Footnote

a Read, for instance, the brief comment on this in The New Bible Dictionary, by J. D. Douglas, M.A., page 158, under the heading “Bishop,” which is how many translations render e·piʹsko·pos: “Among the Apostolic Fathers, Ignatius is the only one who insists on monarchical episcopacy, and even he never states that this is of divine institution​—an argument which would have been decisive, if it had been available for him to use. Jerome, commenting on Titus 1:5, remarks that the supremacy of a single bishop arose ‘by custom rather than by the Lord’s actual appointment’, as a means of preventing schisms in the Church. (cf. Ep. 146). It seems most probable that monarchical episcopacy appeared in the local congregations when some gifted individual acquired a permanent chairmanship of the board of presbyter-bishops. . . .”