What Is an Archbishop? Is the Office Biblical?
Short answer
An archbishop is a bishop given authority over a larger church province, including other bishops within it. The word "archbishop" never appears in the Bible, and the New Testament describes no office of one bishop ruling over other bishops region-wide. The role grew out of the New Testament offices of bishop and elder as the church organized itself across the Roman Empire in the centuries after the apostles, which is why Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican traditions accept it as a legitimate later development while many Protestant traditions reject the hierarchy itself as unbiblical.
The title "archbishop" appears in the news whenever a major Catholic, Orthodox, or Anglican appointment is announced, and it can sound like an ancient office with a clear biblical basis. It is ancient, but the title itself does not appear in the Bible.
That raises a fair question: Where did it come from, and does the New Testament actually authorize it? To answer clearly, we need to separate two things that often get blurred together: what Scripture says about church leadership, and what the church built on that foundation once it grew far beyond what any single congregation could hold.
What an archbishop actually is
An archbishop is a bishop with jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province: a region containing several dioceses, each normally led by its own bishop. Those other bishops within the province are sometimes called suffragan bishops, and the archbishop typically holds a coordinating and supervisory role over them, presides at their consecrations, and represents the province at a wider church level. Importantly, an archbishop is not a different sacramental order from a bishop; Catholic and Orthodox theology both hold that "bishop" is the highest order of ordained ministry, and "archbishop" is a title of jurisdiction and rank layered on top of that same order, not a fourth rung on a ladder above priest, deacon, and bishop.
What the New Testament says about church leadership
The New Testament uses two Greek words for local church leaders almost interchangeably: episkopos ("overseer," the root of "bishop") and presbyteros ("elder," the root of "priest" and "presbyter"). Paul's instructions to Titus move between them without distinction: he tells Titus to appoint "elders" (presbyterous) in every town, then immediately lists the qualifications for an "overseer" (episkopon) as if describing the very same office (Titus 1:5–7). Acts 20 shows the same overlap: Paul summons the "elders" of the Ephesian church (Acts 20:17) and then tells them the Holy Spirit made them "overseers" to shepherd God's church (Acts 20:28).
Nowhere in the New Testament does one overseer hold formal, ongoing authority over other overseers across a whole province. The offices Scripture describes are local, an overseer or a plurality of elders shepherding one congregation or city.
How the office developed after the apostles
Within a few generations, church structure began to formalize beyond what the New Testament describes. Early second-century writers such as Ignatius of Antioch already describe a single bishop presiding over the elders and deacons of a city, a pattern historians call the "monarchical episcopate." As Christianity spread and cities were organized into larger civil provinces under Roman administration, the church increasingly mirrored that geography: the bishop of a province's leading city (its metropolis) began exercising oversight of the other bishops in that province.
The Council of Nicaea in AD 325 formally recognized this metropolitan structure in its canons, confirming a practice that had already been developing for generations rather than inventing something new. The specific title "archbishop" became common somewhat later, by roughly the fourth and fifth centuries, as a way to distinguish these leading, provincial-level bishops from bishops of a single diocese.
Different Christian traditions, different verdicts
Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglican traditions all view the office of archbishop as a legitimate and even necessary development: a way the church, guided by the Holy Spirit and continuing the apostles' pattern of appointing overseers, organized itself as it grew from house churches into a worldwide institution. They see it as continuous with, not contrary to, the New Testament pattern of apostolic oversight.
Many Protestant traditions, including most Baptist, Presbyterian, and non-denominational churches, reject the hierarchical structure altogether, holding that the New Testament's plural-elder model (several elders sharing authority within one local congregation, answerable to no regional bishop) is the pattern Scripture actually authorizes, and that later hierarchy reflects church history and organizational necessity rather than a biblical command. Lutheran and Methodist bodies vary by region and national church, some retaining bishops without the archbishop title, others using it within a defined national structure.
So is it biblical?
The word "archbishop" and the specific office of one bishop governing other bishops across a province are not found in Scripture. What is biblical is the underlying reality the office grew out of: appointed overseers, tested by clear moral and doctrinal qualifications (1 Timothy 3:1–7), entrusted to guard sound teaching and shepherd God's people (Acts 20:28, 1 Peter 5:1–4). Whether extending that office into a regional hierarchy was a faithful, Spirit-led development or an unnecessary layer added onto a simpler New Testament pattern is exactly where thoughtful, Bible-believing Christians land in different places: a question of church governance and history, not one Scripture settles explicitly either way.
Key Bible verses
- For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city... For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God. — Titus 1:5–7
- Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God. — Acts 20:28
- This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. A bishop then must be blameless... — 1 Timothy 3:1–2
- The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder... Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof. — 1 Peter 5:1–2
Frequently asked questions
Is "archbishop" a word used in the Bible?
No. The Bible never uses the title "archbishop." The New Testament does describe overseers (bishops) and elders leading local congregations, but no office of one bishop ruling over other bishops across a whole region.
What is the difference between a bishop and an archbishop?
They hold the same sacramental order (an archbishop is still fundamentally a bishop), but an archbishop has jurisdiction over a whole ecclesiastical province containing several dioceses, including authority over the other ("suffragan") bishops within it, while a bishop typically oversees a single diocese.
Do Protestant churches have archbishops?
Some do and most do not. State or national Anglican and some Lutheran churches retain bishops and, in a few cases, archbishops. Most Baptist, Presbyterian, and non-denominational Protestant churches reject the hierarchical episcopate entirely, holding to a New Testament pattern of elders governing a local congregation without a regional bishop above them.
Who is above an archbishop?
It depends on the tradition. In the Catholic Church, archbishops answer to the Pope, sometimes with a cardinal or patriarch in between depending on the region. In Eastern Orthodoxy, a patriarch or the head of an autocephalous church holds the highest rank. In national Anglican churches, an archbishop is typically the senior bishop of that national church.