MODERN CHRISTIAN: My friend, we do not have priests.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: So who was the man giving the sermon during your service; I did not recognize most of your service except for the sermon.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: That was our pastor.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: A pastor is a priest.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: No, he is not.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: I am a bit confused, my friend.  How is your pastor not a priest?

MODERN CHRISTIAN: Because pastors are not priests.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: Is that how you think?  How did you arrive to such a conclusion?

MODERN CHRISTIAN: Based on the Bible.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: I am a bit dumbfounded?  Can you explain what you mean further?

MODERN CHRISTIAN: Absolutely!  I would be happy to!  I know my Bible very well.  There is only one priest in the New Covenant, and that is Jesus.  The old priesthood has been fulfilled in Christ because He is the “priest forever.”  There are no other priests.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: That Scriptural reasoning is not right.  You have many things confused.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: Is that so?!  How do you know?

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: Well, I lived in the early church for one, and we had priests, and all generations before us had priests going back to the Apostles and to our Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: I am sorry, but I cannot accept that.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: Why not?

MODERN CHRISTIAN: Because the New Testament would have said something about priests if it were so.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: It does.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: You know what, you’re right!  I do remember now that the New Testament refers to all believers, not some, but all believers in Christ as priests.  For example, in 1 Peter 2:9, it calls us “a royal priesthood.”  This is further echoed three times in the Book of Revelation beginning in 1:6 calling us “priests to His God and Father” and again in 5:10 as “priests to our God,” and finally in 20:6 where it says, “Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection.  Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.”  So yes, the New Testament said something about priests four times, that is all of us who believe in Christ are priests.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: But what about the man who gave the sermon?  He was clearly of a different rank than the rest of the congregation?

MODERN CHRISTIAN: That was the pastor, not a priest.  We are all priests to God; there are no ranks in Christianity.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: Is that pastor the only one who gives sermons or does any member of the congregation give sermons also?

MODERN CHRISTIAN: No.  Sometimes other pastors give sermons; the congregation does not.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: But you said you do not have ranks.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: We don’t.  Otherwise we would not all be priests.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: So how come only the pastors give sermons?

MODERN CHRISTIAN: Because that is their ministry.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: Perhaps this is where we should start the discussion on what I mean by the Christian Priesthood.  And more importantly, we should define our terms.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: What do you mean?

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: I mean your interpretation of all the above verses is correct.  All Christians are priests to God, but that is the general priesthood of all believers.  This refers to us as the ones who bear Christ in us in order to preach Him to the world and to “let His light shine through us.  Yet, there is another priesthood which is the one I was referring to, which is the sacramental and pastoral priesthood which is reserved for only those who are called and is not open to anyone.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: I have never heard of such a priesthood in the Bible.  That is something the Roman Church invented in the Middle Ages.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: I am not Roman, and I did not live in the Middle Ages.  Yet we had priests.  Also, the Bible does indeed talk about this priesthood.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: Show me then.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: Let’s begin by defining terms.  It is important that we agree on terms before we begin the discussion.  Do you agree?

MODERN CHRISTIAN: Of course.  The last thing we want is confusion.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: Good then.  The word we used to refer to priests in the early church was presbyteros.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: Oh yes.  That word means “elder.”  We have a council of elders at our church.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: Really?

MODERN CHRISTIAN: Yes.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: Was your pastor one of them?

MODERN CHRISTIAN: Yes.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: So all of them are pastors?

MODERN CHRISTIAN: Oh no.  They do things like manage the money of the church, determine which of the poor need the most help, and look over the church properties and things like that.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: Well, that is not what presbyteros meant in the early Christian church.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: What did it mean then?

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: It meant….

MODERN CHRISTIAN: Tell me.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: If you may, please don’t interrupt me.  Please let me begin and finish what I have to say before asking questions.  Fair enough?

MODERN CHRISTIAN: Yes.  Go for it.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: The word presbyteros (which does indeed originally mean elder) was used in the early church to refer to our priests.  The word presbyteros did not simply mean “elder” in the context of early Christians, but it took on a specific technical meaning as can be seen in the New Testament.  It was used to describe a Christian office, which was ordained by the laying on of hands.  That word entered Latin as presbyter, then it shortened in the Germanic languages to presbyt, then prest, from which we get the English word priest.

