Priest

PRIEST, the contracted form of "presbyter" (7rpecri315rEpos, "elder"; see PRESBYTER), a name of office in the early Christian Church, already mentioned in the New Testament. But in the English bible the presbyters of the New Testament are called "elders," not "priests"; the latter name is reserved for ministers of pre-Christian religions. The reason of this will appear more clearly in the sequel; it is enough to observe at present that, before our English word was formed, the original idea of a pres byter had been overlaid with others derived from pre-Christian priesthoods, so that it is from these and not from the etymological force of the word that we must start in considering historically what a priest is. The theologians of the Greek and Latin churches expressly found the conception of a Christian priesthood on the hierarchy of the Jewish temple, while the names by which the sacerdotal character is expressed—le/min, sacerdos—originally des ignated the ministers of sacred things in Greek and Roman hea thenism, and then came to be used as translations into Greek and Latin of the Hebrew kohen. Kohen, tEpfin, sacerdos, are, in fact, fair translations of one another ; they all denote a minister whose stated business was to perform, on behalf of the community, cer tain public ritual acts, particularly sacrifices, directed Godwards. Such ministers or priests existed in all the great religions of an cient civilization.

Early Priesthoods.

Among the Babylonians and Assyrians magic and soothsaying were intertwined with priestly functions, as was the case in early Hebrew pre-exilian days with the The baril (from barn to see, inspect) was a soothsaying priest who was consulted whenever any important undertaking was pro posed, and addressed his inquiries to Samag the sun god (or Adad) as bel biri or lord of the oracle (accompanied by the sacrifice of lambs). (See OMEN and DIVINATION.) As contrasted with the barii or soothsaying priest we have the agipu, who was the priest-magician who dealt in conjurations (siptu), whereby diseases were removed, spells broken, or in expiations whereby sins were expiated. Now, as the conjurations were addressed to the deity, a.fipu, according to the definition given above, comes more reasonably under the category of pfiest.

In Babylonia priesthoods were endowed with great wealth and power, and even the king stood in awe of them. (See Johns, Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Contracts and Letters, p. 212 sqq.) These powerfully-organized priesthoods, as well as the elaborate nature of their ritual and apparatus of worship, must have deeply and permanently impressed the exiled Jewish com munity. Thus arose the more developed system of Ezekiel's scheme (xl.–xlviii.) and of the Priestly code and the high dignity which became attached to the person of the High Priest (reflected in the narrative of Uzziah's leprosy in 2 Chron. xxvi. 16-20).

Among the ancient Egyptians the local god was the protector and lord of the district. Consequently it was the interest and duty of the inhabitants to maintain the cultus of the patron deity of their city who dwelt in their midst. Moreover, in the earlier times we find the prince of the nome acting as the High Priest of the local god, but in course of time the state, repre sented by the king, began to an ever-increasing degree to take oversight over the more important local cults. Thus we find that the Egyptian monarch was empowered to exercise priestly functions before all the gods. We constantly see him in the wall paintings, portrayed as a priest in the conventional attitudes before the images of the gods. In the chief sanctuaries the chief priests possessed special privileges, and it is probable that those in the immediate entourage of the king were elected to these positions. The highest nobility in the nome sought the honour of priesthood in the service of the local deity. One special class called kher heb was charged with reciting the divine formulae, which were popularly held to possess magical virtue. In the middle empire (VIIth to XIIth Dynasties) the lay element main tains its position in religious cultus despite its complexity. But under the new empire (Dynasties XVIIIth and following) the pro fessional priest had attained to ominous power. Priests increased in number and were divided into ranks; temples possessed larger estates and became more wealthy.