Posted on 12/17/2014 4:04:52 PM PST by Salvation
hat tip to vladimir998
Hopefully this is just poor wording by the author. It was never the role of the minister, whether you call him priest, bishop, elder or pastor, to rule over the congregation. It was the role of the minister to guide, to teach, to lead, to SERVE the congregation - but never to rule over them.
JFTR, the Jewish clergy’s leader, the high priest, was called “archiereus” in the Greek text (Hebrew “cohen ha-gadol”); the Greek word is used to refer to Caiaphas.
to guide, to teach, to SERVE
Role of the priest.
I agree with you on the use of the word “rule”
Ok. Next question: Where in the New Testament are “Popes” mentioned?
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The Pope is an episcopal leader, a Bishop.
Advent Series Ping!
I thought the Pope was chosen from the Cardinals which in turn are drawn from Bishops. Do you have insight into these leadership domains?
Ah, so a “Pope” is only authoritative in his own diocese, since he is a Bishop (Ekklesia)?
Oops, I meant “episcopos”, not “ekklesia”. I should really doublecheck my Greek before I use it :)
What are the requirements to serve as an elder?
There was a Greek word for “priest”. It was used in describing Jewish priests, and used of Jesus as High Priest. It was not used of any Christian office in the congregation...
Yes. The Greek word is hiereus. But we are talking about the English word. Like Greek and Latin, Old English had two separate words for priest: preost and sacerd. The former was used to translate presbuteros and the latter hiereus. Preost continued to be used for the office of presbyter in the form priest. Unfortunately sacerd fell out of English usage and its lack was made up by the use of priest. This secondary definition of priest does not, however, take away its original and continuing meaning for the office of presbyter.
If one wants to know what the New Testament says, it helps to pay attention to the language it was written in. If the writers of the New Testament believed there was a priestly office for someone in the church, apart from Jesus as High Priest, they would have said so.
Instead, they used different words.
This certainly suggests they saw no priestly role for an officer in the church.
Instead, they used different words.
This certainly suggests they saw no priestly role for an officer in the church.
Since the English word priest, despite the desire of some, means both presbuteros and hiereus your statement is misleading. Given its original and ongoing meaning as a presbyter, there is a priestly office in the church inasmuch as there is a presbyteral office.
“...Unfortunately sacerd fell out of English usage...”
Interesting. The spanish word for priest is still sacerdote. I don’t know much Spanish, I just looked it up, but assume it must have some root relationship with the word sacerd.
BTTT!
“Priests” Are Not In the New Testament Church
Gary Wills writes:
“Some think that the dwindling number of priests can be remedied by the addition of women priests, or married priests, or openly gay priests. In fact, the real solution is: no priests. It should not be difficult to imagine a Christianity without priests. Read carefully through the entire New Testament and you will not find an individual human priest mentioned in the Christian communities (only Jewish priests in service to the Temple). Only one book of the New Testament, the Letter to Hebrews, mentions an individual priest, and he is unique—Jesus. He has no followers in that office, according to the Letter.”
http://www.johnpiippo.com/2013/03/priests-are-not-in-new-testament-church.html
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