August 4th is the Memorial day of St. John Vianney the Cure of Ars. He was a great priest who serves as the patron Saint of all priest. In view of that, I would like to share an article from my friend Apologist Luke Haskell about the priesthood. Check it out below – Deacon Marty McIndoe
If there is a New Testament priesthood established by God, then this is one of the most important aspects of faith in our world. It would mean that there is a sacrifice that is needed for the world. This affects every human who has ever lived and all who will live in the future. The main purpose for a priest is to offer sacrifice. This may sound archaic but we must consider the fact that God does not change. If people come to the awareness that God established a New Testament priesthood, then this should have a profound effect on their faith.
As far back as you go, even to the beginning of Christianity, there is a priesthood and the Holy Mass. The early Christians were adamant about keeping a true understanding of faith. If the priesthood were a later invention, then you would see the pages of history scream out over the heresy. The Arian heresy that almost destroyed the church would have paled in comparison. The pages of history are silent because from the beginning, there was a priesthood and a Holy Mass as there still is today, 2000 years later. That in itself is a sustained miracle. “To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations.” (Eph 3:21)
It is an interesting fact that the reformer Tyndale’s translation of the Bible was condemned in England and it was burned by other Protestants. Thomas More charged Tyndale with falsely translating scripture in order to remove references to the priestly office. He was calling Tyndale out as a heretic for doing so. In Tyndale’s Bible, the word priest became senior and was changed to elder in his revised 1534 edition. The word “church” became congregation. The word “penance” became repent and the word “charity” became love. Words are powerful. Changes in words have a huge impact over time. This is the main reason why the church outlawed many protestant Bibles. There appears to have been an active process to manipulate history in order to remove the image of the priesthood God established.
The New Testament priesthood developed out of the bishopric during apostolic times. When it comes to the structure of the church, everything was not put in place as soon as Pentecost. The church had to grow in knowledge of itself and of its purpose; a mustard seed that would grow into the biggest tree. The apostles at different times, were Bishop, Deacon, and Priest. “For it is written in the book of Psalms: Let their habitation become desolate, and let there be none to dwell therein. And his bishopric let another take.” (Acts 1:20)
“Diakonos” means “servant” or “minister”. “Who also hath made us fit ministers of the new testament.” (2 Corinthians 3:6) In the beginning, these terms were fluid. The New Testament was the Holy Mass for 360 years before it was a book. The apostles were ministers of the sacraments and the Holy Mass. Paul tells us, “Let a man so account of us as of ministers of Christ, and dispensers of the mysteries of God.” (1 Cor 4:1) From the word mystery we get the word mysterion, sacramentum, sacrament. Paul being a priest is a minister of the sacraments of God.
Paul tells us, ‘For when the priesthood is changed, the law must be changed also.” (Hb 7:12) There was both a change in priesthood that occurred in the New Covenant between God and man, and there was a change in law.
The New Testament, scripture contains both an image of a universal priesthood and the priesthood of the ordained. The universal priesthood consists of all who enter the church through a Trinitarian baptism. This is understood as the mystical body. The mystical body of Christ as a royal priesthood, is shown in scripture to be called in the Greek text, hiereus. Christ is the head of the body. “And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he may hold the primacy:” (Colossians 1:18) Those who have past on in a state of grace have not left the mystical body, but celebrate the Holy Mass with the hosts of heaven on the other side of the veil.
From Strong’s Greek concordance we define hiereús (from word 2413 /hierós, “sacred because belonging to the Temple”) – a priest. Word 2409 /hiereús(“priest”) is used in the NT: Christ is the true Temple. Those belonging to the Temple are sacred. The New Covenant sees the hiereus sacred, and belonging to the Temple.
“Priest is defined as Old English preost probably shortened from the older Germanic form represented by Old Saxon and Old High German prestar, Old Frisian prestere, all from Vulgar Latin *prester “priest,” from Late Latin presbyter “presbyter, elder,” from Greek presbyteros (see Presbyterian). An alternative theory (to account for the -eo- of the Old English word) makes it cognate with Old High German priast, prest, from Vulgar Latin *prevost “one put over others,” from Latin praepositus “person placed in charge,” from past participle of praeponere (see provost). In Old Testament sense, a translation of Hebrew kohen, Greek hiereus, Latin sacerdos.”