However, this word is different from the Greek word which was used to describe the priests who served in the Jewish Temple or even pagan priests.  That word is hierus.  This is the word that was used to describe all Christians as priests as you referenced in 1 Peter and Revelation.  Yet never have all Christians been called presbyteroi.  That office was reserved for certain people having met certain qualifications and having been ordained by the laying on of hands.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: That is interesting, especially the etymology of the English word for priest from the Greek presbyteros.  Yet, that is not a complete justification of how this is related to the priesthood of the Orthodox and Catholic Churches.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: I will get there, but at first I had to define the terms.  The word priest in English describes those who administer sacred rites, yet the word comes from the Christian technical term for elder, not any word which etymologically means priest.  Why is this?  What this means is the Christian elder had some connection to sacred rites, and ones which were not done by all other Christians, but only the presbyters.  It is for this reason that in English the word to describe priests of any kind comes from the Greek word presbyteros because for the Christian community, they could understand the idea of priest from their presbyters.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: It still remains for you to prove that.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: Well, the word which properly means priest in Greek like the priests in the Jewish Temple is hierus.  The Temple is called hieron, which comes from the same root word in Greek.  The priest was the one who worked in the Temple leading worship and prayer, teaching, and offering the sacrifices of the people.  He performed sacred rites.  In addition, the type of sacrificial, liturgical worship which the priests administered was called leitourgeia in Greek, and the priest presiding over that worship was called a leitourgos in Greek.

So the language used to describe priests in the Temple was hierus (priest), leitourgeia (liturgical worship, ministry), and leitourgos (liturgical minister).

We will find the same duties given to presbyters in the New Testament, and this can further be confirmed by the study of early Christian history.  Presbyters were an office in the early church and it was not simply a distinction given to those who were aged.  This word thus takes a technical meaning.  What that meaning is we can begin to figure out by looking at the First Epistle to Timothy.  In 1 Timothy, Timothy, the Apostle Paul’s disciple is described as a youth in 1 Timothy 4:12 and is further told to shun youthful passions in 2 Timothy 2:22.  Yet he is called an elder, and that he received the eldership by the laying on of hands in 1 Timothy 4:14.  How can this word simply refer to an aged person when the person holding this title was a youth and received it by the laying on of hands?  It is because this was an office and was ordained in the same way that the Apostles Paul and Barnabas received their ministry and how the deacons were ordained according to Acts 13:1-3 and Acts 6:1-6 respectively.

Every single time in the New Testament this word is used to describe Christians, the word does not simply mean elder in the context, but it refers to a technical meaning.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: What are some examples of this word being used in a technical way?

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: In Acts 14:23, it says, “So when they had appointed elders [presbyterous] in every church, and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.”

The word translated as “appointed” in English is actually the Greek word cheirotonesantes in Greek meaning “laying on of hands.”  This means that the name of presbyteros was given to certain believers by the laying on of hands indicating it was an office and not simply an observation of age.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: Are there other instances that highlight a technical meaning such as this?

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: Yes.  In Acts 15, where the Council of Jerusalem takes place. The Apostle Paul and his companions arrive at Jerusalem to discuss matters of doctrine and practice, and it says, “they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders [presbyterōn]” (Acts 15:4) and after they reported their matters of concern, it says, “The apostles and the elders [presbyteroi] met together to consider this matter,” (Acts 15:6), and after they came to a decision, it says, “Then the apostles and the elders [presbyterois], with the consent of the whole church, decided to choose men from among their members and to send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas” (Acts 15:22 NRSV).

