This continues my posting from June 15, beginning with a recap of the word games around priesthood. At the end I will throw in a couple of tidbits about the book I’m writing.
The English word priest is misleading. It is derived from the Greek word prebyteros, but it is never used to represent that word in English. We use the word elder, which is fair enough as that is what presbyteros means. Instead, we use the word priest to translate a different Greek word altogether: hiereus. The hiereus is one who has the role of mediator between human beings and gods or God. It is used of the Temple hierarchy and of Jesus as mediator between God and humanity. In other words, regardless of etymology, a hiereus is a priest. Confused yet? But wait! There’s more! In order to continue with my chaotic thinking (and also to muddy the waters further) I’ll be using the terms hiereus/priest and presbyteros/priest to distinguish these two roles.
A long time ago, in a town far, far away, in 1978 to be exact, the world was young, the mountains green, no stain yet on the hills were seen. No, wait. That a Star Wars rip off and a poem from The Hobbit. Let’s begin again. In 1978 I was ordained a presbyteros/priest. I was already a hierus/priest though I didn’t know it at the time. In fact, I thought the two were the same thing. More than a decade after that event I was invited to join some fellow Episcopal clergy in a seminar on the theology of priesthood. It actually went nowhere. One of my classmates, a wonderful priest by the name of Sara Balcombe, observed that instead of a theology of priesthood we were actually examining a sociology of religion. But though the seminar went nowhere, it did start me thinking about priesthood and the difference between the priesthood of the church and the priesthood of Jesus in which all Christians participated. I understood a good bit about the role of the presbyteros/priest. I soon realized that I didn’t really know that much about the role and function of the hiereus/priest.
The role of the hiereus/priest is adequately described in various encyclopedias both print and online. I was looking for more than a bit of religious anthropology. Fortunately, I recalled a book I’d read in college called An Offering of Uncles. The part that made the book relevant was the subtitle: The Priesthood of Adam and the Shape of the World. The author, the late Fr. Robert Capon, was a very funny writer. So much so that sometimes the creative insights were lost in the wit. My last rereading also reminded me that, in terms of cultural reference points, the book is very dated. Something like goldenrod appliances left over from the 1970s. The key phrase that makes the book worthwhile and worth exploring is The Priesthood of Adam.
That’s where I’ll wrap up today. We’re off to volunteer at the Wild Animal Sanctuary and as it is an hour’s drive away, we leave early and get back late. However, I did promise some comment on the book in progress. Its working title is Converting the Church, which I suspect, in the long run, won’t work. It explores the idea of conversion with several examples, the problem of communal life and the fact that being a disciple of Jesus, in the Gospels, was an invitation, never a command.
The Apprentice Priest 
Thank you for sharing this!!
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