TEKNA

Polycarp66 at aol.com Polycarp66 at aol.com
Thu Jun 27 21:16:58 EDT 2002


In a message dated 6/27/2002 6:49:45 PM Eastern Daylight Time, dd-1 at juno.com 
writes:

Why is overseer (sg) while deacons is plural?  Is this just a
stylistic difference, or is there something substantive about
the difference?
________________________

This goes beyond the realm of b-greek into history--specifically early church 
history.  If you look at Acts 20 you will note that Paul first calls the 
PRESBUTEROI from one city (Epheses) to meet with him, but when he addresses 
them he refers to them as EPISKOPOI.  This would seem to indicate that the 
PRESBUTEROI and the EPISKOPOI were considered to be one and the same at the 
time.  Here, as you note it is singular.  In Revelation it does not refer to 
the EPISKOPOS but to the AGGELOS of each church.  This would signal the 
development of what is called the monarchical episcopate.  You can check this 
in books on church history.

gfsomsel



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