On 1 Peter and Hebrews: The Christian Priesthood

This is an argument I developed in response to the occasional argument that because Christians are called to a universal priesthood, that there cannot be a specific priesthood such as the Church teaches. It's based largely on Peter's first epistle, and the Letter to the Hebrews, and I will here offer a more proper understanding of these Scriptural teachings.

First, for 1 Peter 2:9, "But you are a chosen generation, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people: that you may declare his virtues, who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:"

Does this not seem familiar? It should. Peter got his idea for a kingly priesthood, or a holy nation, almost word for word, from Exodus 19:6, "And you shall be to me a priestly kingdom, and a holy nation. Those are the words thou shalt speak to the children of Israel."

God in Exodus refers to Israel as a priestly kingdom, and a holy nation. But that did not stop God from establishing the Levite tribe as the priests for the Israelites. Being a priestly kingdom does not mean that everyone within the kingdom fulfills the duties of the vocation to priesthood. Just as the Levites fulfilled the duties of a priest for the priestly kingdom of Israel, so too did and do the Apostles and their successors fulfill the duties of a priest for the holy nation of Christianity.

Also remember that linguistically speaking, English is really a terrible language for figuring out the differentiated words of the New Testament and Old Testament. Greek, for example, has a variety of words that can and have been translated in "priest."

The word used for priesthood in 1 Peter is only used in 1 Peter in the entire New Testament. It's "hierateuma." However, the priesthood of the Church, that of the presbyterate, and the episcopate, are entirely different terms in Greek, namely that of "presbuteros" and "episkopos." These terms are generally translated as presbyters/bishops/elders in the New Testament. The term "priest" as applied to members of the Church heirarchy is a common usage of an English term that was mis-translated centuries ago into priest as opposed to elder. The actual name of the levels of appointment and office in the Church are that of the Deaconate, the Presbyterate, and the Episcopate. And ironically, as I mentioned before, it is the end of 1 Peter that truly seals the deal on this particular complaint.

1 Peter 5: "1 The ancients therefore that are among you, I beseech, who am myself also an ancient, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ: as also a partaker of that glory which is to be revealed in time to come: 2 Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking care of it, not by constraint, but willingly, according to God: not for filthy lucre's sake, but voluntarily: 3 Neither as lording it over the clergy, but being made a pattern of the flock from the heart. 4 And when the prince of pastors shall appear, you shall receive a never fading crown of glory. 5 In like manner, ye young men, be subject to the ancients. And do you all insinuate humility one to another, for God resisteth the proud, but to the humble he giveth grace."

The word "ancient" that Peter is using here is the term "episkopos." "Episkopos" is the term used throughout the New Testament to refer to bishops. You will, for example, find the term used in Paul's letters to Timothy and Titus (as well as the word "presbuteros") as Paul describes exactly what qualities Timothy and Titus should look for when ordaining men to these offices. Paul also uses it in Acts 20:28, "Take heed to yourselves, and to the whole flock, wherein the Holy Ghost hath placed you bishops, to rule the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood." The word "bishops" is another translation of the term "episkopos."

The New Testament absolutely supports the Church heirarchy, in exactly the same form as it exists today. Episkopos who are the heirs of the Apostles and charged with overseeing the flock as the Apostles did and were charged by Christ. The presbyters who are given a lesser but more focused role in guiding smaller communities instead of larger areas under the direction of an episkopos, and the deacons, who were given charge of taking care of the communities earthly as opposed to spiritual needs.

Now, moving on to Hebrews. There are those who argue that this renders the "priesthood" redundant. And, in fact, they are absolutely right when they make this argument. What they generally do not consider is which priesthood. Again, due to the problems of the English language we need to examine this passage in more depth.

The Greek words for priest used in Hebrews are several, but that which is used in the passage above (and most often in Hebrews, and more in Hebrews than anywhere else in the Bible) is "hiereus" which means "a priest, one who offers sacrifices and in general in busied with sacred rites," and refers to Jewish or Gentile priests, not to Christian priests. You can see by the word structure that it is linguistically related to the word used in 1 Peter 2, that of "hierateuma." This is no coincidence, because an additional meaning for the word "hiereus" is "metaph. of Christians, because, purified by the blood of Christ and brought into close intercourse with God, they devote their life to him alone and to Christ." Thus we see exactly what Peter meant by referring to us as a priestly nation as we join Christ in His sacrifice, and through His sacrifice come close to God, not that we are now all "priests" in the same sense as the Church's clergy.

