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Concordia Theological Monthly

Publication Date

4-1-1948

Document Type

Article

Keywords

priests, royal priesthood, christians, st. peter, christian, apostles, findlay

Submission Type

Bible Study; Lecture; Sermon Prep

Abstract

If it were not a fact with which we have been familiar since childhood days, we should be amazed to see that the Christian Church began its course without an official class of priests. The opening chapters of Acts, which report the founding of the Church, give the Apostles a prominent place in the early stages. These men served as pastors and teachers; at first the duties of almoners were incumbent on them, too. Hence the Church had leadership, but it did not have priests. The Apostles did not lay claim to such a status. In Jerusalem and Palestine in general this feature was not particularly noticeable, because the followers of Jesus did not withdraw at once from the Jewish worship but, on the contrary, were very zealous in observing the ancestral rites and ceremonies which were conducted by the priests in the Temple. They would have denied being without the service of priests. As Acts 21 conclusively shows, this relationship was still maintained in a period not far from the catastrophe which was to bring complete ruin upon unhappy Jerusalem and its Temple. Undoubtedly the Christians living in that city joined in the Temple services till they finally on the eve of the Roman siege, in obedience to the warnings of Christ, fled and found a place of refuge in Pella, beyond the Jordan.

Disciplines

Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion

Scripture References in this Resource (separated by semi-colons)

1 Peter 2:9; Romans 12:1; Isaiah 28:16; Exodus 19:5; Isaiah 43:20; Exodus 23:20; Luke 1:9; Exodus 19:6; Revelation 5:10;

Submission Cost

Free

Submission Audience

Laity; Ministers; Scholars

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