From: Michael S. Olszta (msolszta@ici.net)
Date: Thu Jan 01 1998 - 10:10:00 EST
Jonathan Robie wrote:
>
> In Acts 1:20, it says "let another take his 'episcopacy'" (THN EPISKOPHN AUTOU LABETW hETEROS). The NASB translates this "let another man take his office". Louw and Nida make two points that I find helpful here:
> "Though in some contexts EPISKOPH has been regarded traditionally as a
> position of authority, in reality the focus is upon the responsibility for caring for others, and in the context of Acts 1:20 the reference is clearly to the responsibility for caring for the church."
>
> and
>
> "It is important to try to combine the concepts of both service and
> leadership, in other words, the responsibility of caring for the needs of a congregation as well as directing the activities of the membership. In some translations an equivalent may be `helper and leader.'"
>
Thank you Jonathan. So in essence what we are dealing with here is "a
position" and/or "office" which has been interpreted/misinterpreted as
to its authoritativeness among various denominations. Would I then be
correct in declaring that the phrase "office of bishop" used to
translate the word "episkope" is indeed a satisfactory translation, of
course requiring more study in other parts of scripture where the word
is used in both its substantive and predicate/verbal forms, to determine
the overall responsibilities and requirements for such a position/office
and whether or not such a position in the Christian church is to be
volunteer and/or payed?
Michael
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