Priest

The priest stands in scripture as the man who goes up to God on behalf of the people and brings God's word and blessing back down. The figure begins long before Sinai with Melchizedek meeting Abram with bread and wine, takes its developed form in the Aaronic line set apart from the rest of Israel by garments, oil, and blood, and reaches its final shape in the New Testament where one priest "after the order of Melchizedek" sits down at the right hand of God and the people he has ransomed are themselves named priests of God.

Before the Levitical Order

The earliest priest in scripture has no genealogy in Israel. "And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was priest of God Most High. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor [by his Speech] of heaven and earth: and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand. And he gave him a tenth of all" (Gen 14:18-20). The figure is small in his own narrative — a king of Salem who blesses Abram and receives a tithe — but he becomes the controlling type for the priesthood scripture finally cares about, both in Israel's own psalter ("You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek," Ps 110:4) and in the long argument of Hebrews, which describes him as "king of Salem, priest of God Most High... without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God" so that he "stays a priest continually" (Heb 7:1-3).

The Aaronic Office Instituted

The settled priesthood of Israel is built around Aaron and his sons. Yahweh sets them apart from among the sons of Israel: "And you bring near to you Aaron your brother, and his sons with him, from among the sons of Israel, that he may serve me in the priest's office, even Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron's sons" (Ex 28:1). The garments themselves are part of the office — "a breastplate, and an ephod, and a robe, and a coat of checker work, a turban, and a belt" — made "for glory and for beauty" so that he can serve "in the priest's office" (Ex 28:2-4). The consecration ritual moves through a washing, a vesting, an anointing, and a series of sacrifices: Aaron and his sons are brought to the door of the tent of meeting and washed with water, the coat and ephod and breastplate and turban are put on, the holy crown is set on the turban, the anointing oil is poured on the head, and the same is done for his sons (Ex 29:4-9). Leviticus narrates the same ritual carried out: "And Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and washed them with water. And he put on him the coat, and girded him with the belt, and clothed him with the robe, and put the ephod on him... And he set the turban on his head; and on the turban, in front, he set the golden plate, the holy crown... And he poured of the anointing oil on Aaron's head, and anointed him, to sanctify him" (Lev 8:6-12).

The priest's office is described as a gift and a charge in the same breath. Yahweh tells Aaron, "You and your sons and your fathers' house with you will bear the iniquity of the sanctuary; and you and your sons with you will bear the iniquity of your⁺ priesthood" (Num 18:1). The Levites are joined to Aaron's house as a service-gift, "but you and your sons with you will be before the tent of the testimony" (Num 18:2), and the priestly charge is sharply bounded — "the stranger who comes near will be put to death" (Num 18:7). Sirach keeps the same language for the same office: "Moses consecrated him, And anointed him with the holy oil; And it became for him an eternal covenant, And for his seed as the days of heaven; To minister and to execute the priest's office for him, And to bless his people in his name" (Sir 45:15), and "Therefore also for him he established an ordinance, A covenant of peace to maintain the sanctuary; That to him and to his seed should appertain The high priesthood forever" (Sir 45:24).

The High-Priestly Purity

The high priest carries restrictions the ordinary priest does not. "And he who is the high priest among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil is poured, and who is consecrated to put on the garments, will not let the hair of his head go loose, nor rend his clothes; neither will he go in to any souls of the dead, nor defile himself for his father, or for his mother; neither will he go out of the sanctuary, nor profane the sanctuary of his God; for the crown of the anointing oil of his God is on him: I am Yahweh" (Lev 21:10-12). His marriage is bounded too: "A widow, or one divorced, or a profane woman, a prostitute, these he will not take: but a virgin of his own relatives he will take as wife" (Lev 21:14). Sirach adds the dimension of glory: "How glorious he was when he looked forth from the tent, And when he came out of the sanctuary" (Sir 50:5); "When he put on his glorious robes, And clothed himself in full splendor, When he went up to the altar of majesty, And made glorious the court of the sanctuary" (Sir 50:11).

