IV. Relation of the Jewish Priest hood to the Christian Ministry. — The language of the New-Test, writers in relation to the priesthood ought not to be passed over. They recognise in Christ the first-born, the king, the Anointed, the representative of the true primeval priest- hood after the order of Melchizedek (Heb. vii, via), from which that of Aaron, however necessary for the time, is now seen to have been a deflection. But there is no trace of an order in the new Christian society bearing the name and exercising functions like those of the priests of the older Covenant. The synagogue, and not the Temple, furnishes the pattern for the or- ganization of the Church. The idea which pervades the teaching of the Epistles is that of a universal priest- hood. All true believers are made kings and priests
(Rev. i, 6 ; 1 Pet. ii, 9), offer spiritual sacrifices (Rom. xii, 1), may draw near, may enter into the holiest (Heb. x, 19-22), as having received a true priestly consecra- tion. They, too, have been washed and sprinkled as the sons of Aaron were (x, 22). It was the thought of a succeeding age that the old classification of the high- priest, priests, and Levites was reproduced in the bish- ops, priests, and deacons of the Christian Church. The history of language presents few stranger facts than those connected with these words. Priest, our only equivalent for \epevg, comes to us from the word which was chosen because it excluded the idea of a sacerdotal character. Bishop has narrowly escaped a like perver- sion, occurring as it does constantly in Wiclifs ver- sion as the translation of ap\npiuQ (e. g. John xviii, 15; Heb. viii, 1). The idea which was thus expressed rested, it is true, on the broad analogy of a threefold gradation, and the terms "priest," "altar," "sacrifice," might be used without involving more than a legiti- mate symbolism ; but they brought with them the in- evitable danger of reproducing and perpetuating in the history of the Christian Church many of the feelings which belonged to Judaism, and ought to have been left behind with it. If the evil has not proved so fatal to the life of Christendom as it might have done, it is because no bishop or pope, however much he might exaggerate the harmony of the two systems, has ever dreamed of making the Christian priesthood hereditary. We have perhaps reason to be thankful that two errors tend to neutralize each other, and that the age which witnessed the most extravagant sacerdotalism was one in which the celibacy of the clergy was first exalted, then urged, and at last enforced.
V. Literature. — For the similarity in the religion of ancient Greece, see Potter, Archceologia (Lond. 1775), i, 202; of ancient Rome, Adam, Antiquities (Edinb. 1791), p. 293, § Ministri Sacrorum. For the resem- blances between the religious customs of the ancient Egyptians and those of the Jews, we refer especially to Kitto, Pictorial History of Palestine (Lond. 1844). On the Hebrew priesthood in general, see Kiiper, Las Priesterthum des A lien Bun/Ies (Berl. 18G5). For par- ticular topics, see Riesling, Be Leyibus Mos. circa Sa- cerd. Vitio Corporis laborantes ; Kail, De Morbis Sa- cerdot. V. T. ex Ministerii eor. Conditione oriundis (Hafn. 1745) ; Jablonskii Pantheon, Proleg. § 29, 41 , 43 ; Munch. Be Alatrimonio Sacerd. V. T. cum Filiab. Sacer. (No- rimb. 1747); Kohl, Be sEtate, etc. (Lips. 1735) ; Eechen- berg, id. (ibid. 1760) ; Stiebritz, Be Sacerdotum Vitiis Corpore (Hal. 1742) ; Curtiss, The Levitical Priests (Lond. 1877). For the theology of the subject, see Dr. J. P. Smith, Discourses on the Sacrifice and Priesthood of Christ (Lond. 1842); Jardine, Christian Sacerdotal- ism (ibid. 1871). See also the works cited by Danz, Worterbuch, s. v. Priester; Darling, Cyclopcedia Bibli- oyraphica, vol. i, col. 1812.
PRIEST is a contraction of the word presbyter (Greek TrpeafivTtpoc,), and is derived probably from the old French or Norman prestre. It was in the Saxon, first preost, later prest. The German and Dutch words are priester; the modern French, pretre; the Italian, prete; but the Spanish is most like the original form — it is presbitero. In its most general signification, the word is the title of a minister of public worship, but is specially applied to the minister of sacrifice or other mediatorial offices. In the early history of mankind, the functions of the priest seem to have commonly been discharged by the head of each family ; but, on the ex- pansion of the family into the state, the office of priest became a public one, which absorbed the duties as well as the privileges which before belonged to the heads of the separate families or communities. It thus came to pass that in many instances the priestly office was asso- ciated with that of the sovereign, whatever might be the particular form of sovereignty. But in many re- ligious and political bodies, also, the orders were main- tained in complete independence, and the priests formed
PRIEST
5b2
PRIEST
a distinct, and, generally speaking, a privileged class. See Egypt; Hinduism. The priestly order, in most afthe ancient religions, included a graduated hierarchy; and to the chief, whatever was hia title, were assigned the most solemn of the religious offices intrusted to the body. Compare the prece ling article.