Two of the deutero-Pauline pastoral epistles (1 TimothyandTitus),
moreover, describe that authority in terms of the ancient house-
hold norms of patriarchal supremacy, and similar male-dominated
stereotypes came to be the rule in early Christian writings. For
some modern interpreters, this rise of masculine authority repre-
sents a triumph of the patriarchal environment over the more
egalitarian teachings of Jesus himself (Fiorenza 1983: 288–94).
The rise of bishops to positions of prominence within
the church occurred for various reasons. If we concentrate on the
church as a human institution, then we can easily see how an admin-
istrative ‘overseer’ will have become more necessary as individual
churches became larger and began to control greater resources.
Such circumstances are implied by Eusebius of Caesarea’s descrip-
tion of the church at Rome in the middle of the third century as
comprising a bishop, forty-six presbyters, seven deacons, seven
sub-deacons, forty-two acolytes, and fifty-two exorcists, readers,
and doorkeepers, as well as supporting more than 1500 widows
and paupers (Ecclesiastical History6.43.11). Of course, what hap-
pened in the imperial capital may not be typical of what happened
elsewhere. But it is clear from, for example, the church building
remains at Dura Europos and descriptions of churches in sources
describing the persecution under Diocletian that Christian groups
were in possession of considerable properties by the end of the
third century. Such properties, and the communities that they
imply, needed someone to run them.
Modern historians of the ancient world have devoted much
attention to such worldly functions of bishops, particularly for the
period after Constantine when bishops began to acquire legal and
administrative duties that effectively turned the church into an arm
of the Christian Roman empire (Bowersock 1986). It is important
not to forget, however, that the role of the bishop (and indeed of
the clergy more generally) was primarily spiritual. Such is the
reason given for the authority of leaders in some of the New Testa-
ment writings, such as the deutero-Pauline letters and the epistles
ascribed to John. What bishops oversaw above all was the teach-
ing of Christian doctrine. These concerns are echoed preciselyORTHODOXY AND ORGANIZATION IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY
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