Bishop, Priest, and Deacon
The sacrament of holy orders is conferred in three
ranks of clergy: bishops, priests, and deacons.
Bishops (episcopoi) have the care of multiple
congregations and appoint, ordain, and discipline priests and deacons.
They sometimes appear to be called "evangelists" in the New Testament. Examples of first-century
bishops include Timothy and Titus (1 Tim. 5:19–22; 2 Tim. 4:5; Titus 1:5).
Priests (presbuteroi) are also known as
"presbyters" or "elders." In fact, the English term "priest" is simply
a contraction of the Greek word presbuteros. They have the responsibility
of teaching, governing, and providing the sacraments in a given congregation
(1 Tim. 5:17; Jas. 5:14–15).
Deacons (diakonoi) are the assistants of
the bishops and are responsible for teaching and administering certain
Church tasks, such as the distribution of food (Acts 6:1–6).
In the apostolic age, the terms for these offices
were still somewhat fluid. Sometimes a term would be used in a technical
sense as the title for an office, sometimes not. This non-technical use
of the terms even exists today, as when the term is used in many churches (both Protestant and Catholic) to refer to either ordained ministers (as in “My minister visited him”) or non-ordained individuals. (In a Protestant church one might hear “He is a worship minister,” while in a Catholic church one might hear “He is an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion.”)
Thus, in the apostolic age Paul sometimes described
himself as a diakonos ("servant" or "minister"; cf. 2 Cor. 3:6,
6:4, 11:23; Eph. 3:7), even though he held an office much higher than that
of a deacon, that of apostle.
Similarly, on one occasion Peter described himself
as a "fellow elder," [1 Pet. 5:1] even though he, being an apostle, also
had a much higher office than that of an ordinary elder.
The term for bishop, episcopos ("overseer"),
was also fluid in meaning. Sometimes it designated the overseer of an individual
congregation (the priest), sometimes the person who was the overseer of
all the congregations in a city or area (the bishop or evangelist), and
sometimes simply the highest-ranking clergyman in the local church—who
could be an apostle, if one were staying there at the time.
Although the terms "bishop," "priest," and "deacon"
were somewhat fluid in the apostolic age, by the beginning of the second
century they had achieved the fixed form in which they are used today to
designate the three offices whose functions are clearly distinct in the
New Testament.
As the following quotations illustrate, the early
Church Fathers recognized all three offices and regarded them as essential
to the Church’s structure. Especially significant are the letters of Ignatius,
Bishop of Antioch, who traveled from his home city to Rome, where he was
executed around A.D. 110. On the way he wrote letters to the churches he
passed. Each of these churches possessed the same threefold ministry. Without
this threefold ministry, Ignatius said, a group cannot be called a church.
Ignatius of Antioch
"Now, therefore, it has been my privilege to see
you in the person of your God-inspired bishop, Damas; and in the persons
of your worthy presbyters, Bassus and Apollonius; and my fellow-servant,
the deacon, Zotion. What a delight is his company! For he is subject to
the bishop as to the grace of God, and to the presbytery as to the law
of Jesus Christ" (Letter to the Magnesians 2 [A.D. 110]).
"Take care to do all things in harmony with God,
with the bishop presiding in the place of God, and with the presbyters
in the place of the council of the apostles, and with the deacons, who
are most dear to me, entrusted with the business of Jesus Christ, who was
with the Father from the beginning and is at last made manifest" (ibid.,
6:1).
"Take care, therefore, to be confirmed in the decrees
of the Lord and of the apostles, in order that in everything you do, you
may prosper in body and in soul, in faith and in love, in Son and in Father
and in Spirit, in beginning and in end, together with your most reverend
bishop; and with that fittingly woven spiritual crown, the presbytery;
and with the deacons, men of God. Be subject to the bishop and to one another
as Jesus Christ was subject to the Father, and the apostles were subject
to Christ and to the Father; so that there may be unity in both body and
spirit" (ibid., 13:1–2).
"Indeed, when you submit to the bishop as you would
to Jesus Christ, it is clear to me that you are living not in the manner
of men but as Jesus Christ, who died for us, that through faith in his
death you might escape dying. It is necessary, therefore—and such is your
practice that you do nothing without the bishop, and that you be subject
also to the presbytery, as to the apostles of Jesus Christ our hope, in
whom we shall be found, if we live in him. It is necessary also that the
deacons, the dispensers of the mysteries [sacraments] of Jesus Christ,
be in every way pleasing to all men. For they are not the deacons of food
and drink, but servants of the Church of God. They must therefore guard
against blame as against fire" (Letter to the Trallians 2:1–3 [A.D.
110]).
"In like manner let everyone respect the deacons
as they would respect Jesus Christ, and just as they respect the bishop
as a type of the Father, and the presbyters as the council of God and college
of the apostles. Without these, it cannot be called a church. I am confident
that you accept this, for I have received the exemplar of your love and
have it with me in the person of your bishop. His very demeanor is a great
lesson and his meekness is his strength. I believe that even the godless
do respect him" (ibid., 3:1–2).
"He that is within the sanctuary is pure; but he
that is outside the sanctuary is not pure. In other words, anyone who acts
without the bishop and the presbytery and the deacons does not have a clear
conscience" (ibid., 7:2).
"I cried out while I was in your midst, I spoke
with a loud voice, the voice of God: ‘Give heed to the bishop and the presbytery
and the deacons.’ Some suspect me of saying this because I had previous
knowledge of the division certain persons had caused; but he for whom I
am in chains is my witness that I had no knowledge of this from any man.