"Hiereus" refers specifically in Hebrews to the Levitical Priesthood, that priesthood which came from Aaron and involved a high priest and many lesser priests who offered up animal sacrifices for the remission of the sins of Israel as a nation and for the individual people of Israel. This is why the Greek word specifically applied to priests who offer up sacrifices, and which can apply equally to Gentiles who offered up animal sacrifices (a common priestly ritual in many religions of the day and area), is used a dozen times in Hebrews, whereas it is used far less in the rest of the NT. If there is any doubt that the author of Hebrews is referring to the Levitical priesthood, let us consider the context of the passages given above.

Hebrews 7 is comparing Christ and Melchizadek, both of whom are priests who offered up sacrifices to God in a timeless fashion, both of whom are outside of the line of Aaron, (referred to with the Greek word "hierosune," yet another related linguistic term). This word appears 4 times in Hebrews, all of them in chapter 7, referring to the Levite priesthood and how Christ compares to it. Hebrews 7:11 is particularly interesting, for it reads, "If then perfection was by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise according to the order of Melchisedech, and not be called according to the order of Aaron?"

Is it coincidence that the author later speaks of Christ rendering "priesthood" redundant through His Eternal sacrifice? Of course not! The author has been building up to this point by comparing the Levitical priesthood with Christ's priesthood for the entire length of the 7th chapter, and even some of the 6th. However, there are vast differences between the Levitical priesthood and the priesthood of the pesbyterate/episkopate, which I have already illustrated, I hope sufficiently, in the discussion on 1 Peter, that I do not have to go into a huge amount of detail now. However, I will go into a quick enumeration of specific differences now just to aid in illustration.

The specific roles of the Apostles and their successors can be broken down into one word. Service. Their vocation is that of service. Service to who and how now becomes the question. Service to God, and service to God's flock, are what the New Testament makes abundantly clear, this is in fact easily answered, not only by the Scriptural references I gave earlier but by numerous others as well. Service how then? There are numerous parts of this service, the first of which has already been identified, literally, as "ruling over/overseeing the flock." The first duty of the Christian priesthood is to be earthly shepherds guiding the earthly flock of Christ in His bodily absence. We can easily see that this charge was given most especially to Peter in John's Gospel, chapter 21, when Peter specifically is charged with taking care of and feeding Christ's lambs.

This leads us to the second duty. The second duty of Christian priests is not only to guide Christ's flock but also to feed Christ's flock. Feed Christ's flock what exactly? Christ's Body, and Christ's Blood, given up for us, for all, so that sins could be forgiven, for the New Covenant. Christ's words at the Last Supper, and in the Bread of Life discourse of John 6 direct us to exactly what kind of food Christ considers to be true meat and true drink (John 6:Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. 55 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day. 56 For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed. 57 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him."). Christ at the Last Supper commands the Apostles to "Do this in memory of me." Christ later charges Peter with feeding His lambs. Feeding them what? That which is true meat and true drink, by Christ's own mouth, His Body and His Blood. By eating of Christ's Body and Blood, we are in Him and He in us, as He says. Thus we are drawn into Christ's Sacrifice for our sakes and through that become the very priestly nation that Peter referred to in 1 Peter 2.

Thus we can see the second duty of the Christian priesthood is to not only guide, but feed the flock of Christ. And feed them not with regular food and drink (note that this charge is given not to Christian priests but to Christian Deacons, thus we can absolutely rule out that feeding Christ's lambs does not refer to solely taking care of their earthly needs, as the Apostles quickly delegate the task to others, since their job is of a higher nature, please see Acts 6).

From the second duty, we progress to the rest of the duties, namely those of administering the Sacraments, such as Baptism, Confession, Ordination, Last Rites, etc. We see clear commands from Christ on the nature of Baptism in John 3, as well as the end of Matthew; John 20 provides the authority of the Apostles to forgive sins in Christ's name; Acts 1, not to mention Paul's letters to Titus and Timothy, show us that the Apostles and their successor episkopos clearly had the authority to ordain people to their role as shepherds of the flock; and I believe it is James 5 that specifically refers to the anointing of the sick that is the Sacrament of Last Rites. But there is a key theme running through all of these practices of the Apostles and their successors. It is that they are ministering to Christ's Flock in Christ's physical absence. They baptize with Water and Spirit because Christ isn't here to do so. They forgive sins in Christ's name and through His authority because He isn't here to personally speak the words of forgiveness. They ordain others as He ordained them (through the power of the Spirit at Pentecost) to continue His ministry, etc. The specific duty of Christian priests then is to walk the path of Christ's ministry and serve as His hands in accomplishing His ministerial work on this earth.

Comparatively, the Levitical priesthood has an altogether different purpose, one of offering sacrifices of animal flesh for the remission of sins, etc. As has been argued, such a priesthood is absolutely redundant, and thus unnecessary now, for we have an Eternal High Priest who continuously presents His Perfect Sacrifice to God for our sakes. Our priests exist to carry on His earthly work in His name, and to guide and feed the flock of His Mystical Body.