A biblical case for bishops

 Evangelical Anglicans normally hold that bishops are for the well being of the church and are not of the essence of the church. One can have a church without a bishop. 

But that need not mean that the case for bishops is merely historical, traditional or pragmatic. 

Dr Martin Davie has written over 800 pages on bishops. Bishops Past, Present and Future (Gilead Books Publishing, 2022). He makes a biblical case for bishops.

It is worth pointing out that this is not an argument from New Testament terminology. The words presbyter (elder) and episkopos (overseer, bishop) are used interchangeably in the NT. (It is in the letters of Ignatius of Antioch (died c. 108/140 AD) that we first find the word episkopos clearly used for a single individual who exercises oversight).

Jesus is the chief pastor / bishop / overseer. 

Yet from an early date we can see the apostles and their successors fulfilling the role of senior presbyters or chief pastors under Christ, which we would call bishops today, with oversight of more than one local congregation and with the role of appointing other elders. 

On the Apostles as bishops see Davie p43, Hooker, Laws, VII.iv.1 p336, Cyprian, Epistle LXIV

James the brother of Jesus seems to have functioned as the Bishop of Jerusalem. Acts 12:17; 15; 21:18; Gal 1:18f; 2:9, 12; James 1:1. See Davie pp44-51.

Timothy was the first bishop of Ephesus. 1 Timothy 1:3-4. 

Titus was the first bishop of Crete. Titus 1:5.

On Timothy and Titus see Eusebius, Jerome, Ambrose, Chrysostom etc. The evidence is given in Davie pp57-58.

The stars / angels (= messengers) of the churches, to whom letters are written by Christ, in the book of Revelation 1-3 are plausibly understood as the bishops of those cities, responsible for several house churches. See Davie p63ff. Writer who shared this traditional interpretation or something like it include Augustine, Jerome, Gregory the Great, Bullinger, Beza, Bede. Davie p64f.

This interpretation of the New Testament data seems to have quickly established itself and was universally accepted until the 16th Century.  

Davie summarises the sub-apostolic evidence: "... from the very start of the second century until its end the threefold order of bishops, presbyters and deacons was in existence across the Christian world. There is no church we know of where it does not seem to have existed.... 

... during the second century the term bishop (episkopos) was used exclusively to refer to a single individual who had ministerial oversight over the elders, deacons and lay people of a particular church. Furthermore, all the writers who comment on the subject see episcopacy as apostolic in origin with writers such as Hegesippus, Irenaeus and Tertullian testifying to unbroken lists of bishops in the churches going back to apostolic times." (p115)

For a discussion of this, see the Church Society podcast: https://www.churchsociety.org/resource/podcast-s09e10-more-and-better-bishops/