Their wives in the same way must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things.

 (ii) But sometimes the New Testament uses another word, episkopos ( G1985) , which the King James and Revised Standard Versions translate bishop, and which literally means overseer, or superintendent. This word, too, has a long and honourable history. The Septuagint, the Greek version of the Hebrew scriptures, uses it to describe those who were the taskmasters, who were over the public works and public building schemes ( 2 Chronicles 34:17). The Greeks use it to describe the men appointed to go out from the mother city to regulate the affairs of a newly founded colony in some distant place. They use it to describe what we might call commissioners appointed to regulate the affairs of a city. The Romans use it to describe the magistrates appointed to oversee the sale of food within the city of Rome. It is used of the special delegates appointed by a king to see that the laws he had laid down were carried out. Episkopos ( G1985) always implies two things; first, oversight over some area or sphere of work and second, responsibility to some higher power and authority. 