Hiereus is priest, presbyter is priest. The English word priest is different from hiereus. It is not derived phonetically nor etymologically from the word hiereus. It is derived from “Presbyteros”. From the beginning the elders, or presbyters in the church structure, were the respected and ordained leaders within the royal hiereus, or, within the body priest. The apostles assigned the leaders of the church to the presbytery. They were the ordained through the process of laying on of the hands of the bishop, starting with those who received the spirit in the upper room at Pentecost. This is the process of apostolic succession. This image fulfilled what the priesthood of Aaron and Moses did before. “Impose not hands lightly upon any man, neither be partaker of other men’s sins. Keep thyself chaste.” (1Timothy 5:22) “Then he laid his hands on him and commissioned him, as the LORD instructed through Moses.” (Numbers 27:23) There is no true atonement for sins in the sacrificing of bulls and goats in the Old Testament. The images are to show us the mystery of sacrament and how the priesthood of Christ is fulfilled in the New Testament. The types in the old, become the truth in the new. The New Testament priests are those that administer the sacraments.
Timothy was an elder in the church of one doctrine, yet he was very young. Historical documentation tells us he was a bishop of Ephesus in Turkey. Bishops are both bishops and priests who perform the sacramental office. When one is ordained, his ministry becomes sacramental. It is ordained by God through the laying on of hands of the bishop, and given special graces by the Holy Spirit.
John in Revelation tells us, “He has made us a Kingdom of priests.” Priest as in Hiereus. This is the entire mystical body inside the high Priest Jesus Christ. Peter says, “You are a chosen people a Holy Nation a Royal Priesthood.” Paul says: “That I should be the minister of Christ Jesus among the Gentiles; sanctifying the gospel of God, that the oblation of the Gentiles may be made acceptable and sanctified in the Holy Ghost. (Romans 15:16) In Paul writing to the Romans, he is writing as a priest of the church who in the sacramental office, through the Holy Spirit, sanctifies the oblation of bread and wine. Paul is describing his own ministry which he was called to by God. In the Greek, he is using a variant of the word “hiereus”.
He explains, “of the grace from God that makes him a “minister of Christ to the Gentiles in a priestly service (hierougounta=priestly work.) The bread that becomes the Eucharist through the Holy Spirit is sanctified. Paul tells us, “Is not the bread that we break, participation in the body of Christ?
Webster’s defines the word “sanctify” as to, set apart to a sacred purpose or to religious use consecrate, to free from sin : purify to impart or impute sacredness, inviolability, or respect to… to make productive of holiness or piety.
An oblation is an unbloody sacrifice. In the Old Testament the unbloody sacrifices are of bread and wine. Paul offers a consecrated, holy, unbloody, oblation through the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, for the Gentiles. Through the Holy Spirit, the priest of the mystical body, sanctified bread and wine, therefore setting it apart, consecrating it, making it holy for a holy purpose. An offering to God through Jesus Christ our high priest and mediator in the Holy of Holies, for the sins of the entire world. The holy of holies in the meeting tent represents heaven. The holies is the church. This is a prophecy of Malachy fulfilled.
“For from the rising of the sun even to the going down, my name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation: for my name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of hosts.” (Malachi 1:11)
The Gentiles were not baptized into the church until after the cross, so this clean oblation is offered from where the sun rises to where it sets, after the cross. The Old Covenant is fulfilled in the new. In the old, God told Moses that the bread of the presence must always be placed before Him. This bread was to be eaten every Sabbath by the priests in a holy place. Three times a year the sacred bread along with consecrated wine, was brought out of the holies to the Jews. The table containing the bread and wine was raised and the priests would say, “behold God’s love for you.”
