[DouglasKC]

The modern office of "bishop", as defined by the Catholic church, is undoubtedly not an equivelent role to "episkopos" as used in the bible.
Undoubtedly? Have you read the fathers? Have you read the epistles of Ignatius, whose life long overlapped that of the Apostles? The role we see for the bishops in Ignatius is the same role we see for the bishops in the Catholic Church today. If only more Catholics today gave bishops the respect and submission appropriate to the office as Ignatius describes it in 107 AD.

Undoubtedly. Bishops in the Catholic church are prohibited from marrying. "Episkopos" in the bible are not:

1Ti 3:2 A bishop ("episkopos") then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach;

Not the same job description at all.

[Petronski]

Paul had no wife. Is he disqualifying himself?


Or does it mean no man should be made Bishop who has had more than one wife?

[adiaireton8]

Undoubtedly. Bishops in the Catholic church are prohibited from marrying. "Episkopos" in the bible are not:

Be careful. What you are saying is true. But it does not follow from that that it is "Not the same job description at all". The bishops together decided that it was better for the Church that the office of bishop be restricted to unmarried men. (As those ordained by the Apostles, they have the authority to make such decisions, just as they decided authoritatively which books belonged to the canon.) They did not take Paul's "the husband of one wife" to be saying that a bishop *must* be married. They understood Paul to be saying that a bishop must not have more than one wife. Paul himself says that he who does not marry does even better (1 Cor 7). Limiting the office to unmarried men does not change the "job description", or the authority endowed by ordination to the office of bishop.

-A8