἢ ὑπηρ∊τῶν.
page 25 note 5 Jer. Yeb. 13 = Gen. R., Ixxxi.
page 25 note 6 Op. cit., 129.
page 25 note 7 On 2 Sam. xxvi, 6.
page 26 note 1 Sukkoth, iv, 5.
page 26 note 2 Charles, writing in I.C.C. on Rev. i, 20, of “the angels of the seven churches”, says: “Lightfoot, Schoettgen, Bengel, connect them with subordinate officials of the synagogue … Zabn … and Weiss identify them with the bishops of the seven churches”. I prefer to treat these views as complementary rather than contradictory.