The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-01-13
THE ANCIENT PRIESTHOOD OF
THE JEWS.

In broad sense a priest is the min
lister of divine worship. In a more re-
stricted sense, in the sense in which
the word is used in Holy Scripture,
the priest is the intermediary between
God and the man in exercising the
EpistIe to the Hebrews, says: K For
every high priest taken from among
men, is ordained for men in the
things that appertain to God, that he
may offer up gifts and sacrifices for
sins" While there are many acct
idea of the priestly Office is common
to all religions. The priest is the per
son authoritatively appointed to do
homage to God in the name of society.
In primitive times there was no con-
secration to the priesthood. The head
of the family erected the altar and
offered the sacrifice. The first conse-
Grated priest was Aaron. He was the
High Priest, the first of an unbroken
line, until the destruction of the sec
ond Temple, by Titus, under, the
priesthood of Phannias, the eighty-sev-
enth High Priest.
During the days of Abraham we
meet with a priestly character, who
was to prefgure the Great High Priest
of the New Law. On Abrahams re-
turn from the conquest of the Four
Kings, Melchisedech, the King of Sa-
lem, met him and bringing forth
bread and wine, for he was the priest
of the Most High God, blessed him
and said: Blessed be Abram by the
Most High God, who created heaven
and earth. And blessed be the Most
High God, by whose protection the
enemies are in thy hands" And Abra-
ham, patriarch and father of all ma.
tons, paid tithes to Melchisedech and
received his blessing.
Little is known of Melchisedech
Saint Paul, in his Epistle to the He
| brews, says: For this Melchisedech
was king of Salem, priest of the Most
High God, without father, with
| out mother, without genealogy, having
| neither beginning of days nor end OF
life but likened to the Son of God
| continueth a priest for ever Saint
Paul wished to show that his priest
| hood was in dignity and duration Sill
| perior to that of Aaron. Melchisedecf
was the type of Christ by reason OF
his twofold dignity of king and priest
| His name means King of Righteous
ness, and he ruled as King of Salem
which is King of Peace. His offering
| of bread and wine was to foreshadoN
the great Sacrifice offered by Christ
| the night before He suffered.
Days Of Patriarchs.
| During the days of the PatriarchI
and while Israel was still nomadio
people, wandering from place to place
the idea of the priesthood was not as
we'll formed as after the time Of
Moses. The Sinaitical Legislation
made the priesthood special class If
/ the community. From the Tribe Of
| Levi, God chose the house of Aaron
to discharge permanently and eXclu
sively all religious functions. Aaron
himself, and later the first-born of his
family, was to stand at the head Of
this priesthood as High Priest while
the other Levites were to act as as
| sistants and servants. The solemn
conservation of the Aaronites to the
| priesthood took place at the time Of
| the amounting of Aaron as High Priest
and with almost the same ceremonial
| This single conservation included al
| the future descendants of the priests
so that the priesthood was fixed in the
| house of Aaron by mere descent ane
was thus hereditary.
The conservation Of Aaron and his
sons during seven days and the gor