What the Early Church Believed: Bishop, Priest, and Deacon

The three orders

• Bishops (episkopoi) care for multiple congregations and appoint, ordain and discipline priests and deacons. They sometimes appear to be called "evangelists." Timothy and Titus were first-century bishops (1 Timothy 5:19-22; 2 Timothy 4:5; Titus 1:5).
• Priests (presbyteroi), also called presbyters or elders, teach, govern and give the sacraments in a congregation (1 Timothy 5:17; James 5:14-15). "Priest" is a contraction of presbyteros.
• Deacons (diakonoi) assist the bishops, teaching and handling certain tasks such as distributing food (Acts 6:1-6).

Fluid titles

In the apostolic age these terms were sometimes used as titles and sometimes not, as "minister" today can mean ordained clergy or not. Paul called himself a diakonos, "servant" (2 Corinthians 3:6; 6:4; 11:23; Ephesians 3:7), though he was an apostle. Peter called himself a "fellow elder" (1 Peter 5:1). Episkopos ("overseer") could mean a congregation's overseer (the priest), the overseer of a city or region (the bishop), or the highest-ranking cleric present, even an apostle. By the early second century the terms had their present fixed meanings for three offices whose functions are already distinct in the New Testament.

The witness of the early Church

• Ignatius of Antioch (110), writing to churches on his way to martyrdom in Rome, finds the same threefold ministry everywhere. The bishop presides in the place of God, the presbyters as the council of the apostles, and the deacons are entrusted with the ministry of Christ. "Without these, it cannot be called a church," and whoever acts without the bishop, presbytery and deacons does not have a clear conscience.
• Clement of Alexandria (191, 208): Scripture gives advice to presbyters, bishops and deacons, whose ranks imitate the angelic glory.
• Hippolytus (215): only the bishop lays hands on a deacon, who is ordained not to the priesthood but to serve the bishop; presbyters join the bishop in laying hands on a presbyter, but only the bishop ordains.
• Origen (234): no bishop, presbyter, deacon or widow may be twice married.
• The Council of Elvira (300) forbids bishops, presbyters and deacons to leave their posts for commerce.
• The Council of Nicaea I (325) tells deacons to stay within their bounds as ministers of the bishop, below the presbyters, who offer the Eucharist.
• John Chrysostom (402) explains that in Philippians 1:1 "bishops" means presbyters, since the titles were then interchangeable; Timothy, told to fulfill his ministry, was a bishop (1 Timothy 5:22; 4:14).
• Patrick of Ireland (452) mentions his father, a deacon, and grandfather, a priest, and says he was made a bishop in Ireland.