The Priesthood

The Mosaic law established a three-tier priestly structure:

(1) The Levites (Levi, one of Jacob's twelve sons), the whole tribe set apart from the general population as servants of the sanctuary (Numbers 3-4). They were substituted for the firstborn of all Israel (Numbers 3:12-13, "I have taken the Levites from among the people of Israel instead of every firstborn... the Levites shall be mine"). They carried the tabernacle furniture, maintained the sanctuary, and assisted the priests, but could not offer sacrifices or enter the Holy Place.

(2) The Priests (kohanim, כֹּהֲנִים, from Aaron's line, a subset of the Levites), the ones authorized to offer sacrifice, burn incense, and serve in the Holy Place. The primary duties: offering the daily burnt offerings (morning and evening), maintaining the menorah, burning incense on the golden altar, baking the showbread, presiding over all sacrifices brought by the people. Leviticus 10:11, the priests were also charged with teaching: "you are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean, and you are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes that the LORD has spoken to them by Moses."

(3) The High Priest (ha-kohen ha-gadol, הַכֹּהֵן הַגָּדוֹל, the great priest), the one who wore the full priestly regalia (Exodus 28: the ephod, the breastpiece with the twelve tribes, the Urim and Thummim, the turban with the gold plate inscribed "Holy to the LORD"), who bore the sins of the people on his shoulders and heart (the twelve-tribe stones on shoulder and breastpiece), and who alone entered the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16). The High Priest was the supreme mediator of the covenant.

The High Priest's most solemn annual duty was the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur, Leviticus 16). On that day alone, he entered the Holy of Holies to make atonement for the whole nation (see also the Sanctum page on The Day of Atonement).

The preparation: the High Priest must bathe, put on the plain white linen (not the elaborate colored garments of daily service, humility rather than splendor), offer a bull as a sin offering for himself and his household, then take two goats.

The entry: taking the blood of the slaughtered bull and the incense cloud (which covered the mercy seat so he would not die from seeing YHWH's presence, Leviticus 16:13), he entered the Holy of Holies and sprinkled the blood on the mercy seat (kapporeth, the place of covering/propitiation).

The two goats: one was slaughtered and its blood brought into the Holy of Holies (propitiation, satisfying divine justice); the other (the scapegoat / azazel) had the High Priest lay both hands on its head, confess "all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins" (16:21), and send it into the wilderness (expiation, carrying the sin away).

The ongoing limitation: this was done every year. The repetition was itself a testimony to its inadequacy. Hebrews 10:1-3, "For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year."

The letter to the Hebrews is the NT's extended argument that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment and supersession of the entire priestly system. The argument runs through several chapters:

Hebrews 4:14-16: "Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin." The high priest's qualification: he must be able to sympathize (5:2, "He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness"); Christ meets this requirement through the incarnation and suffering.

Hebrews 5:1-10: Christ did not appoint himself; he was appointed by the Father: "You are my Son, today I have begotten you" (Psalm 2:7) and "You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek" (Psalm 110:4). The order of Melchizedek (Genesis 14:18-20; Psalm 110:4; Hebrews 7) is superior to the Levitical order because: Melchizedek received tithes from Abraham (and through Abraham, Levi); no genealogy is recorded for Melchizedek (Hebrews 7:3, "without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life... resembling the Son of God"); his priesthood is therefore not inherited (temporary, limited) but inherent (eternal).

Hebrews 9:11-12: "But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption."

Hebrews 10:11-14: "And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God... For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified."

The sitting down is the theological punctuation: the Levitical priest had no seat in the sanctuary, his work was never finished (the sacrifices must be repeated). Christ sat down because his work is done, once for all, ephapax.

The Sanctum reads the Levitical priesthood as the temporary, shadow-casting institution that was always pointing toward the one who would be both the High Priest who offers and the Lamb who is offered. Christ's priestly work is not ongoing sacrifice (the cross is finished) but ongoing intercession (Hebrews 7:25, "he always lives to make intercession for them"). The access to the Father that required annual High Priestly mediation through bull's blood in a tent is now immediate, permanent, and grounded in the blood of the one who both offered and was offered. And by that same work, 1 Peter 2:9 declares that all who are in Christ share the priestly status: "a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession."