Tied in to the claims of apostolic succession and of divine right for the Episcopal view of church government is their interpretation of Revelation chapters two and three. In 1593, Thomas Bilson, who would be co-editor of the 1611 edition of the KJV, maintained that St. John wrote “to the seven pastors and bishops of those seven places†(Perpetual Government of Christ's Church, p. 305). Bilson contended that “The Lord himself in the Revelation, speaking of the bishops of the seven churches in Asia, calleth them ‘the stars and angels’ of the seven churches†(p. 101). Bilson asserted that “St. John the evangelist wrote to the pastors of the seven churches in Asia†and that “their successors sat in the council of Nice, retaining the same place and office of bishops which their predecessors had in the apostles’ time†(p. 347). Against the Presbyterian view, Bilson contended: “If John in his time saw those seven churches governed by seven pastors or bishops, then was the common and equal government of presbyters before that time changed. If Christ called them stars and angels of the churches, they were no human invention after the apostles were dead and buried†(p. 306). Bilson wrote that “the Son of God willed St. John the apostle in his Revelation to write to the seven chief pastors of the seven churches of Asia†(p. 373). Bilson wrote: “By Christ’s own mouth the overseer of the church is praised under the name of an angel†(p. 178). KJV translator Lancelot Andrewes claimed that bishops are called “by St. John (Rev. 1:20) the ’angels of the churches’†(Pattern, p. 355). KJV translator Hadrian Saravia contended: “For thus much is clear from the word of God; viz. that, in the time of John the Apostle, to seven Churches of Asia, had seven Bishops, set over them by Divine, not by human, appointment†(Treatise, p. 223). Bilson asserted: “The bishop must be pastor alone; for he is the angel of God’s church. If the pastoral charge may be common to many, then must he have it chiefly and above all, because he is God’s angel, and superior to all†(Perpetual Government, p. 379). Perhaps this Episcopal interpretation and claim that there was only one bishop [angel] at Ephesus could be linked to Acts 20:28 where the KJV seemed to avoid showing English readers that there were “bishops†[plural] at Ephesus.
Three of the pre-1611 English Bibles (Tyndale’s, Matthew’s, and Great Bibles) had the rendering “messenger of the congregation†at some of the verses (Rev. 2:1, 12, 18; 3:1, 14) instead of “angel of the church.†James Corcoran contended that “the Presbyterian Bibles of England had such a hatred of prelacy, that in spite of Beza, and their Puritan English prototype of Geneva [1560] they (in their editions of 1562, 1577, 1579] translated ‘messengers’ for ‘angels’†(American Catholic Quarterly Review, 1880, p. 712). The KJV translated the same Greek word as “messenger†at Matthew 11:10, Mark 1:2, and Luke 7:27. Would that rendering “messenger†in these two chapters have been a problem for the Episcopal and Roman Catholic interpretation that “angels“ here are “bishops“? The 1582 Rheims has a marginal note for its annotation on Revelation 1:20--â€Bishops and priests are called Angels†(p. 537).
In one response to the Episcopal interpretation, Thomas Forrester maintained in 1699 that “the collective sense of the term angel is most suitable to Scripture†(Hierarchical Bishops, p. 70). Forrester asserted: “As one singular, so all the individuals of the church, both members and officers, are represented by one candlestick; and why not also, all the ministers, by one angel?†(Ibid.). Forrester contended: “Ephesus had many angels (Acts 20:28, 1 Tim. 5:17) of equal authority, who were made Bishops by the Holy Ghost, and set over that Church accordingly, and they are spoken to, in the plural, though the Angel is named in the singular number†(p. 72). In his 1689 Exposition of the Whole Book of the Revelation, Hanserd Knollys wrote: “The word [angel] in all these seven epistles, is a noun collective, comprehending all the Bishops and Presbyters, called Elders, Acts 20:17, in this Church of Ephesus, so in all the other churches of Christ in Asia, and elsewhere†(p. 19). John Brown maintained that Jesus “addresses the angel of Smyrna, as a plurality of persons†[Rev. 2:10--â€ye“] (Letters, p. 44). Thomas Smyth wrote: “There can be no reasonable doubt, that, by the term angel, we are to understand either the presbyters collectively, or their presiding officer, or moderator, to whom this name was applied, in the order of the Jewish synagogue†(Presbytery, p. 275). W. D. Killen noted that “the office of the angel of the synagogue had, in fact, no resemblance whatever to that of a prelate†(Ancient Church, p. 267). Killen maintained that “the angel was not the chief ruler of the synagogue†(Ibid.), William Wisner wrote: “There are strong reasons for supposing that the term angel, in the figurative language of the Apocalypse, denoted the whole body of presbyters connected with that church†(Prelacy, p. 59).
