Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion, but voluntarily, not for dishonest gain, but willingly;
Taking the oversight thereof - ἐπισκοποῦντες episkopountes. The fair translation of this word is, “discharging the episcopal office”; and the word implies all that is always implied by the word “bishop” in the New Testament. This idea should have been expressed in the translation. The meaning is not merely to take the oversight - for that might be done in a subordinate sense by anyone in office; but it is to take such an oversight as is implied in the episcopate, or by the word “bishop.” The words “episcopate,” “episcopal,” and “episcopacy,” are merely the Greek word used here and its correlatives transferred to our language. The sense is that of overseeing; taking the oversight of; looking after, as of a flock; and the word has originally no reference to what is now spoken of as especially the episcopal office. It is a word strictly applicable to any minister of religion, or officer of a church. In the passage before us this duty was to be performed by those who, in 1 Peter 5:1, are called presbyters, or elders; and this is one of the numerous passages in the New Testament which prove that all that is properly implied in the performance of the episcopal functions pertained to those who were called presbyters, or elders. If so, there was no higher grade of ministers to which the special duties of the episcopate were to be entrusted; that is, there was no class of officers corresponding to those who are now called “bishops.” Compare the notes at Acts 20:28.