Acts 20:17

Acts 20:17. And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church. The elders or presbyters here summoned to hear the parting address of their old master, probably represented several congregations of Ephesus and its neighbourhood. St. Paul had, we know, for a long period made Ephesus his headquarters, and no doubt at this time there were a large number of professing Christians in, the Church of this great and populous city. In Acts 20:28 of this chapter, these elders or presbyters are spoken of as episcopoi, bishops or overseers. It is quite clear that in the lifetime of Paul, the names episcopos , presbuteros , bishop and presbyter (or elder), were applied indifferently to the same person. This is quite evident from the language of the pastoral epistles of this same apostle. In the lifetime of St. Paul, no necessity had arisen in the constitution of the Church for the appointment of a special order of superintending presbyters. While Peter, and Paul, and John, and the majority of the apostolic body were still living, these filled the place of general superintendents of the churches. But, though this fact is indisputable, there is not a shadow of doubt but that the episcopal office, as we understand it, was constituted before the close of the first century, for very tarty in the second century we find this higher order widely established.

Professor Rothe of Heidelberg (quoted by Bishop Lightfoot of Durham in his Commentary on the Philippians) concludes that the Episcopate was established shortly after the deaths of St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. James, who suffered martyrdom nearly at the same time, all shortly before the fall of Jerusalem. The pillars of the Church being thus removed by death, and Jerusalem the visible centre of the Church being destroyed, there was an urgent need for some organization which should cement together the diverse elements of Christian society now so rapidly increasing, and preserve it from disintegration.

Out of this need the Catholic Church, in its Episcopal character, arose. From notices in Eusebius, Irenæus, and Clement of Rome, Professor Rothe (quoted by Lightfoot) concludes ‘that, immediately after the fall of Jerusalem (A.D. 70), a council of the surviving apostles and first teachers of the gospel was held to deliberate on the crisis, and to devise measures for the well-being of the Church. The centre of the system thus organized was Episcopacy, which at once secured the compact and harmonious working of each individual congregation, and, as the link of communication between the separate brotherhoods, formed the whole into one undivided Catholic Church. Recommended by this high authority, the new constitution was immediately and generally adopted.'