[German Version]

originally referred in (non-Christian) Greek (διοίκησις/dioíkēsis) to the state administration, especially of finances. The Roman Empire took over the term in a technical political sense: a redivision of the Empire into 12 dioceses and these into provinces (under Diocletian, 284–305). The organization of the church followed this division, with the church diocese originally coinciding with the imperial diocese. Their subdivisions into the parishes of the individual bishops were called παροικία/paroikía (cf. c. 9 of the Council of Antioch, 341). In t…