The Priest's Work

The priest's work is summed up in a short cluster of activities: he offers, he teaches, he blesses, and he carries the people's identity into the sanctuary. The teaching role appears in Moses' final blessing on Levi: "They will teach Jacob your ordinances, And Israel your law: They will put incense before you, And whole burnt-offering on your altar" (Deut 33:10). Malachi keeps the same picture: "For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of Yahweh of hosts" (Mal 2:7). The benediction comes from Aaron's mouth in the form Moses gives him: "Yahweh bless you, and keep you: Yahweh make his face to shine on you, and be gracious to you: Yahweh lift up his countenance on you, and give you peace" (Num 6:24-26). The Day-of-Atonement work belongs to the anointed priest "who will be consecrated to be priest in his father's stead": he "will make the atonement, and will put on the linen garments, even the holy garments... and he will make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly" (Lev 16:32-33). Sirach summarizes the same set of duties as a single charge: "With all your soul, fear God. And sanctify his priests" (Sir 7:29); "Glorify God and honor the priest. And give their portion as you were commanded: The bread of the first fruits; and The heave-offering of the hand; and The sacrifices of righteousness; and The heave-offering of the holy things" (Sir 7:31).

When the Office Was Despised

The same office could be turned into corruption from inside or assaulted from outside. Eli's sons run the worst kind of priesthood: "Now the sons of Eli were base men; they didn't know Yahweh," and they would seize sacrificial flesh by force, so "the sin of the young men was very great before Yahweh; for they despised the offering of Yahweh" (1Sam 2:12, 17). Hosea's verdict is wider: "My people are destroyed for lack of the knowledge [of God]: because you have rejected the knowledge [of God], I will also reject you, that you will be no priest to me: seeing you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your sons" (Hos 4:6). The boundary of the office is also pressed from the throne side. King Uzziah, "when he was strong, his heart was lifted up... and he went into the temple of Yahweh to burn incense on the altar of incense"; Azariah and eighty priests withstood him with the line, "It does not pertain to you, Uzziah, to burn incense to Yahweh, but to the priests the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense"; the leprosy that broke out on his forehead "before the priests in the house of Yahweh, beside the altar of incense" enforced the rule (2Chr 26:16-20). Urijah, the priest under Ahaz, illustrates the failure of the office from the other side: when Ahaz "went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and saw the altar that was at Damascus," he "sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it, according to all its workmanship" (2Ki 16:10) — a priest taking his pattern for the altar of Yahweh from a foreign king's foreign altar.

Restoration in the Second Temple

After the captivity the priesthood is restored as the first thing in the second-temple narrative. "Then Jeshua the son of Jozadak stood up, and his brothers the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and his brothers, and built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt-offerings on it, as it is written in the law of Moses" (Ezra 3:2). Zechariah's vision shows the same high priest cleansed: "Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of Yahweh, and Satan standing at his right hand to be his adversary," whose filthy garments are taken off and replaced with "rich apparel" and a "clean turban" — a priesthood reclothed by Yahweh's hand (Zech 3:1-5). The Maccabean record carries the same office through the Hellenistic crisis. Mattathias is "a priest of the sons of Joarib, from Jerusalem" (1Ma 2:1), and his last words name the priestly type he aspires to: "Phinehas our father, by being fervent in zeal, Received the covenant of an everlasting priesthood" (1Ma 2:54). When Judas reconsecrates the temple, "he chose priests without blemish, whose will was set on the law of God" (1Ma 4:42), and priests fall in the wars of the period (1Ma 5:67). The high priesthood becomes a contested office: Alcimus seeks it ("Alcimus was at the head of them, who desired to be made high priest," 1Ma 7:5; "the wicked Alcimus he made high priest," 1Ma 7:9; "But Alcimus did what he could to maintain his chief priesthood," 1Ma 7:21), and the priests come out of the holy places to meet Nicanor in peace (1Ma 7:33). Honor of the office passes through Jonathan and Simon by royal grant — "Now therefore we make you this day high priest of your nation" (1Ma 10:20); "I give it to the high priest, to place in it such men as he will choose to keep it" (1Ma 10:32); "And he confirmed him in the high priesthood" (1Ma 11:27); "I confirm you in the high priesthood" (1Ma 11:57); "Jonathan the high priest, and the nation of the Jews, have sent us to renew the friendship and alliance" (1Ma 12:3); "King Demetrius to Simon the high priest, and friend of kings" (1Ma 13:36); "The First Year under Simon the High Priest" (1Ma 13:42); "Simon his brother was made high priest in his place" (1Ma 14:17); "Simon the high priest, and to the elders, and the priests, and the rest of the people of the Jews" (1Ma 14:20); "Jonathan gathered together his nation, and was made their high priest" (1Ma 14:30); the people "made him their prince and high priest" (1Ma 14:35); "King Demetrius confirmed him in the high priesthood" (1Ma 14:38); "the Jews, and their priests, had consented that he should be their prince and high priest forever, until there should arise a faithful prophet" (1Ma 14:41); "Simon accepted it, and was well pleased to serve as high priest, and to be captain, and prince of the nation of the Jews" (1Ma 14:47); "King Antiochus to Simon the high priest" (1Ma 15:2); "the high priest, and the people of the Jews" (1Ma 15:17); "he was son-in-law of the high priest" (1Ma 16:12); and the closing colophon, "the book of the days of his priesthood, from the time that he was made high priest after his father" (1Ma 16:24). Sirach, looking back rather than forward, sets the high priest Simon "the son of Jochanan" at the head of his list of glorious figures: "In whose generation the house was renovated, And in whose days the temple was fortified" (Sir 50:1).

