Is Episcopacy a Jewish Institution ?
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.