by What follows is an extract from a paper entitled ‘Romanism: An Antichristian System’ by G.T. Melville.
The term ‘bishopric’ first appears in the New Testament in Acts 1 v 20, referring to the position which Judas had forfeited by his betrayal. In Greek, the word is ἐπισκοπὴν, episkopēn. In the King James Version, the English word is ‘bishoprick’. In the J.N.D. Bible (which I use, and have quoted from principally in this paper) it is rendered ‘overseership’. In the more modern translations, the word in this context is variously translated ‘office’, ‘position’ or ‘place of leadership’. The person who occupies this ‘bishopric’ or ‘overseership’ is known as the ‘bishop’, the Ἐπίσκοπον, episkopon. Peter refers to the Lord Jesus as Ποιμένα (Poimena, Shepherd) and Ἐπίσκοπον (Episkopon, Bishop) of our souls.[1]
In writing to Timothy and Titus, the apostle Paul gives the moral qualifications which are necessary for one to exercise oversight. To Timothy (1 Timothy 3 vv. 1-7): “The word is faithful: if any one aspires to exercise oversight (ἐπισκοπῆς, episkopēs) he desires a good work. The overseer (ἐπίσκοπον) then must be irreproachable, husband of one wife, sober, discreet, decorous, hospitable, apt to teach; not given to excesses from wine, not a striker, but mild, not addicted to contention, not fond of money, conducting his own house well, having his children in subjection with all gravity; But if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? not a novice, that he may not, being inflated, fall into the fault of the devil. But it is necessary that he should have also a good testimony from those without, that he may fall not into reproach and the snare of the devil.” To Titus, the apostle writes (Titus 1 vv. 7-9), “For the overseer must be free from all charge against him as God’s steward; not headstrong, not passionate, not disorderly through wine, not a striker, not seeking gain by base means; but hospitable, a lover of goodness, discreet, just, pious, temperate, clinging to the faithful word according to the doctrine taught, that he may be able both to encourage with sound teaching and refute gainsayers.” (I have quoted these scriptures in full, because of their importance as a marked contrast to what we see in practice in the Church after so little time had elapsed).
We have it recorded in Acts 20 v 17 that Paul called to himself the elders of the assembly at Ephesus, and, having addressed them, leaves them with this exhortation: “Take heed therefore to yourselves, and to all the flock, wherein the Holy Spirit has set you as overseers, to shepherd the assembly of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own” (Acts 20 v 28). This scripture brings us on to our next point – the scriptural view of presbyters, or ‘elders’.
The English word ‘presbyters’ does not appear in any widely-used English translation that I know of. The word ‘presbytery’ appears in the New American Standard Bible’s and the KJV’s rendering of 1 Timothy 4 v 14. All other translations use the word ‘elders’. The word πρεσβυτέρων, presbyterōn, appears in the gospels to denote the body of the elders of the Jews, and the singular πρεσβύτερος, presbyteros appears many times in the epistles in relation to the Church.
What will immediately strike the reader, upon examining every instance in which episkopon and presbyteros and their variants are used in the scripture, is that they are often used in relation to one and the same person. The example of Acts 20 has already been referred to, when Paul called the presbyterous of Ephesus to him, and addresses them as episkopous. In writing to Titus, again he uses the terms interchangeably: “For this cause I left thee in Crete, that thou mightest go on to set right what remained unordered, and establish elders (presbyterous) in each city, as I had ordered thee: if any one be free from all charge against him, husband of one wife, having believing children not accused of excess or unruly. For the overseer (episkopon) must be free from all charge against him as God’s steward” &c (Titus 1 vv. 5-7). It is manifestly the case, then, that episkopon and presbyteros were not distinct ‘offices’ in the mind of the apostle, as they later became.
[1] “For ye were going astray as sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.” – 1 Peter 2 v 25, J.N.D.