Later on in the Hebrew Bible, God instructed Israelite leaders to incorporate garden imagery into the tabernacle and the temple. The map of Genesis 2:4-18 imitates that of the holy space.
This narrative is meant to preview the priesthood and the holy of holies in the Israelite tabernacle and temple. The design plan of Eden is a prototype of the tabernacle and the temple. And in the Genesis account, the garden of Eden is depicted as the center and mainstay of God’s creation. In the ancient Near East, the temple was the center and mainstay of creation. Only priests were allowed inside most temples because they functioned as mediators between the gods and the people of the city. They were sacred spaces where humans and their gods could meet. These buildings were designed to evoke transcendence and awe. The great pyramids of Egypt, ziggurats of Babylon, and ancient palace gardens all pay homage to these concepts. The concept of Eden described as a cosmic mountain-temple would not be unfamiliar to ancient readers. And in the middle of this cosmic temple, God creates another temple-a garden. 1 Tm 5:17-22).All of creation is God’s temple. that you might appoint elders in every town as I directed you” (Ti 1:5 cf.
They had the authority to select, ordain, and govern other presbyters, as is evidenced by Paul’s instructions: “This is why I left you in Crete. Titus and Timothy were two of those early episcopoi and clearly were above the office of presbuteros.
These were endowed with the power to ordain additional presbyters as needed to shepherd the flock and carry on the work of the gospel. In other passages it’s clear that although men called presbuteroi ruled over individual congregations (parishes), the apostles ordained certain men, giving them authority over multiple congregations (dioceses), each with its own presbyters. ‘Take heed to yourselves and all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you guardians, to feed the church of the Lord.'” And when they came to him, he said to them. This is how the Revised Standard Version renders the verses: “And from Miletus he. Episcopoi is used in a non-technical sense to describe the type of ministry they exercised. Presbuteroi is used in a technical sense to identify their office of ordained leadership. In Acts 20:17-38 the same men are called presbyteroi (v. Similarly, the term diakonos is rendered both as “deacon” and as “minister” in the Bible, yet in Protestant churches the office of deacon is clearly distinguished from and subordinate to the office of minister. The New Testament tendency to use episcopos and presbuteros interchangeably is similar to the contemporary Protestant use of the term “minister” to denote various offices, both ordained and unordained (senior minister, music minister, youth minister). 107), who wrote at length of the authority of bishops as distinct from presbyters and deacons ( Epistle to the Magnesians 6:1, 13:1-2 Epistle to the Trallians 2:1-3 Epistle to the Smyrnaeans 8:1-2).
There is early evidence of this refinement in ecclesiastical nomenclature in the writings of Ignatius of Antioch (d. The role of the episcopos is not clearly defined in the New Testament, but by the beginning of the second century it had obtained a fixed meaning. These are the essential functions of the priestly office, so wherever the various forms of presbuteros appear–except, of course, in instances which pertain to the Jewish elders (Mt 21:23, Acts 4:23)–the word may rightly be translated as “priest” instead of “elder” or “presbyter.”Įpiscopos arises from two words, epi (over) and skopeo (to see), and it means literally “an overseer”: We translate it as “bishop.” The King James Version renders the office of overseer, episkopen, as “bishopric” (Acts 1:20). They were ordained by the laying on of hands (1 Tm 4:14, 5:22), they preached and taught the flock (1 Tm 5:17), and they administered sacraments (Jas 5:13-15). The Bible says little about the duties of presbyters, but it does reveal they functioned in a priestly capacity. The English word “priest” is derived from the Greek word presbuteros, which is commonly rendered into Bible English as “elder” or “presbyter.” The ministry of Catholic priests is that of the presbyters mentioned in the New Testament (Acts 15:6, 23).