Priest

Priest

Judaism

The kohanim (sing., kohen) are a hereditary class whose special responsibility was the performance of the cultic ceremonies of the Jerusalem Temple. The Hebrew scriptures indicate in some places that only the descendants of Aaron have the right to priesthood (Leviticus 8) and in others that the entire tribe of Levi has a priestly role (Deuteronomy 33. 8–10); to these were added the Zadokites (perhaps predecessors of Sadducees) when David captured Jerusalem and assimilated the cult of Zadok. After the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, the sacrificial system came to an end. Knowledge of priestly descent can no longer be proved. None the less supposed Kohanim enjoy certain privileges in the synagogue. Because of the doubt entailed in priestly ancestry, the Progressive movements disregard all the laws applying to Kohanim.

Christianity

In Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican Churches, the priest is the minister who is typically in charge of a parish. The English word is ultimately derived from Gk. presbyteros, as the office is derived from that of the early Christian presbyter. The idea of ‘priesthood’, in the sacrificial sense continuous with the Jewish office, only gradually attached to this order of minister. At first, the sacrifice of the eucharist was the function of bishops only, but with the spread of Christianity to country districts priests were allowed to consecrate the eucharist themselves. This opened the way for a doctrine that priestly powers were conferred in ordination, especially when in the 11th cent. the practice spread of ordaining priests who had no benefice. The priest thus became the normal celebrant of the eucharist and after 1215 the one who heard confessions. He remained, however, subordinate to the bishop, who alone could ordain and confirm.

The tendency of medieval theology to see the priesthood of the clergy in terms of the mass led to its rejection by the Reformers. Protestant Christians thus take the view that priesthood belongs only to Christ and, derivatively, to ‘all believers’ (1 Peter 2. 5, 9).

The term ‘priest’ is then sometimes applied to functionaries in other religions, as e.g. to mullahs in Islam, or to granthi or mahant among Sikhs, to hotṛ and brahmans among Hindus, to tao-shih among Taoists, to magi among Zoroastrians, but the differences in order, duties, appointment, and role are extreme.