Clerical Celibacy

:)Rebuttal #1 l Bishops,Elders and Overseers are not a Separate Form of PriesthoodThe Catholic Church has taken it upon themselves by naming these individuals and leaders to be part of an exclusive Clerical Order. When the only Priestly Order of the New Testament is that of Christ and that of the collective believers. As you yourself mentioned that these "Priests" don't function as the Priests I described, then there is no meaningful sense in which they are Priests. There is nothing wrong with having a leadership structure, the New Testament outlines how that should look. However, the authors were also Jewish and therefore had a Jewish understanding of the word "Priesthood. " Which in regards to that definition, the Roman Catholic Church has been completely out of alignment to and has built a completely separate hierarchy of leadership contrary to that which was laid down by the Apostles. That all believers are Priests, and the only other order is that of our Great High Priest Jesus Christ, built upon the aforementioned texts. Elders, Bishops, etc. are only properly called Priests because they belong to the universal body. Rebuttal #2 l Interpretation Incorrect? Notice that my opponent does not provide any sources for the personal views of these texts by these men of the "earliest Church. " Nor does he address the text specifically, but rather alludes to "translational errors" and then contradicts Catholic Dogma and undermines the authority of the Bible here: He said:"The bible is not the 'perfect' word of God himself, it is merely the work of men who were inspired by God. "Catholic Dogma Says:"Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit. "[1]"God is the author of Sacred Scripture. "The divinely revealed realities, which are contained and presented in the text of Sacred Scripture, have been written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. For Holy Mother Church, relying on the faith of the apostolic age, accepts as sacred and canonical the books of the Old and the New Testaments, whole and entire, with all their parts, on the grounds that, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their author, and have been handed on as such to the Church herself. "[3]I will also now demonstrate how "Husband of one Wife" is the proper translation of these two texts (you keep alluding to there being only one for some reason). The Greek is mias (μιας) (one) gunaikos (γυναικος) (woman) andra (O36;νδρα) (man), the Greek word for man is not O36;νθρωπος, which is the most common. Rather it is the generic term for man, which if the thought was literally translated into English, it would be, "a one woman man," or, "a man of one woman. " This denotes marriage, which is the Sacred Union taught in Scripture where the man devotes himself to one woman for the rest of his life, and therefore Husband and Wife is supplied in English Translations. The Picture of solitary devotion is thus in play, but so is the fact that this solitary union must exist! If the Bishop/Overseer must be irreproachable, he must also in the ensuing clause be a husband solely devoted to one woman, which is she that he takes as his wife. As mentioned earlier, this intrepretation is further supported by the fact additional qualifications are listed to manage one's household well and keep your children submissive. Please also note, that these qualifications are listed not once but twice by Paul. It is also improper to appeal to Paul or the other Apostles as not fulfilling this qualification as Apostles are not stationary overseers like a Bishop. This is the Greek definition of an apostle.53.74 O36;πa2;στολοςa, ου m: one who fulfills the role of being a special messenger[4]Concluding Statements:Appealing to early interpreters of the Bible, without providing their interpretations and also misrepresenting this information as Augustine of Hippo came in the 4th Century. I am appealing to the writings of the Apostle Paul of the 1st Century and am doing so from the Greek text which I myself can read and translate effectively. In order for my opponent to undermind my argument he must go on to deny stronger dogmas of the Catholic Church, which I noted above spoke of how these words though spoken through Paul were authored by God. If this were an extended debate as was originally intended, I would have addressed the practical "benefits" of a celibate leadership. However, as your time was constrained I kept it confined to these two arguments. Look forward to our next debate! Kind Regards,TrueScotsman[1] . http://www.vatican.va...[2] . http://www.vatican.va...;[3] Louw, J. P. , & Nida, E. A. (1996). Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains. New York: United Bible Societies.