3. The Epistle to the Hebrews does not attrib- ute to believers as priests any of the special functions involved in the unique priesthood of Christ. In Ex 19' Israel is sjioken of as n:^:;^ 0')-S, i.e. God's people are His kingdom, and they are priests, with the right of access to Him. As the N'r point of view is that there is only one people of Uod through all time, this conceiition is found in the NT also : see esi)ecially Uev 1" 5'° 20", 1 P 2'**' (iepdreu/ia dyiov, piaaiXeioi' : f]affi\flav, lepeU TV <?ev ""■^ TraTpi aiToC). In substance, the same thing is meant when wo read in Hebrews of the right to 'draw near with boldness,' or in Eph 2" that through Christ all Christians alike have ' their access (ttji' Trpoffayioy^v : the chara<;teristic privilege of the new religion, Bo !>'', I 1' 3'") in one spirit to the Father.' To the Father : for in experience the
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sonship of believers and their priesthood are one and the same thing. Sonship and priesthood are two Bgures under which we can represent the characteristic relation of man to God, his charac- teristic standing toward God, in the new religion instituted by Christ. Formally distin^ishable, they are really and experimentally the same. Christ Himself was perfect priest only because He was true Son of God ; His priesthood, though it was His vocation, was grounded in His nature : it had nothing oHicial in it, but was throughout personal and real. So it is with the priesthood of believers : it also is involved in sonsliip, is one element or function of sonship, and only as such has it any meaning. The writer to the Hebrews speaks of Christians as ottering to God saerilices of praise, the fruit of lips making confession to His name. He bids them remember benehoence and charity, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. So St. Peter says Christians are a holy priesthood to otter spiritual s.acrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ ( 1 P 2') ; and St. Paul bids the Romans present tlieir bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is the rational worship required of them (Ro 12'). Praise, self- consecration, charity, — if we include Rev 8', we may add, after the analogy of Ps 14P, prayer, — these are the only sacrifices which the priestly people of God may oft'er now. There is no such thing in the NT as a sacrifice for sin except the sacrifice which Christ ottered once for all.
4. The NT does not apply the word lepeiJi to any Christian minister, nor indeed to any Christian at all, except so far as the people of God are spoken of as a ' royal priesthood.' It is easy to see why. Christianity is what it is — a perfect and abiding fellowship with God— because it is realized in the Eternal Son of God. It cannot be realized or guaranteed in any other. He is the Mediator of it, to whom it owes its character. To introduce into it, no matter how we define their relation to Him, official mediators, is to relapse from the Melchizedek priesthood to the Aaronic ; it is in principle to apostatize from Christianity. The pic- torial use of language borrowed from the old re- ligion is, of course, intelligible enough. St. Paul, e.ff., can speak of himself as lepovpywv rb cvayyiXiov ToO fleoO, discharging a sacred function toward the gospel, and presenting^ the Gentiles as an offering to God (Ro 15'« ; cf. Ph 2"). But there is not, as in the nature of the case there could not be, any trace in the NT of a Christian priest making sacrifice for sin, and mediating again (in the Aaronic, official, mortal, never perfect, and never to be perfected fashion) between God and man.
LiTBRATuuK. — Schurer, as &bove ; the books on NT theology, Weiss, Pfleiderer, Beyschlag, Holtzomnn ; the commeDtaries oo Hebrews, esp. the extended notes in Davidson ; Bruce, Ep. to the Uebrpwg, and art. Hebrews in this Dictionary ; Milligan, Aacerufion and Heavenly Priesthood ; Westcott, llebrewa ; also Prioithood and Sacrifice (Eeport of Conference at OxfordX edited by W. Sauday, 1900. J. DeNNEY.
PRINCE is the AV tr. of no fewer than 16 Hebrew or Hebraized terms in OT and 3 Greelc ones in NT.
1. (CC'J, lit. ' exalted one ' from n;j ' lift up.' This word is practically confined (the only exceptions are Ex 22-''l«» [J or E], 1 K 8' ll" [both W], and Pr 25") to the writings of P, the Chronicler, and Ezekiel. It is used in Gn l"*" (LXX (Bvti ' nations ') 25'" (ipxovrei) of the twelve 'princes' descended from Isiimael ; in 23" it is put by P in the mouth of the ' children of Heth ' as a designation of Abra- ham (LXX ^airtXei;!) ; in 34' it is applied to Shechera the son of Hamor tipx'^' ! so, or Bipxoym, in the LXX of all the following pa-ssages, unless other- wise noted) ; in Nu 25" of a prince of Midian ; in Jos 13-' of the princes of Sihon. It is especially frequent for the beads of the Isr. tribes : £x 16'^
34", Lv 4'' (AV and RV in these three passages 'rulers'), Nu 2^ V<'- 31'» etc., Jos g"- is. is. 21 174 2214. so. 82^ so also 1 Ch 2'» i^ 5« 1*^ etc., cf. Ex 2i« (28) ('Thou shalt not revile God nor curse a ruler of thy people'), and 1 K 8' (A iir-riaiUvoi., prob. error for iTT-qpiiivoi, Aq.'s tr. of nVJ in Ex 22'^ ; B om.) = 2 Ch 5- (S.pxoi'Te';), where the princes of the fathers' houses of the children of Israel were assembled by Solomon. In IK 11" the term nast' is used of Solomon himself ('I will make him prince,' K'i:) >in*t;'t<, LXX avmaffffbfievoi avrtrd^o^ai), and in Ezr 1^ the Chronicler applies it to Shcslibazzar. In Ezk not only is it used of the king of Judah (12'»- '^ 21*' tEng. 25] [a.<j)TtyoviJifvoi\), and of Isr. and foreign princes (7=' 21" [E»s. 121 [d^iryoi'Mfo'] 26'« 30" 32-" etc.), but han-nasi' \a the special designation of the head of the future ideal State (34=» 37=^ [both 6 dpx""] 44' [6 iryoiiievo^'l 45'- '«• "• 22 46'-- ■■• <*■ ">• '■■'■ '«• "• '« 48-''- --' [all b d.(priyoiiievoi\). For the later Talmudic use of nasi' as the technical title for the president of the Sanhedrin see art. Sanhedrin ; Kuenen, Ge- samm. Abhandl. [Budde's tr.] p. 58 f.; Schiirer, RJP II. i. 180 ff. ; Weber, Jud. Theologie, p. 140. The title nasi' was also assumed by Simeon bar- Cochba (the leader of the Jewish revolt A. D. 132), whose coins are stamped ' Simeon nasi' of Israel ' (see art. Money in vol. iii. p. 430'', and Schurer, H.JP I. ii. 299).