3:1–7). Paul’s lengthy exposition of the qualifications to be expected from an episkopos is followed by similar instructions regarding deacons. These words of Paul would become the yardstick of all subsequent pronouncements on the personal qualifications of bishops. Paul repeated several of these injunctions in his Letter to Titus, who was in the process of setting in order the affairs of the community in Crete. The context of this passage reveals the absence of any clear distinction between the presbyterate and the episcopate. Paul begins by encouraging the appointment of elders (presbyteroi) in every town and then recapitulates his list of moral qualifications by referring to the same men as episkopoi (Titus 1:5–9, esp. verse 7).
These Pauline passages show that the earliest Christian communities were led by a group of elders or, in Greek, presbyteroi. In some, but not all, communities, the group of elders was headed by episkopoi. Their tasks were of an administrative nature: keeping an eye on the incoming gifts of food or money brought by the wealthier members of the community and watching over their distribution to the needy, especially the widows who depended on this kind of support. These early passages refer to episkopoi in the plural, indicating that more than one man was entrusted with these tasks. Diakonoi, or deacons, are frequently mentioned in the same context as their assistants.
It is paramount to bear in mind that throughout the period that conrefers us here, the distinction between the priesthood and the episcopate remains blurry.6 The Greek term hierosyne or the Latin sacerdotium simply to higher ecclesiastical office, no matter whether it was held by a priest or by a bishop. This poses some problems in the interpretation of sources. Even after the monepiscopate is firmly established, the haze of indistinction between the episcopate and the presbyterate will remain well into the fourth century. Every episkopos is also a presbyter, but not every presbyter is an episkopos. As late as the fourth century, Pseudo-Augustine declares that the bishop is essentially, a priest, but that among the priests he holds the highest position:
For what is the bishop, if not the first presbyter, that is, the highest priest? Indeed, he calls them nothing else but fellow presbyters and fellow priests. And does the bishop ever call the ministers his fellow deacons? Not so, for they are inferior by far, and it is foolish to call the judge a secretary.7
The oldest surviving church order, the Didache, was probably compiled in Syria or Palestine at the beginning of the second century, but the individual regulations it contains may well reflect earlier stages in the development of the life of the church. The Didache encourages the Christian communities to appoint for themselves episkopoi and deacons. They are to be held in the same honor as the prophets and teachers who are visiting and sometimes taking up residence in the communities.8 With its omission of presbyters, the Didache reflects a time before the development of the tripartite hierarchy of deaconspresbyters-bishop. In mentioning deacons in the same breath as episkopoi, the Didache also draws attention to the administrative function that both fulfilled. The spiritual and pastoral care of the congregations, by contrast, fell to the prophets and teachers.9
The earliest evidence for the existence of only one episkopos for each community comes from the letters of Ignatius of Antioch. On his way to be martyred in Rome during the reign of the emperor Trajan (98–117), Ignatius wrote seven letters that offer insight into the life and organization of the Christian communities at this time. Ignatius was the third bishop of Antioch, which was the foremost city in Syria and had a long and venerable Christian tradition reaching back to the days of the apostles Barnabas and Paul. This position, enhanced by the special grace that he held as a martyrto-be, gave him the authority to address the communities of Asia Minor—Ephesus, Magnesia, Tralles, Philadelphia, and Smyrna—with words of encouragement and advice. Ignatius regarded the monarchic episcopate simultaneously as a reflection of the One God and as a guarantor of the doctrinal unity of the church. Harmony and cohesion within each community can be accomplished, he said, only if the congregation is united under the authority of the deacons, the presbyters, and the bishop.10 Nothing should be done without the bishop.11 The bishop is the sacral center of his congregation because of his liturgical functions. His presence ensures the validity of the celebration of the eucharist and of baptism.12 He represents the One God to his congregation, and hence he is owed the same obedience.13 In comparison to the Didache, Ignatius’s Letters reflect a new stage in the development of church organization. The ecclesiastical hierarchy now includes priests, and it is one episkopos who presides over the priests and deacons below him. From now on, it is appropriate to abandon the word episkopos, and to employ the word bishop with its connotation of the monepiscopate at the head of a structured ecclesiastical hierarchy.
Ignatius makes a bishop’s effective pastoral care dependent on his personal conduct. He should be constant in his prayer, asking especially for the gift of understanding.14 He must oppose heterodox teaching15 and win over the unruly elements in the congregation through his gentleness.16 In fact, the most distinguishing virtue of a bishop should be his meekness. He should constantly exercise his care for his congregation, he should look after the widows,17 and he should admonish the slaves18 and the married men and women to be content with their station in life.19 The bishop’s ability to serve as a model to his congregation was of great importance to Ignatius. In order to emphasize this point, he adopted the Greek neologism exemplarion, derived from the Latin exemplum or exemplarium. The Latin word was most commonly used in the context of book production, where it referred to the original from which a manuscript was copied. The word is very rare in Greek. It is attested in a papyrus from Oxyrhynchus, where it refers to a model pattern in textile production,20 and in a number of very peculiar pagan inscriptions from Phrygia, of the second and third centuries A.D., where it has the sense of negative example or deterrent. These inscriptions were set up by individuals who had been punished for offending the deity by blindness, paralysis, or in other concrete ways but were given the opportunity to redeem themselves through sacrifices and offerings. These inscriptions are now known as confession inscriptions. Their declared purpose was to warn others so that they might learn from the painful experience of their authors.21 The word exemplarion also appears in a spurious sermon of John Chrysostom.22 The only later author to use it is the seventh-century theologian Maximus Confessor, who refers to Christ as exemplarion and elsewhere talks about men who make their own life an exemplarion of virtue.23 Even though Ignatius’s use of the word exemplarion did not catch on among Greek authors after him, his insistence that the bishop be of such character that his conduct invite imitation by others would continue to be a major theme in Christian writing about the episcopate.
Ignatius also notes that the bishops’ ministry is bestowed on him in the love of God, not because others wanted to appoint him or because he sought this distinction for himself.24 For this reason, the selection of a bishop should not depend on external criteria such as seniority. Ignatius has high praise for Damas, for example, who had become bishop of Magnesia despite his youthful age.25 In this way, episcopal appointment is regarded as a gift from God that may sometimes be granted to unlikely candidates. Ignatius was the first to give voice to two ideas that would become the prevalent view in the centuries that followed: (1) the bishop’s tasks are not only administrative, but also pastoral and liturgical; (2) in order to maintain the respect and cooperation of his flock, the bishop must be an exemplar of Christian conduct.
It was not until a century after Ignatius that the process of episcopal appointment was described for the first time, in the Apostolic Tradition. This work is commonly ascribed to Hippolytus, the bishop of a schismatic community in Rome who died in exile, probably in 236. The Apostolic Tradition, which has to be pieced together from quotations in other works, is the earliest document for the liturgical practices in Rome. It declares that the bishop is elected by all the people and then consecrated in the presence of the laity, the presbyterate, and an unspecified number of other bishops, who all offer him the kiss of peace after the ordination. The involvement of these different groups of people affirms that the appointment of the bishop is based on a consensus of all. The actual ordination occurs through the imposition of hands by one or several bishops. The prayer accompanying this gesture contains, in a nutshell, an interpretation