This shows that the elders were held in high ranking near the Apostles.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: I see what you are saying.  There is definitely something more than just age here.  But I take real issue with that because what you are showing indicates that there were ranks in the early church, and probably by your reasoning, there should be today.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: What is your issue with ranks?  Life is full of ranks.  We are taught that from birth and through everything we do in life.  Our parents have a higher rank than us their children.  Teachers must be of a higher rank than their students.  Bosses are higher than employees.  Even the nonliving universe teaches us that there are ranks.  The sun must be greater than the earth for the earth to exist.  The earth is in submission to the sun for life and the seasons.  In similar fashion, the Apostle Peter Himself tells the Church to be under the authority (it actually reads as “submission” in the NKJV) to the presbyteroi.  He says in his Epistle,

“Now as an elder myself (sympresbyteros, which can actually be translated as fellow elder), and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as one who shares in the glory to be revealed, I exhort the elders (presbyterous) among you to tend the flock of God that is in your charge, exercising the oversight (episkopountes, from the Greek word for bishop, the same word applied to the ministry of the Apostles in Acts 2), not under compulsion but willingly, as God would have you do it—not for sordied gain but eagerly.  Do not lord it over those in your charge, but be examples to the flock.  And when the chief shepherd appears, you will win the crown of glory that never fades away.  In the same way, you who are younger must accept the authority of the elders (presbyterois).  And all of you must clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with one another” (1 Peter 5:1-5 NRSV).

MODERN CHRISTIAN: But we are all equal before God.  That is why I don’t believe in ranks.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: Equality does not mean everyone is a clone of the other, and certainly not in ministry.  Not all are called to shepherd the church of God as is clear from the Pastoral Epistles of the Apostle Paul and even in the passage above from the Apostle Peter.

We are equal in terms of that every soul is precious to God and we have all been redeemed by our Lord Jesus Christ, but I do not see how equality translates into no specific, ministerial priesthood.  It does not follow.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: Well, you have shown that this was an office, and let me grant you that it was a rank, but you have not shown how this office performed sacred rites, which you referred to earlier as employing the language of hierus (priest), leitourgeia (liturgical service), and leitourgos (liturgical minister).

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: To answer your question, this is clearest when the Acts of the Apostles is describing the ordination of the Apostles Paul and Barnabas.  In Acts 13:2-3, according to the New King James Version, it says,

“As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’  Then, having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away” (Acts 13:2-3 NKJV).

But according to the New International Version and the New Revised Standard Version, the first part reads, “While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting.”

Well, that begs the question, why is the same phrase translated with two different words.  What is the original word in Greek?  The word is leitourgounton which is the verb for leitourgeia and leitourgos.  This verb refers to the action of priests in liturgical, temple-like worship.  This service concluded with the laying on of hands on Paul and Barnabas to sanctify them for the Apostolic ministry.  This laying on of hands is the same as that which the Apostle Paul uses to describe Timothy’s ministry (1 Timothy 4:14).  This means that Paul’s ministry was ordained in the same way as Timothy’s and that it was done in the context of liturgical worship.  This is also why the Apostle Peter describes himself as an “elder” (1 Peter 1:5).  Later the Apostle John called himself an “elder” as well in 2 John and 3 John.  This means that the ministry of the presbyteroi resembled the Apostolic ministry closely and that both were ordained in the context of a liturgical service.

Further, the Apostle Paul in Romans 15:15-16 says, “Nevertheless, brethren, I have written more boldly to you on some points, as reminding you, because of the grace given to me by God, that I might be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.”

The word that is translated minister here is leitourgon in Greek which refers back to the priest in the Temple.  Now, in all fairness, this word can mean public official in some contexts, but that makes no sense in this context.  The only other meaning it has in Greek is a minister of liturgical worship.  Is that justified in this case?  It absolutely is because of what follows.

What follows is a second time for the word “minister” used in this passage.  In that place where it reads, “ministering the Gospel of God,” the word in Greek is hierougeo, which means to perform sacred rites, that is the work of a priest.  He uses this word to describe his ministry as an Apostle, that is, one who was ordained by the laying on of hands to spread the Gospel of Christ.  Not all Christians are Apostles; indeed, the New Testament only mentions 70.  It is clear that the earliest Christians such as Luke and Paul saw Apostolic ministry as a sort of priesthood that was limited only to the Apostles, and later their successors in the elders and bishops, and not the ministry of all Christians.  Therefore, there was indeed a unique pastoral and ministerial priesthood which was not the calling of all Christians, but only the calling of a few.

We had liturgical worship and ministry in ancient Christianity, and it still exists in the Orthodox and Catholic churches today.  What you see here in the few examples above, of which there are many more in the New Testament, is the beginning of liturgical worship and ministry among the Apostles and the early church.  Also, you are seeing the justification for it, that this is Apostolic.  Next, it follows that if there was a liturgical worship, there must also be priests.

