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To: Salvation

My understanding is the office is Bishop and the priests are helpers of the Bishop.


6 posted on 05/22/2014 8:26:36 AM PDT by Fido969 (What's sad is most)
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To: Fido969

Did you mean the offices of Deacons and Priests are to help the Bishop?


8 posted on 05/22/2014 8:31:59 AM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: Fido969
My understanding is the office is Bishop and the priests are helpers of the Bishop.

I think your understanding is essentially correct. As the article mentions, the terms "Presbyter" and "Bishop" were, at the time most of the NT was written, not as clearly defined as the terms "Bishop" "Priest" and "Deacon" came to be.

In most NT churches, the presbyters were closer to what we would consider bishops than to what we would consider priests. Of course, the fullness of the ordained ministry resides with the bishops. The priests and deacons, as extensions of the episcopal office, are correctly (though not completely) thought of as "helpers" to the bishop.

As the article mentions, Ignatius was perhaps the earliest writer to clearly delineate the three-fold office of Bishop, Priest and Deacon, with a single (sometimes referred to as monarchical) bishop overseeing a jurisdiction. It's interesting - and sometimes a little scary - for catholics to consider that many NT scholars (including catholics) do not believe that this clearly delineated structure reached Rome before very late in the first century or early second. If this is true, then describing Peter as "the first" bishop of Rome may be something of a misnomer.

16 posted on 05/22/2014 9:10:54 AM PDT by trad_anglican
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