Footnote

a Douglas’ New Bible Dictionary (p. 158) also suggests that “monarchical episcopacy [overseership] appeared in the local congregations when some gifted individual acquired a permanent chairmanship of the board of presbyter-bishops [elder-overseers].”

Also, the Jerusalem Bible, in its footnote on Titus 1:5, says that “in the earliest days each Christian community was governed by a body of elders,” and refers to “the transformation of a local assembly ruled by a body . . . into an assembly ruled by a single bishop [overseer].”