The Priesthood after Melchizedek

The argument of Hebrews reaches back behind Aaron to Melchizedek. The condition is set out plainly: "Now if there was perfection through the Levitical priesthood (for under it has the people received the law), what further need [was there] that another priest should arise after the order of Melchizedek, and not be reckoned after the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law" (Heb 7:11-12). The change is grounded in the tribe ("our Lord has sprung out of Judah; as to which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priests," Heb 7:14) and in the kind of life ("not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life," Heb 7:16), and the witness is the verse from the psalm: "You are a priest forever After the order of Melchizedek" (Heb 7:17). The same passage develops what that endless life means for the office. Levitical priests "have been made priests many in number, because by death they are hindered from staying [as priest]: but he, because he stays forever, has his priesthood unchangeable. Therefore also he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them" (Heb 7:23-25). The kind of high priest that fits this office is named in the next breath: "holy, blameless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins, and then for the [sins] of the people: for this he did once for all, when he offered up himself" (Heb 7:26-27). The Aaronic high priest's pattern — appointed from among men, taking the honor not to himself but as Aaron did, called by God (Heb 5:1-4) — is precisely what Christ comes to fulfill.

Christ as High Priest

The atom's largest cluster gathers around Christ's high-priestly office. He had to be "made like his brothers, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people" (Heb 2:17). He is "the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, [even] Jesus" (Heb 3:1). He is "a great high priest, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God"; he is not a high priest "who can't be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but one who has been in all points tried like [we are, yet] without sin" (Heb 4:14-15) — and on the strength of that the believer is told to "draw near with boldness to the throne of grace" (Heb 4:16). His installation is by the Father's word: "So Christ also did not glorify himself to be made a high priest, but he who spoke to him, You are my Son, This day I have begotten you" (Heb 5:5), and he enters as a forerunner "having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek" (Heb 6:20). The character of the office matches him without remainder — "such was indeed fitting for us [as] a high priest, holy, blameless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens" (Heb 7:26). The ministry is heavenly: "We have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man" (Heb 8:1-2; cf. Heb 8:1). The sphere is the heavenly sanctuary: "Christ having come [as] high priest of the good things that have come, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation" (Heb 9:11), since "Christ didn't enter into a holy place made with hands, like in pattern to the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us... but now once at the very end of the [past] ages he has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself" (Heb 9:24-26). And he stands as "a great priest over the house of God" (Heb 10:21), the standing access of the people of God into the sanctuary.

A Kingdom of Priests

The category of priest also lands on the people of God. The promise is given at Sinai before the Aaronic order is even set up: "and you⁺ will be to me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which you will speak to the sons of Israel" (Ex 19:6). Isaiah extends the same promise into restoration: "But you⁺ will be named the priests of Yahweh; men will call you⁺ the ministers of our God: you⁺ will eat the wealth of the nations, and in their glory you⁺ will boast yourselves" (Isa 61:6). Peter applies it to the church: "you⁺ also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1Pet 2:5). And the Apocalypse takes up the same language as a song. Of Christ's redeeming act, "he made us [to be] a kingdom, [to be] priests to his God and Father; to him [be] the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen" (Rev 1:6). The new song before the throne sings, "Worthy are you to take the book, and to open its seals: for you were slain, and purchased to God with your blood out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation, and made them [to be] to our God a kingdom and priests; and they will reign on the earth" (Rev 5:9-10). And of those who share in the first resurrection, "the second death has no power; but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and will reign with him [for] the thousand years" (Rev 20:6).

The trajectory is one priesthood, gathered from before Sinai through Aaron's house and through the failures and restorations of the second-temple period to the one priest who "stays forever" and who makes a priestly people of those he ransoms.