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T h e F a t h e r s K n o w B e s t
BISHOP, PRIEST, DEACON
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This Rock
Volume 4, Number 8
 September 1993 
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THE conferral of the sacrament of holy orders
produces three ranks of clergy: bishops, priests (in the New Testament
"presbyters," from which the English word "priest"
is derived), and deacons. The early Church Fathers bear witness to
all three ranks.
Especially significant are the letters of Ignatius, bishop of Antioch,
who traveled from his home city to his execution in Rome around A.D.
107. On the way he wrote letters to the churches he passed. In every
church there was the same three-fold ministry. Ignatius said that
without this three-fold ministry a group cannot be called a church.
Many Protestants note that often the terms "bishop" and
"presbyter" are used synonymously in the New Testament,
and they try to collapse these offices into one. The writings of Ignatius
and others show the early Church disagreed.
The terms for ministry, including "deacon," "servant,"
and "minister," were fluid at this point and could be applied
to different offices (see "Quick Questions," This Rock,
May 1993), but this does not mean that there were not in fact three
distinct ordained offices.
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
[ca. A.D. 107]).
Ignatius of Antioch
"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).
Ignatius of Antioch
"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).
Ignatius of Antioch
"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 [ca. A.D. 107]).
Ignatius of Antioch
"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).
Ignatius of Antioch
"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).
Ignatius of Antioch
"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 [ca. A.D. 107]).
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.'" (Apostolic
Tradition 9 [ca. A.D. 215]).
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 [pre-A.D. 202]).
Clement of Alexandria
"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"
(Stromateis 6:13:107:2 [post-A.D. 202]).
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, number 17 [ca. A.D. 235]).
The 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 [ca. A.D. 300]).
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 the Epistle to the Philippians 1:1 [A.D. 398]).
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