It was the Spirit who kept preaching these words, ‘Do nothing without the
bishop, keep your body as the temple of God, love unity, flee from divisions,
be imitators of Jesus Christ, as he was imitator of the Father’" (Letter
to the Philadelphians 7:1–2 [A.D. 110]).
Clement of Alexandria
"A multitude of other pieces of advice to particular
persons is written in the holy books: some for
presbyters, some for bishops and deacons; and
others for widows, of whom we shall have opportunity
to speak elsewhere" (The Instructor of Children 3:12:97:2 [A.D.
191]).
"Even here in the Church the gradations of bishops,
presbyters, and deacons happen to be imitations, in my opinion, of the
angelic glory and of that arrangement which, the scriptures say, awaits
those who have followed in the footsteps of the apostles and who have lived
in complete righteousness according to the gospel" (Miscellanies
6:13:107:2 [A.D. 208]).
Hippolytus
"When a deacon is to be ordained, he is chosen
after the fashion of those things said above, the bishop alone in like
manner imposing his hands upon him as we have prescribed. In the ordaining
of a deacon, this is the reason why the bishop alone is to impose his hands
upon him: he is not ordained to the priesthood, but to serve the bishop
and to fulfill the bishop’s command. He has no part in the council of the
clergy, but is to attend to his own duties and is to acquaint the bishop
with such matters as are needful. . . .
"On a presbyter, however, let the presbyters impose
their hands because of the common and like Spirit of the clergy. Even so,
the presbyter has only the power to receive [the Spirit], and not the power
to give [the Spirit]. That is why a presbyter does not ordain the clergy;
for at the ordaining of a presbyter, he but seals while the bishop ordains.
"Over a deacon, then, let the bishop speak thus:
‘O God, who have created all things and have set them in order through
your Word; Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom you sent to minister to
your will and to make clear to us your desires, grant the Holy Spirit of
grace and care and diligence to this your servant, whom you have chosen
to serve the Church and to offer in your holy places the gifts which are
offered to you by your chosen high priests, so that he may serve with a
pure heart and without blame, and that, ever giving praise to you, he may
be accounted by your good will as worthy of this high office: through your
Son Jesus Christ, through whom be glory and honor to you, to the Father
and the Son with the Holy Spirit, in your holy Church, both now and through
the ages of ages. Amen’" (The Apostolic Tradition 9 [A.D. 215]).
Origen
"Not fornication only, but even marriages make
us unfit for ecclesiastical honors; for neither a bishop, nor a presbyter,
nor a deacon, nor a widow is able to be twice married" (Homilies on
Luke 17 [A.D. 234]).
Council of Elvira
"Bishops, presbyters, and deacons may not leave
their own places for the sake of commerce, nor are they to be traveling
about the provinces, frequenting the markets for their own profit. Certainly
for the procuring of their own necessities they can send a boy or a freedman
or a hireling or a friend or whomever, but, if they wish to engage in business,
let them do so within the province" (Canon 18 [A.D. 300]).
Council of Nicaea I
"It has come to the knowledge of the holy and great
synod that, in some districts and cities, the deacons administer the Eucharist
to the presbyters [i.e., priests], whereas neither canon nor custom permits
that they who have no right to offer [the Eucharistic sacrifice] should
give the Body of Christ to them that do offer [it]. And this also has been
made known, that certain deacons now touch the Eucharist even before the
bishops. Let all such practices be utterly done away, and let the deacons
remain within their own bounds, knowing that they are the ministers of
the bishop and the inferiors of the presbyters. Let them receive the Eucharist
according to their order, after the presbyters, and let either the bishop
or the presbyter administer to them" (Canon 18 [A.D. 325]).
John Chrysostom
"[In Philippians 1:1 Paul says,] ‘To the co-bishops
and deacons.’ What does this mean? Were there plural bishops of some city?
Certainly not! It is the presbyters that [Paul] calls by this title; for
these titles were then interchangeable, and the bishop is even called a
deacon. That is why, when writing to Timothy, he says, ‘Fulfill your diaconate’
[2 Tim. 4:5], although Timothy was then a bishop. That he was in fact a
bishop is clear when Paul says to him, ‘Lay hands on no man lightly’ [1
Tim. 5:22], and again, ‘Which was given you with the laying on of hands
of the presbytery’ [1 Tim. 4:14], and presbyters would not have ordained
a bishop" (Homilies on Philippians 1:1 [A.D. 402]).
Patrick of Ireland
"I, Patrick, the sinner, am the most rustic and
the least of all the faithful . . . had for my father Calpornius, a deacon,
a son of Potitus, a priest, who belonged to the village of Bannavem Taberniae.
. . . At that time I was barely sixteen years of age . . . and I was led
into captivity in Ireland with many thousands of persons, in accordance
with our deserts, for we turned away from God, and kept not his commandments, and
were not obedient to our priests, who were wont to admonish us for
our salvation" (Confession of St. Patrick 1 [A.D. 452]).
"I, Patrick, the sinner, unlearned as everybody
knows, avow that I have been established a bishop in Ireland. Most assuredly
I believe that I have received from God what I am. And so I dwell in the
midst of barbarous heaths, a stranger and an exile for the love of God"
(Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus 1 [A.D. 452]).
NIHIL OBSTAT:
I have concluded that the materials
presented in this work are free of doctrinal or moral errors.
Bernadeane Carr, STL, Censor Librorum, August 10, 2004
IMPRIMATUR:
In accord with 1983 CIC 827
permission to publish this work is hereby granted.
+Robert H. Brom, Bishop of San Diego, August 10, 2004
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