The types are fulfilled in the heavenly realities. “This is my body”. Behold Gods love for you. Christ raised this image to the covenant memorial of the cross where His glorified essence that does not conform to time, space, and matter, in the Eucharist, is present before the Father before the Father sees the sins of the world. This is called a covenant memorial. It is a covenant memorial of the crucifixion of Christ. Christ at the last supper told the first priests of His church to, “do this in memory of me.” He was saying, keep the covenant memorial of the cross before the Father for the sins of the world, like the bread of the presence was in type. Without the Holy Mass, the crucifixion is only an execution. This priesthood that was established by the apostles through God, was passed on to their disciples, and continues into our present day.
The word covenant comes from the Semitic word “berit”. It means to cut a covenant. It means an oath secured by a shedding of blood. “This is my blood of the New Covenant”…
We can see the priesthood in scripture and we can confirm it with history. St. Hegesippus (A.D. 180) records that the Apostle, St. James the Less, wore Temple vestments; and St. Polycrates of Ephesus ( A.D. 196) records that St. John the Beloved Apostle, wore a primitive Bishop’s mitre, in which he was buried. The Holy Mass is indigenous to Christianity. There is no Holy Mass without apostolic succession of the priesthood.
“The oriental liturgy, or mass, which bears the name of this apostle (James the just) is mentioned by Proclus, Patriarch of Constantinople, and by the council in Trullo, and is of venerable antiquity. St Basil, indeed, testifies that the words of the sacred invocation, in the consecration of the bread and the cup, were not committed to writing, but learned and preserved by tradition, down to the fourth century.” (Butlers Lives of The Fathers, Martyrs and Other Saints.” )
Irenaeus (died about 202) a disciple of Polycarp who was a disciple of John the apostle tells us, “For David had been appointed a priest by God, although Saul persecuted him. For all the righteous possess the sacerdotal rank. And all the apostles of the Lord are priests, who do inherit here neither lands nor houses, but serve God and the altar continually.” (Irenaeus Against Heresies Book IV, Chapter 8)
From the book titled Clement of Rome Recognitions book 6 ch 15. The author is talking about Peter and his priestly office. “and baptized them; and celebrating the Eucharist with them, he appointed, as bishop over them, Maro, who had entertained him in his house, and who was now perfect in all things; and with him he ordained twelve presbyters and deacons at the same time. He also instituted the order of widows, and arranged all the services of the Church; and charged them all to obey their bishop in all things that he should command them.”
Hippolytus of Rome (170 – 235 AD) When a deacon is to be ordained, he is chosen after the fashion of those things said above, the bishop alone in like manner imposing his hands upon him as we have prescribed. In the ordaining of a deacon, this is the reason why the bishop alone is to impose his hands upon him: he is not ordained to the priesthood, but to serve the bishop and to fulfill the bishop’s command. He has no part in the council of the clergy, but is to attend to his own duties and is to acquaint the bishop with such matters as are needful. . . .On a presbyter, however, let the presbyters impose their hands because of the common and like Spirit of the clergy. Even so, the presbyter has only the power to receive [the Spirit], and not the power to give [the Spirit]. That is why a presbyter does not ordain the clergy; for at the ordaining of a presbyter, he but seals while the bishop ordains (The Apostolic Tradition 9 [A.D. 215]).
We must not deny facts. We must build on facts in order to establish a clearer image of truth that has been lost to most of our world. Scripture through proper exegesis shows us a Priesthood established by God through the apostles. If there is a priesthood established by God then there is a sacrifice that is worthy of God that the priesthood has been ordained to offer. The early history of the church confirms this priesthood and shows us the growth of the priesthood established. All those who have been given a Trinitarian baptism are part of the Royal Priesthood who are called to the wedding feast of the Lamb in the Holy Mass. Many modern Christians have received a valid Trinitarian baptism, but do not participate in what that baptism calls us to. It will always come down to faith though. The great doctor of the church Thomas Aquinas said, “with faith, no explanation is necessary. Without faith, no explanation is possible.”
“Christ our true pasch (Passover Lamb) has been sacrificed. Let us keep the feast. (1 Cor 5:7)
Every Holy Mass, heard with devotion, produces in our souls marvelous effects, abundant spiritual and material graces which we, ourselves, do not know…It is easier for the earth to exist without the sun than without the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass!” St. Padre Pio
Luke Haskell is a Catholic Apologist and can be found on Facebook and LinkedIn