вЂTake heed to yourselves and all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you guardians, to feed the church of the Lord.'вЂќ And when they came to him, he said to them.

This is how the Revised Standard Version renders the verses: вЂњAnd from Miletus he.

Episcopoi is used in a non-technical sense to describe the type of ministry they exercised. Presbuteroi is used in a technical sense to identify their office of ordained leadership. In Acts 20:17-38 the same men are called presbyteroi (v. Similarly, the term diakonos is rendered both as вЂњdeaconвЂќ and as вЂњministerвЂќ in the Bible, yet in Protestant churches the office of deacon is clearly distinguished from and subordinate to the office of minister. The New Testament tendency to use episcopos and presbuteros interchangeably is similar to the contemporary Protestant use of the term вЂњministerвЂќ to denote various offices, both ordained and unordained (senior minister, music minister, youth minister). 107), who wrote at length of the authority of bishops as distinct from presbyters and deacons ( Epistle to the Magnesians 6:1, 13:1-2 Epistle to the Trallians 2:1-3 Epistle to the Smyrnaeans 8:1-2). There is early evidence of this refinement in ecclesiastical nomenclature in the writings of Ignatius of Antioch (d. The role of the episcopos is not clearly defined in the New Testament, but by the beginning of the second century it had obtained a fixed meaning. These are the essential functions of the priestly office, so wherever the various forms of presbuteros appearвЂ“except, of course, in instances which pertain to the Jewish elders (Mt 21:23, Acts 4:23)вЂ“the word may rightly be translated as вЂњpriestвЂќ instead of вЂњelderвЂќ or вЂњpresbyter.вЂќД®piscopos arises from two words, epi (over) and skopeo (to see), and it means literally вЂњan overseerвЂќ: We translate it as вЂњbishop.вЂќ The King James Version renders the office of overseer, episkopen, as вЂњbishopricвЂќ (Acts 1:20). They were ordained by the laying on of hands (1 Tm 4:14, 5:22), they preached and taught the flock (1 Tm 5:17), and they administered sacraments (Jas 5:13-15). The Bible says little about the duties of presbyters, but it does reveal they functioned in a priestly capacity. The English word вЂњpriestвЂќ is derived from the Greek word presbuteros, which is commonly rendered into Bible English as вЂњelderвЂќ or вЂњpresbyter.вЂќ The ministry of Catholic priests is that of the presbyters mentioned in the New Testament (Acts 15:6, 23).

Who are the priests in the bible