[St. Paul] points out that he left Titus in Crete for this purpose — "to establish presbyters in every city" (Titus 1:5), which he later calls "bishops" (v. 7). Therefore according to the nomenclature of the apostles, the same one who is a presbyter is correctly called a "bishop." —Blessed Johann Gerhard, On the Ministry, p. 38.
St. John Chrysostom disagrees. He says in his Homily II on Titus that in 1:5, St. Paul is referring to Bishops..as he is in 1:7.
ReplyDeleteTrent
Yet see St. John's comments on Philippians 1:
ReplyDeleteWhat is this? were there several Bishops of one city? Certainly not; but he called the Presbyters so. For then they still interchanged the titles.