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To: Dutchboy88

St. Paul, btw, specifically permits a married clergy:

“A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality apt to teach.”

1 Timothy 3:2

The Church certainly did not derive its policy of compulsory clerical celibacy from the Bible. Priests were married men in the Bible and in the early Church for at least 10 centuries. Compulsory clerical celibacy was introduced at the First Lateran Council in 1123 and for reasons which have nothing to do with anything in the Bible.


38 posted on 04/07/2015 12:49:56 PM PDT by Trapped Behind Enemy Lines
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To: Trapped Behind Enemy Lines

Well, certainly the Hebrew priests were married because the lineage of Levi had to continue...and it was only the lineage of Levi that could be priests. However, following the cross, the Eternal High Priesthood of Jesus removed the need for “priests” and they no longer existed after the resurrection (other than in Judaism). The sacerdotalism of Rome is another manufactured element that is unbiblical.

The term you have translated “bishop” is in the Greek, “elder” or “greybeard”. And, those caring for the gatherings were supposed to be thus equipped. There is no formal “clergy” in the New Covenant. And, Paul was not St. Paul, but “Paul” in all Scriptural references. Just as you are likely a saint TrappedBehindEnemyLines (good handle, incidentally), he was just a believer who was given a certain role.


63 posted on 04/07/2015 1:21:30 PM PDT by Dutchboy88
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