Re: episkope

From: Ben Crick (ben.crick@argonet.co.uk)
Date: Fri Jan 02 1998 - 22:37:57 EST


On Wed 31 Dec 97 (18:10:11), msolszta@ici.net wrote:
> I am wondering if someone would expound the word "episkope" as it is
> found in 1 Timothy 3:1 et al and how he/she thinks this word relates to
> the "position" and/or "function" that Paul is speaking about. The
> dispute between my friend and myself is in essence the idea of
> "episkope" being a "position" in the church versus the idea of it just
> applying to everyone "elder" in general. Your responses are very much
> appreciated!

 If I may interject a suggestion: ISTM that Steven is right in his saying
> As a footnote I've just spotted that Titus confuses
> PRESBUTEROS and EPISKOPOS in 1:6~7, so it looks like
> the same system worked on Crete? (but without deacons??).

 I would agree that for Paul, PRESBUTEROS and EPISKOPOS are synonymous.
 But the early church soon discerned a "pecking order" here, from which
 developed the Church's threefold hierarchy of Bishops, Priests and
 Deacons. Bishop is etymologically derived from EPISKOPOS (Grimm's Law);
 Priest (in the Reformation sense) is derived from PRESBUTEROS, not the
 Latin /sacerdotus/; Deacon from DIAKONOS.

 Ignatius in his Letter to the Smyrnaeans, VIII.1-2, circa 117 AD, clearly
 sets up the Bishop as a Mono-episkopos above the "College of Presbyters"
 and "Company of Deacons". I don't have Smyrnaeans to hand in Greek; those
 of you who work in colleges and universities can help here...

 /Quis custodiet ipsos custodies?/ Who is going to keep an eye on all
 these Elders? Obviously the "Supervisor", the EPISKOPOS. New churches
 who are trying to set up a "New Testament" church order jib at following
 post-apostolic writers like Ignatius; but clearly the Church's Ministry
 was not yet fully developed at the close of the NT Canon.

 I don't think it is too proleptic to translate EPISKOPOS in the NT as
 Bishop. That is how the developing Church came to regard it. Those who
 translate the GNT into modern languages cannot put the clock back to
 the 1st century. The 1st-century church was an "adolescent" church. Paul's
 aim was to present his readers "mature in Christ" (Ephesians 4:13;
 Colossians 1:28; 4:12): not perennial "Peter Pans" (JM Barrie).

-- 
 Revd Ben Crick, BA CF
 <ben.crick@argonet.co.uk>
 232 Canterbury Road, Birchington, Kent, CT7 9TD (UK)
 http://www.cnetwork.co.uk/crick/htm


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