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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