Now as you mentioned above, our Lord Jesus Christ is truly a priest, the High Priest.  The prophecies declare it, and the Epistle to the Hebrews goes at length to show that He is the High Priest.

Now, there is not only one priest in the Temple, but many.  Yet, there is only one High Priest.  The New Testament never said that He is the only priest, but that He is the only High Priest.  The New Testament also calls some shepherds/pastors which is seen in Acts 20:28, Ephesians 4:11, and 1 Peter 5:2 (see the Greek), but in 1 Peter Chapter 5, it also calls our Lord the Chief Shepherd (1 Peter 5:4).  He is the Chief and source of the shepherds, but He is not simply the only one.

Titles such Shepherd (pastor in Latin) and Overseer (episkopos in Greek, which means bishop) are applied to him.  They are also applied to the Apostles, the Bishops, and the presbyteroi in the New Testament.

It is clear, then, that their ministries are an extension of His Priesthood.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: And what was the work that He did which the Apostles and the presbyteroi do?

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: Several.

1. Prayer and preaching the Gospel to those who have never heard. Our Lord Jesus and the Apostles and the bishops did this.

2. Laying on of hands to give the gift of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to new believers and to ordain bishops and priests (the Sacraments of the Laying on of Hands for the Holy Spirit and for the Priesthood). Our Lord Jesus and the Apostles and the bishops did this.

3. Overseeing (in Greek episkopos) the Christian flock (our Lord Jesus does this too). Our Lord Jesus does this, and the Apostles and the bishops did this.

4. Appointing bishops, presbyters (elders), and deacons to serve the Christian community. Our Lord Jesus did this with the Apostles who are described as episkopoi in the Acts of the Apostles 2 (see the prophecy from the Psalms).

5. Teaching the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is not enough to the preach it, but also to teach it and deepen the knowledge of the Church. Our Lord Jesus did this as seen in His explanations of His parables and the prophecies.  The Apostles did this as seen in their sermons and epistles.  The bishops did this in the early church as seen in the writings of the Church Fathers.  And the faithful bishops and priests still do this on a weekly basis.

6. Administering the other sacraments of the church. Our Lord Jesus Christ instituted them, the Apostles performed them and passed them down, and the bishops and priests continue this work until today.

If you notice, all of what is written above is what our Lord did too.  The Apostles and their successors shared in the exact same ministry, so if these actions of His are priestly actions, then they too are sharing in priestly actions, therefore they are priests, and only the Apostolic authority can claim this priesthood.  Their priesthood is built and founded on Him and His atoning and reconciling death and His glorious Resurrection, Ascension and the sending of the Holy Spirit.

If you pay attention to the New Testament, the bishops took these roles as well when they were appointed by the Apostles.  The presbyters at times fulfilled some of these roles and at other times all of these roles.  Timothy and Titus are two such bishops.  These are not Apostles, but they were appointed by the Apostles by the laying on of hands and receiving this gift (charisma in Greek) of ministry.  They were tasked with praying steadfastly for the church, preaching, appointing bishops, presbyters, and deacons, no differently from the ministry of the Apostles themselves.  They were tasked with overseeing the flock of believers, no differently from the Apostles themselves.  They were tasked with teaching the Gospel, no differently from the Apostles themselves.  And, they were tasked with imparting the gift of the Holy Spirit, no differently from the Apostles themselves.

As seen above, it is clear that the Apostle Paul saw this work of Apostleship, which extended to bishops and presbyters to be a priesthood, a priesthood serving the Gospel of the Lord.  Luke, in like manner, writing the first history of the Christian Church in the Acts of the Apostles was clear in his descriptions of the worship and offices of the Christian Church.

It is clear also, that not all are called to be bishops and presbyters.  Indeed, the qualifications seen in the Epistles of the Apostle Paul to Timothy and Titus make it so that only a small number of people can be qualified to become bishops and presbyters.  Go and reread the Epistles to Timothy and Titus to see those qualifications.

If you liked this blog entry, click here to like my Facebook page here OR sign up to my email list to receive my latest blog entries every week in your inboxes, and you will also receive my free eBook The Way of Christ.  Click here to sign up.